Angel City are perfect no more in 2026. The young squad fell to the 2024 NWSL Champions, the Orlando Pride, 1-2 at Inter&Co Stadium on Friday night.

I think realistic fans knew that Angel City’s perfect record could not last forever. It was fun while it lasted. All is not lost, though. I think there are some positives to take away from this match despite the all-to-familiar, palm-to-face type goals the team conceded (that counted). Let’s start with the lineup.

Personally, I wasn’t wildly concerned when captain Sarah Gorden did not play in the past couple of matches. The squad is lucky, right now, to have three starting quality center backs with one of them still realistically bedding in and returning to game speed following a traumatic medical event. Rotating between them, or deploying them in a variety of ways throughout the season is a good thing. All that to say, I wasn’t surprised to see Gorden back in the lineup against Orlando. Head Coach Alex Straus seemed to have said “get your body and mind right for the next couple of weeks and learn Barbra Banda inside out.” That’s just what she did.

Looking at Orlando’s passing map, Banda’s (CF) marker is much deeper and lateral than one would probably want from their striker. The Zambian still rated second among the Pride for touches in their opposition’s box, but Gorden put in a few key tackles and kept pace to keep Banda’s name off of the scoreboard. Anything she couldn’t quite get to King and Emily Sams were around to clean up.

The challenge with focusing so much on one player defensively, especially when you’re having to commit numbers to them at times, is that it leaves other threats open. Haley McCutcheon has been playing in a more advanced midfield role this season, and she was having a field day against Angel City. If not for some questionable, somewhat confusing refereeing decisions, she would have had a hat trick on the night.

Overall, Orlando seemed to deploy a pretty effective midblock against Angel City. Midfielders like Kennedy Fuller, Maiara Niehues, and Ary Borges had a hard time getting more forward, and the Pride did well to isolate Gisele Thompson and Sveindís Jónsdóttir from the rest of the attacking unit. Angel City’s goal frankly came from a moment of brilliance from Thompson.

The left side of the pitch felt lackluster going forward. I understand Straus’s rationale of having King, Gorden, and Sams line up next to each other. One must pay Banda her deserved respect. However, this decision seemed to make Orlando’s defensive game plan that much easier to execute.

If there can be one thing to be gleaned from King’s rookie season at Bay FC, it’s that the King Left Outside Back Experiment is not really one worth pursuing. Hopefully Straus comes away with this conclusion. While King is a great defender, she does not offer the same type of edge going forward compared to Evelyn Shores. Chemistry between Riley Tiernan and King seemed particularly off in this configuration throughout the match.

I think that Tiernan has been given a lot more defensive responsibility in her role at left wing. However, it doesn’t feel amazing that her areas of greatest density overlap greatly with King’s and her influence in more advanced areas appears much lighter. Angel City’s lack of threat coming down the left channel made eliminating Jónsdóttir’s options to combine with and making sure Thompson’s crosses went to no one much easier. It’s in these moments that I think Hina Sugita and Jun Endo’s absences are most acutely felt. For the moment, the bench is a bit thin and inexperienced. The number of options to switch things up, especially on the left, are slim. Hopefully Endo is making good progress on her return and that Sporting Director Mark Parsons and Straus have some reinforcements targeted for the summer.

That’s how you end up with a shot map shaped like a crescent moon composed completely of average and poor chances from distant, low-angle areas. Contrasted with the Pride’s shot map it’s not too hard to come to the conclusion that the end result was deserved.

So what is the good? They lost. The two goals that Angel City did end up giving up stunk of Angel City’s past. Initial mistakes from Anderson leading to huge chances. Chaos in the box. Poor set piece defending. Probably inadequate communication.

For me, the positives come from things that are less tangible. While the Pride might not be at their 2024 heights, they are still rightfully regarded as one of the top sides in the league and they have always shown defensive solidity. Angel City hung in there and absorbed a lot of pressure. Obviously, they broke in the end, but they kept Orlando scoreless (rightfully or not) for a long stretch of the game, and after they conceded they managed an equalizer. Despite the haunting nature of the goals, I do think that overall, Angel City has shown an increase in maturity, resilience, and fitness compared to past seasons.

Over four games, Angel City has shown themselves to be a squad that is up for 90+ minutes. In the past couple of years, we’ve seen a team that plays high octane for 15-30 minutes and are then gassed and unfocused. Last week they came from behind. Yes the goals may have come in quick succession, but they locked in for the remainder of the game to keep it that way. This week they dug in for an equalizer. Rather than clam up to try to minimize the damage, they pushed until the final whistle to try to get another, and then even again after Orlando scored again. These are not the type of things that can be quantified for the stats sheet, but I still think that it’s a valuable evolution for this team. This on top of Straus’s growth and performance mindset makes this team a lot easier to root for, even when they fall short.

There’s an international break for the next couple of weeks. Hopefully when they regroup in late April, there will be some positive news about Endo and the players will have reflected upon this loss and come back stronger. It will be necessary as they will be going up against perhaps the league’s deepest roster in terms of attacking weapons, the Portland Thorns.

**Images courtesy of Angel City