Tough road trip. Angel City dropped points to the North Carolina Courage in a 1-2 loss. Interim Head Coach Nathan Thackeray can probably feel proper chuffed with his 2-0 record over Head Coach Alex Straus this season.

Before getting into the match, in the week leading up to this game, Angel City announced the signing of midfielder Nealy Martin in a trade with Gotham FC. Some may remember Martin from when she stepped between the sticks in the final moments of the 2023 NWSL Championship match due to a keeper Denial Of a Goal-Scoring Opportunity, giving a trailing Reign side a free kick right outside of the box. An NWSL and Gotham legend. 

However, others will know her as the heartbeat of the Gotham midfield throughout the 2023 and 2024 seasons. Injuries and new signings have caused Head Coach Juan Carlos Amorós to move her around this season, which hasn’t been great for her performance or playing time. I’m glad that she decided that Los Angeles is her landing pad. Martin is the kind of player that Angel City needs in their midfield and squad. She’s a hustler, good on the ball, and has the ability to play great passes going forward. She’s also an NWSL Champion. Angel City’s midfield should benefit from both Martin’s skill set and presence. She is cool under pressure. Sporting Director Mark Parsons is back to making good sporting moves.

Unfortunately, Martin didn’t make it into the starting XI, but I hope that will change in a week or two’s time. The sooner the better in my opinion. Both Madison Hammond and Macey Hodge have had their bright spots throughout the season. Hodge in particular is still a rookie with a lot to learn. Unfortunately at this point, neither are consistent starting quality. Martin coming into the squad will hopefully provide much needed stability to the middle of the park. Megan Reid was ruled out for the match, which led to some lineup changes. For no clear reason to me, Angelina Anderson stepped back in goal.

North Carolina was missing key players such as Denise O’Sullivan, Ashley Sanchez, and Felicitas Rauch. Jaedyn Shaw was just traded from the Courage to Gotham. Angel City stayed on the east coast after their game in New Jersey last weekend in the lead up to this game. One would hope that these factors would give Angel City a little bit more stability and confidence going into this match, but they just looked out of sorts and two steps behind.

Angel City basically looked asleep for the entire first half. They went 0-2 down within 20 minutes. German international Sara Doorsoun earned her first NWSL start as Captain Sarah Gorden’s center back partner on the left. Her introduction to the league included getting rocked by Manaka Matsukubo in the 6th minute and getting turned all around in defensive transition leading up to the 19th minute Brianna Pinto goal. Angel City’s left side continues to be vulnerable. There were many factors that exacerbated this: keeper change, center back pairing change, inconsistencies with the Vignola/Shores relationship, disorganization between Hodge and Hammond. It was just too easy for the Courage to get in behind Angel City’s high line.

Offensive edge was lacking throughout the first half. Something I noticed during the game was that when things were just not working, Kennedy Fuller, Gisele Thompson, and Sveindís Jónsdóttir seemed to try to just make it happen amongst themselves up the right channel. However, both striker Riley Tiernan and left winger MA Vignola were often nowhere to be found when crosses did go into the box. The average passing network shows that they were probably deeper than would be preferred for the forward line.

Straus made a triple change at half time that provided more defensive stability and offensive danger. Hammond and Hodge came off for Maiara Niehues and Nealy Martin, and MA Vignola came off for Miyabi Moriya, which pushed Gisele Thompson into the forward line. Martin was more effective in providing defensive coverage, while also playing good balls forward. Movement up the left channel improved even more when Jun Endo came in for Thompson and Christen Press came in for Fuller.

Jónsdóttir’s first NWSL goal in a ACFC came in the 88th minute off of some great combination play between herself, Moriya, and Endo. The cross missed Press, but Jónsdóttir was there to clean up the scraps. Finally, one of her quality chances found the back of the net. You could tell from her reaction that she needed that goal. She certainly deserved it. Jónsdóttir has been putting in a lot of great work for Angel City since she’s arrived but between the time needed to bed into NWSL and the instability in the team, it has only just now turned into a goal.

Unfortunately the energy boost that came from Jónsdóttir’s goal did not turn into an equalizer. Both Jónsdóttir and Straus were clearly frustrated in the post-game press conference. Emphasis was on playing complete games and managing them appropriately. The urgency to come back from a two goal deficit came too late in the game. Straus stressed that the group cannot get complacent after a couple of good performances. He spoke a bit about the ways in which the team has improved since the break, but to get past the level Angel City has been at for the past three seasons, it takes more. Definitely some tough love coming from Straus, but I do think that in order to break patterns that have embedded themselves into this team over seasons, they need to be addressed directly. It feels like a frustrating step backward, but adopting a new system and shifting team culture and mentality does not happen overnight. I think fans, Straus, and the players wished that it looked more linear, but the journey is sometimes a winding road.

Angel City has a quick turn around with the Washington Spirit coming to BMO Stadium on Thursday. Their squad is finally healthy and they are six points clear of the teams directly below them in the table. Meanwhile, Angel City’s squad is basically as thin as can be. Unfortunately, I don’t think it will be a repeat of the seven goal chaos-off that was these two teams’ first meeting this season. It is a random Thursday night game, though, so maybe NWSL After Dark will strike this matchup again!

**Images courtesy of Angel City