Angel City finished their three-game road trip with only two of the available nine points with a draw against the Utah Royals on Friday night.

Injuries impacted the starting XI with goalkeeper Angelina Anderson and Jun Endo ruled out due to “lower leg” issues. This gave Christen Press her second start of the season and Hannah Seabert her NWSL debut. Without Endo, Head Coach Alex Straus opted to pull Riley Tiernan deeper into attacking midfield and play Press as center forward. This did not end up being too effective. Tiernan has looked out of her comfort zone in Straus’s system so far. It was likely even more jarring to drop her deeper. Too often the forwards found themselves narrow and far from goal. Tiernan’s struggles led Straus to seemingly switch her and Press’s position at the half and ended up taking her off in the 65th minute. 

On the positive note, Gisele Thompson was available off the bench for the first time since before the international break. In her limited minutes, she looked her typical self so hopefully she’ll continue her path toward full match fitness. In my Midseason Vibe Check I said that Alyssa Thompson was Angel City’s MVP, but maybe in reality it’s both Thompson sisters being on the pitch at the same time.

There aren’t many nice things to say about this game, unfortunately. It was not a good watch on either side, but as an Angel City fan, it was particularly un-fun that the squad was being dominated by the team at the bottom of the table for decent stretches. Even though in the end they didn’t do much with it, Utah controlled most of the pitch and Angel City struggled to get out of their defensive third.

To their credit, the Royals are slowly but surely getting healthier as the season continues, which has been boosting morale and improving performances. However, despite trading Ally Sentnor to the Kansas City Current, they still insist on taking predominantly long-range shots. It really must be a coaching thing. Thankfully, Seabert handled all of these fairly well. She had a couple of nervy moments playing out of the back and a bobbled ball or two, but no goals were conceded. Overall I thought she looked good. Her experience showed here especially considering she likely stepped in for Anderson at the last minute.

I thought that right side defense had a good night. Captain Sarah Gorden did well to snuff out danger and assist with ball progression, and Miyabi Moriya did a decent job against Paige Monaghan and at least tried to help make something happen in attack. Both Sveindís Jónsdóttir and A. Thompson had solid games in terms of tracking back to defend and trying to create, but both found themselves far too deep to be true threats on goal.

Progression through the thirds continues to be an issue. This is the area of the pitch that has undergone the most experimentation since the international break. I’m curious as to whether this looks any better when Sara Doorsoun arrives freeing Alanna Kennedy to return to defensive midfield. Even though Madison Hammond has looked better this season, I’m still not convinced of her ability to hold it down on her own knowing that Kennedy Fuller and either Tiernan or Endo are going to want to get forward. She just has not shown the consistency necessary to positively impact the build up.

It is of course tempting to have an attacking unit composed of A. Thompson, Jónsdóttir, Tiernan, Endo, and Fuller all on the pitch at the same time. However, that requires some of these players to play out of their natural positions or learn new roles. While the defense seems to have improved somewhat since the break, the disruptions to the midfield and shuffling of the forward line have seemingly caused the goals to dry up.

Angel City’s road stretch is over for now, but they return home on Thursday evening to face the reigning NWSL Champions and Shield winners. Not exactly an easy bounce back matchup. However, Angel City does tend to rise up to face strong competition. When these two teams met in April, they played well. Even if they do not walk away with all three points this week, I hope they can put in a better performance than they did in Sandy.