Angel City ended their two game east coast road trip with a 4-3 victory over the Washington Spirit. If the scoreline didn’t tell you enough, this game was giving intense NWSL After Dark energy for the whole 90 minutes. When Angel City played the Spirit at Audi Field in 2024 they lost 2-4 with all of the goals being scored in the first half. This season it seemed like both teams shook hands and agreed to up the chaos for 2025.

Laity rolled out his typical starting XI with one change. Julie Dufour earned her first start putting Claire Emslie on the bench. Macey Hodge was left off of the gameday roster so Katie Zelem stayed in the XI. Hopefully Hodge’s injury isn’t too serious and we learn a little more information soon. Perhaps her absence was also meant to allow for young Brazilian Maiara Niehues to get some gameday experience. I look forward to her eventual debut. The Washington Spirit have been battling injury since last season. On Friday they were missing midfielders Hal Hershfelt and Leicy Santos, defender Casey Krueger, and forwards Ouleye Sarr and Trinity Rodman. Despite the long list of absences, the Spirit have continued to put out generally good performances so far this season and obviously the hope is that some of these players will be making their way back soon. Notably, Croix Bethune made her official return from injury last weekend in their 0-3 loss to Gotham FC. The big head scratcher of the night was perhaps Jonatan Giraldez’s decision to bench starting goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury to give Scottish international Sandy MacIver her first game back after a long-term injury. All this to say that despite the injuries, the Spirit can still be a formidable side, while also being vulnerable to dropping points.

It was a night of firsts in the capitol. Angel City maintained its early scoring streak when A. Thompson sent a beautiful ball down the left wing to MA Vignola who crossed the ball into the box where Riley Tiernan was waiting to put it in the back of the net. Tiernan showed everyone why she won Rookie of the Month for April by helping Angel City become the first team to score within the first 15 minutes across four straight away games. Angel City’s second came from the first sister-to-sister combination for a goal in league history. In the 22nd minute Alanna Kennedy booted a long ball down to A. Thompson who found her sister pretty much unmarked in front of goal. At this point in the game, though, it was Angel City’s turn to have a spell of unfortunate ball watching across the backline. Despite the earlier assist on Tiernan’s first goal, on the defensive side, Vignola continuously put our left side in vulnerable positions and it was down this side that both of the Spirit’s first half goals came from. The first was a goal from Esme Morgan, who Vignola seems to clock on her backside, but decides to be one of three people marking a player at the top of the box about to receive a header. Said header goes behind the backline and Morgan slots it past Anderson. The second was a tap in from Gift Monday on an open goal after Anderson tries to beat the opposition to a loose ball but the clearance goes right to Vignola’s mark who sends it back up to Monday’s feet.

At half time Laity pulled Dufour and Vignola for Emslie and Miyabi Moriya, respectively. This helped add another edge to our attack, which had pretty much been dormant up the right side with Dufour, and tightened up the backline a little bit. Bethune came on in the 66th but Angel City was somehow able to keep her relatively quiet. Christen Press came on in the 69th for a pretty gassed Kennedy Fuller and her impact was felt immediately. Her on and off ball movement added a sophistication to the attack that kept the forward line looking scary for the full 90. In the 72nd G. Thompson sent the cutback to Zelem who neatly separated herself from her defender to beat the goalkeeper. Shortly after, G. Thompson went down with cramping and had to be switched off for Megan Reid. In the dying minutes of regulation, Spirit earned a free kick outside the box and the resulting scrum in the box led to significant disorganization giving Morgan a brace. However, it was Angel City’s turn to earn a late game-winner when in the last play of the game they earned a corner. Press redirected Emslie’s cross behind the Spirit’s backline and Tiernan slammed the ball into the roof of the net. Angel City took home all three points in probably the most thrilling game of game week seven.

Scoreline and defense aside, Angel City put up its most dominant offensive performance of the season so far. The goals they scored against Washington came from more dangerous positions within the attacking third and that was reflected in their xG for the match (2.6), which is their highest in 2025. Angel City took twice as many shots and shots on target than the Spirit.

This week, Angel City did not stop attacking when they started letting goals in, which may have been their downfall against the Pride. Unfortunately, right now Angel City’s best defense is a domineering offense. The team has gone up against arguably three of the four toughest sides in the league over the past three weeks and our defensive shortcomings were exploited in a way that our previous competition couldn’t. In this game in particular, I think that Vignola and G. Thompson were both too high up the field leaving us vulnerable and disorganized in the process of them trying to get back on defense. Looking at the heatmap and the Spirit’s passes into their final third, they have the most presence and activity on that side that Vignola was covering. Dufour made little impact in her 45 minutes and it felt like G. Thompson didn’t really trust her and would tend to pass centrally after progressing the ball upfield rather than keep it on the flank like she typically does when she’s playing alongside Emslie. This forced more of our progression up the left which worked, as evidenced by the first two goals, but it seems like there was no adjustment made to keep G. Thompson back if Vignola was going to push up more. Looking at Angel City’s average passing network, G. Thompson and Vignola are both pretty high up the pitch and nearly level with each other when typically Vignola sits a bit farther back.

Angel City was already threatening offensively but I think this performance was an improvement. I even think that MacIver did a decent job of keeping the frontline to four goals as there were definitely some good chances that were blocked. I hope that the team can continue to sharpen the attack and regain some confidence at the back as they will be going up against some slightly less lethal competition over the next five weeks. It’s been seven games, yes, but this backline has a new #1 goalkeeper and center back pairing, as well as outside backs that were in and out of games last season due to injury. Gisele and Savy are 19 and 20, respectively, and are both in their second years as professionals. All four players in the backline are extremely talented and have the ability to execute a game plan, see the first 70 minutes of the game against Orlando. However, there seems to be communication breakdowns in messier and chaotic situations. Hopefully this is something they can grow out of and shore up when Straus comes in in June. This seems to be the biggest piece that needs work right now. I’m happy to say that I think that the midfield combination of Kennedy and Zelem in the double pivot under Fuller works really well. The pieces are there. I think if they keep this up Tiernan is a top contender for Rookie of the Year and Thompson has a shot at MVP. Hopefully Straus can turn Angel City solidly into a playoff team this year.

Looking forward to being back at BMO on Friday against the Utah Royals!