The NWSL is back! That means I spent a lot of my time Friday and Saturday on the couch and Sunday at BMO Stadium for the Angel City home opener against the San Diego Wave.
Angel City still doesn’t have a head coach and the night before match day, Sydney Leroux announced that she would be temporarily stepping away from soccer to focus on her mental health. Definitely challenging circumstances to start off the 2025 season.
The home opener ended in a 1-1 draw thanks to an equalizer from Alyssa Thompson after initially going down within the first 5 minutes of the game. Statistically, the Wave out shot, out dueled, and out possessed Angel City but at the end of the day it looked like two teams that have undergone some big changes during the offseason playing their first regular season game.
The first starting XI of the season saw Anderson in goal, Gorden and King at CB, Vignola and G. Thompson as the OBs, Kennedy, Hodge, and Fuller in the midfield, Emslie and A. Thompson on the wings, and rookie Tiernan at striker.
The game started off shaky. Ghosts of Angel City seasons past showed up in difficulty passing through the midfield, defensive disorganization, and a striker that doesn’t ever seem to be in the right position. It just took 5 minutes for Vignola to give Cascarino too much space to send in a nice cross to Corley who put it away. This seemed to shake Angel City into realizing the game had actually started.
We looked a little better from there, but seemed to heat up a lot more in the second half. King grew into the game and we were a little more solid defensively. We had a lot more sustained attacking momentum and were able to send in some accurate long range passes out to the wings that created some chances when we were struggling to pass through the center of the park upfield. There were a couple of moments where maybe if it hadn’t been the first game of the season, Alyssa Thompson would have scored another goal.
At the 75th minute former Paris FC attacker Julie Dufour replaced Kennedy Fuller and Katie Zelem replaced Mace Hodge in the midfield. Shortly after, Japanese international Miyabi Moriya and Megan Reid went in for youngsters Gisele Thompson and Savy King who both seemingly went down with bad cases of cramping.
I don’t know what the game plan at this point was but I was pretty unimpressed with Dufour. She looked slow and didn’t really seem like she was trying to push for another goal to the point Vignola, Tiernan, and A. Thompson were having to pass around her to try to make something happen down the left wing.
Overall it was an okay performance. I suppose after two years in a row of losing the home opener, I’d prefer a draw. There were moments where it felt like Angel City could have put away another goal but alas. We continue to give up unforced errors in the back and midfield, although I do think it’s a bit better than last season. I am excited for our young keeper Angelina Anderson. There were some close calls, but I think her ceiling is high and these are the experiences and minutes she needs to reach the next level. For me, she should have been given more of a chance last season. Anderson can actually pull off a long range clearance, so between her and our backline there seem to be more viable ways for us to get the ball upfield without immediately turning it over. Our other youngsters are exciting. Fuller, the Thompson sisters, and King are great players to be building this team around for the next couple years to come. I liked Hodge, she needs refinement and adjustment to the professional level but she’s aggressive and I like that in a midfielder. Even though it was short, I liked what I saw out of Miyabi and I hope we see more minutes out of her in the future.
I left the game wondering if something is going on with Christen Press as she saw zero minutes in this game when it seems like we could have used her. Hopefully everything is alright with her and we’ll see her soon.
Hopefully as this group continues to gel things will tighten up. Angel City has always been a team with talented players but putting it all together and remaining consistent has been a challenge. The team is also waiting for a new head coach to be appointed. Hopefully this person will be able to bring structure and stability, as well as address the midfield which I feel remains our weakest area.
On Friday Angel City takes on the Portland Thorns at Providence Park. As someone that grew up in the Portland area, I also love the Thorns but it’s no mystery that they are a franchise that has serious question marks over them right now. Hopefully Angel City will be able to capitalize against a team that has somewhat of a shoddy defense and are without Sophia Wilson and Morgan Weaver. However, they have a good midfield which is our weakest third of the park. Will Angel City earn their first W at Portland’s home field? We shall see, it should be interesting.