Angel City came into Sunday’s match needing a win to keep any hope of a 2025 playoff appearance alive. They took advantage of a lackluster Houston Dash team, put together one of their most dominant performances, and walked away with all three points. 

I quickly want to acknowledge that Sunday was this season’s Native American Heritage Celebration. There was a land welcoming led by members of the Gabrieleno Tongva Tribe, the First People of the Los Angeles Basin, Madison Hammond’s mom and sister led the Three Clap, and a drag performance by Bohenne Arreaux. There are a lot of things the club gets wrong, but their effort to uplift Native voices and make that effort intersectional felt genuine. It seemed like it was meaningful for the indigenous folks that participated in the celebration. The Three Clap is a little silly and maybe needs to be ended, but you could feel the emotion from Madison’s mom, Carol, when she addressed the crowd. These are the glimmers that make me proud to support Angel City. Now back to the match.

Head Coach Alex Straus mostly stuck to the structure from the game against the Current a week ago, but this time started Kennedy Fuller for Jun Endo and opted to have Fuller and Riley Tiernan play under Sveindís Jónsdóttir.

Leading up to this match, I was a bit concerned that outside back for the Dash, Avery Patterson, would line up on the right and give Miyabi Moriya and Evelyn Shores some trouble on Angel City’s left flank. Instead, she started on the left and was kept fairly quiet by Sarah Gorden and Gisele Thompson. This gave Moriya, Shores, and Hina Sugita quite a bit of freedom to push the ball up the left and link up with Fuller. Meanwhile the Dash looked duped by Angel City’s pretty aggressive press. Houston players that tried to bring the ball up the side found themselves quickly double, or even triple, teamed leading to a turnover or reset in play. This ultimately kept them fairly narrow where the center backs and central midfielders could pick off passes and get Angel City back into their attacking third.

Angel City came out on the front foot and their intention to win this match was clear. The Dash posed basically no threat going forward in the first half; ending with zero shots on target and 0.11 xG compared to Angel City’s four shorts on target and 1.28 xG. Luckily, Angel City was not made to pay for their lack of finishing in the first half and mostly controlled the second half as well. The Dash came out a bit more aggressive and were able to gain some momentum in transition and off of set pieces. There were a couple of nervy moments like Houston’s header off the cross bar, but Angel City showed a grit that they don’t always have and were able to keep a clean sheet despite moments of disorganization or franticness.

The additions of Sugita and Nealy Martin to the Angel City midfield have been absolute game changers. The change in structure and their hustle in the midfield has allowed more players to get in and around the box to provide more attacking options. Sugita’s effort on both sides of the ball has been a particular joy to watch. It is Sugita who sent in the cross that opposing goalkeeper Abby Smith bobbled for Kennedy Fuller to clean up.

Aside from the no-look pass in the buildup, something I liked about this play was that Jónsdóttir was also in the box when Fuller cut in. The forwards are getting forward. In the 4-3-3, it often felt like the forwards were having to drop too deep to get the ball and found themselves in the box alone with no one to combine with. Now there’s multiple players getting into dangerous areas.

Sometimes when substitutes come in for Angel City things fall apart. The structure, flow, and connections get thrown off. However, on Sunday it felt like each of the substitutes were actual finishers. Throughout the second half, Endo, Maiara Niehues, Megan Ried, Madison Hammond, and new signing, Zambian Prisca Chilufiya all trickled onto the pitch without much disruption. 

Angel City’s second goal came from a combination between game changers. It was truly a thing of pure brilliance and I do not know when I will be getting over it. Moriya sent a long ball up to her Japanese compatriot, Endo, who served a back heeled touch into the path of Niehues. Smith was caught way off her line and chose to try and challenge, but Niehues beat her to score on an open net.

There was a VAR check for a handball in the box that cancelled a penalty kick for the Dash in stoppage time. From there the team closed the game out in a pretty controlled manner. It was an important win for Angel City in terms of playoff hopes, but also mentally as a squad. They’ve gone through a lot this season and to put up a dominant, organized performance against a team that had been mostly rising in the second half of the season is a sign of growth. They put up the highest xG for a single game in club history, while limiting Houston’s chances and keeping a clean sheet. Straus mentioned in the post-game press conference after the game against the Current, that the team’s performance in that match was what he wants the team to look like going forward. The fruits of that structure bore out against the Dash.

This shot map looks so much better than the past few matches. Angel City is taking shots inside the box and creating better chances. Best of all, they put them away. The attack still needs to continue gelling, but this offensive effort was a step forward. Now that the team seems to be getting more comfortable with each other and this structure, my hope is that Tiernan and Jónsdóttir can combine more easily. They both have been asked to try different things since the international break to varying success. If Tiernan can get a pass off sooner and Jónsdóttir can be a little bit more efficient with her touches they might really have something.

Next week Angel City faces off against the Portland Thorns for Ali Riley’s retirement game. Hopefully they can carry the momentum from their victory against the Dash to another big three points next week.

**Images courtesy of Angel City