“We Are L.A. Strong!”
[PREVIEW NEXT HOME MATCH]:
[Angel City vs. Orlando Pride, 8/21, 7:30 pm., Week #17]
With a quick update of Thursday’s return home to BMO Stadium, the big hope is to fully recharge the fanbase in its support of the team as it heads towards a very difficult part of the schedule. Much is at stake as the Club will start its run to become a viable playoff contender, as they trail the Houston Dash by a single point, the Gotham FC, and the North Carolina Courage by three, or just a single victory behind these three teams. The time is right for a winning streak to begin!
To watch the match, go to the CBSSN/FanDuel Network, and to listen, go to iHeart and KFWB radio.
🎟️ Get tickets here.
Attached to this posting is a brief breakdown of the four matches that have been played prior to the team returning to NWSL play. It’s a long read but a very worthwhile one that will bring all of our followers up to date on the team. All photos in this posting are courtesy of the Angel City Football Club.
{“Friendly” Home Match}
Angel City FC vs. Carolina Ascent, 7/26/25]
After the International break in the NWSL Schedule, on Saturday, July 26th, Angel City returned home to BMO Stadium for a “Friendly” opponent encounter with the Carolina Ascent FC, based in Charlotte, North Carolina. They compete in the USL Super League and feature an affiliate team in the USL “W” League, which began play in summer 2024.
Alyssa Thompson Makes History with Four-Goal Match
Thompson scored four goals in a single match—a personal career first and a historic milestone for the club. They easily defeated Carolina by the final score of (4-2), but it was a much-needed exercise in retooling themselves for the resumption of the season’s second-half schedule. In that memorable match, young rising star, Forward, Alyssa Thompson, scored all fof her team’s goals in this “Friendly” encounter.
{#1 NWSL Road Match}
[Angel City FC vs. Seattle Reign FC, 8/1/25, Week #14]
The team lost its first return match to the Seattle Reign after the NWSL’s International competitions summer break in wich multiple Angel City players were called up by their respective National Team Coaches. In this League matchup, Midfielder Jess Fishlock scored for the Reign, with an ACFC auto-goal that closed out the match. The final score was Seattle 2, ACFC 0.
*[ACFC MILESTONES]
- Midfielder Jun Endo made her first NWSL Regular Season appearance since the 2023 playoffs (which was against Seattle), and her last regular season start was Oct. 8, 2023 (against Houston Dash).
- Forward Sveindís Jónsdóttir made her NWSL Regular Season debut in this match.
- Rookie Midfielder Evelyn Shores makes her NWSL Regular Season and professional debut in this match.
*[POST-MATCH QUOTES]
**ACFC Midfielder, #99 Madison Hammond
(On the progress the team made in tonight’s match)…“The last six to eight weeks have been a second preseason for us. Alex came in and taught us a lot of new things in terms of where we want to be now and where we want to be in a couple of years. It’s been a lot of information, but I think that we’ve been able to take a lot of those concepts and have been able to apply them in a way that’s meaningful.
“You can feel it in the way that we’re playing, it looks and feels completely different on the field. A lot of that has to do with our spacing.”
(On the responsibility and detail of playing in the middle as a six)…“Playing the six makes our job a little bit more fluid, but it also increases the responsibility that we have in the middle. Playing alongside Ken [Fuller] today, it felt like we had a pretty good balance in terms of our distances and our movement. It just requires everyone to kind of be on the same page. It’s definitely a work in progress, but I feel like we saw a lot of those positive moments today, and that is reflected by how we’re able to get into the attack.
“We have really powerful forwards, and they’re really talented. The more that we’re able as midfielders to allow them to exploit the things that they’re good at, the better we feel about our jobs.”
(On returning to Seattle to play against her old club)…“Coming back here is always really fun. I really get amped up for the games and always want to beat them. They’re a really good team and always had a good foundation of leadership and style of play. They want to keep the ball, but there’s a little bit more dynamic movement from them now. It just makes them a little bit more threatening.
“For me personally, I just feel like we were able to put, for the most part, a really good performance together here, and that’s what I always carry pride in. I get to see some of my friends, go for a coffee, and those are always the greatest parts of playing the sport, the people you meet along the way. It’s like a mini homecoming, but at the same time, I’ve been in LA a lot longer than I’ve been in Seattle now.”
**[ACFC Head Coach, Alex Straus]
(Overall thoughts on the match)…“We played the best game for big periods since I came here. We saw the things that we’ve been working on, where we have great switches of play. We got to the final third and were one pass away from creating big chances today.
“We showed more control, good build, and had the better team. We gave them problems, we got a lot of set pieces and corner kicks. A little bit more untidy, but still not far off. However, we continue to give away very simple goals. It’s hard to win football matches with the goals we let in today.”
(On fixing the team’s mistakes while continuing to build their model of play)…“We are sorting out quite a bit of the other parts of our game, but there are puzzle pieces that we need to get into the right places, so we can adjust and fix our mistakes one way or another.
“We will win a lot of football matches, but that’s what I’ve said from the start. We don’t want this to be an open thing that is uncontrolled, where sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. I want us to build the model that we have before in other places. It’s always been rocky and then when you arrive, you don’t win one or two, you win eight, ten, or 43 like I did with Bayern.”
*{#2 NWSL Road Match}
[Angel City FC vs. San Diego Wave FC, 8/9/25, Week #15]
Angel City battled to a 1–1 draw on the road against rival San Diego Wave. The opening half was a tight defensive contest, with limited scoring chances for both sides.
ACFC leveled the match in stoppage time when forward Sveindís Jónsdóttir delivered a perfectly placed cross to the far post, where defender Alanna Kennedy headed it into the net. The goal marked Kennedy’s ninth in NWSL Regular Season play—and her first for ACFC—while Jónsdóttir notched her first career NWSL Regular Season assist.
[ACFC MILESTONES]:
- Defender Alanna Kennedy earned her ninth NWSL Regular Season goal in this match, her first with ACFC since signing with the club.
- Forward Sveindís Jónsdóttir earned her first career NWSL Regular Season assist in this match.
*[POST-MATCH QUOTES]
**[ACFC Head Coach, Alex Straus]
(On the last 15 minutes of the game where both teams conceded and scored)…
“We missed that last week in Seattle. When we went a goal down and didn’t do anything after that. We talked about that because it takes effort and hunger and urgency to get something there.
“We played a great team. San Diego is a great team. [They have] good players and we have a lot of respect for them. We deserved at least one point today. We take it a little bit as a win when we equalize in extra time. We created great chances before they scored and we continued to do that after they took the lead. Good game for our team away against a very good San Diego team.”
(On preparing for road games)…
“I spoke to Jonas after the game, I know him well. They are eight months ahead of us in the process. He came in eight months before me. Hopefully we can be consistent from where we are today. We want to be a top team as well and we want to get there. We need consistent performances like we had today. We grow a little bit day by day and week by week.”
“Now we go to Utah for another away game. It is also going to be a tight game. When we played away at Kansas, we could have gotten something out of that. Every game is tight. That is maybe the biggest difference between the European league and this league.”
(On the value of this point from this win)…
“I don’t look at it like that. I know what I signed up for. I came from a team that was one of the best teams in Europe. We won a lot for many years. We are building something here [at Angel City] that is a process. We look at the performances week by week. I don’t look at the table. We know where we are. We need to see progress in our performances and have a growth mindset.
“Today I think we took a big turn. Based on our second half, we should have won it if I am honest. I am more focused on performances than points to be honest. We can control the performances. And the points will come. That is what we are working on.”
**[ACFC Goalkeeper & Vice Captain, Angelina Anderson]
(On bouncing back from being a goal down)…
“That is something that we have had to put in practice – is the overall resilience in mindset. It starts at training. This week was a way better week for us in terms of how much does it matter to you when you give up a goal in training and how do you bounce back from that? It showed on the weekend how we were able to bounce back from that. I am super proud of the group for being able to flip the switch on that. I think going forward that is going to be a staple of who we are.”
(On the defensive strength of the team)…
“We definitely knew we needed an overall team performance improvement. Knowing San Diego and their quality, we knew defensively we would have to be sharp…They have a lot of talented players in the attack. We had to put that extra emphasis and intention into training. We still have some things to clean up, but I think we put in a really great defensive performance tonight.”
(On Evelyn Shores’ performance)…
As a team in our huddle we gave Evelyn Shores a big shout out because she went toe-to-toe with one of the best players in the world and shut her down. Super proud of her, I am excited to see her grow. She has taken every challenge in stride and just continues to have a great growth mindset. I am really proud of her performance tonight and I think that will do a lot for her performance knowing she is here to play in this league.
(On being vice captain of ACFC)…
“Getting the captain’s band is one of the proudest things I have done in my career is being named vice captain of this team. It is always an honor when it gets put on and gives me a little weight to carry. I take it with pride and it means a lot to me for sure.”
{#3 NWSL Road Match}
[Angel City FC vs. Utah Royals, 8/15/25, Week #16]
Angel City FC battled to a 0–0 draw on the road against the Utah Royals, with goalkeeper Hannah Seabert earning a clean sheet in her first NWSL and club appearance. ACFC created a strong chance in the 54th minute when Alyssa Thompson and Madison Hammond set up Kennedy Fuller, whose shot from the top of the box went over the bar.
*[POST-MATCH QUOTES]
**[ACFC Goalkeeper Hannah Seabert]
(On getting her a clean sheet in her first NWSL match)…
“I think we had a calmness out there today. I think that we really dug down when we needed to, and it was super awesome to see us grind it out to the last minute, and not concede a goal.”
“Going into the game today, I just wanted to support the team however I could. We talk about so many things throughout the week, and I wanted to make sure that I performed those and supported the defense, and that helps the ball get forward and succeed in the offense. I think we did an okay job with it. There’s always room for improvement, and honestly, we need to start taking out points away from games, but at least we got the clean sheet.”
(On the mood of the team and moving forward)…
“We talk a lot about what we want to do and the potential, and our plan moving forward. Honestly, I think after this game, we are disappointed, and we have ambitions, and we want to be comparing ourselves with teams at the top of the table, and I don’t think we can walk away doing that today.”
“We got a defensive shutout, but we have to start scoring goals. We have to start being more cohesive, so honestly, we’re not stepping away from this happily, and there’s going to be a lot of work in this coming week to make more things happen for us.”
(On setting up defense)…
“We have worked a lot on set pieces recently. I think we do a really good job defensively. When we get back to set up, we’re communicating a lot. We just want to make sure that we have a lot of awareness going on, so that we’re not letting easy mistakes happen.”
**[ACFC Head Coach Alex Straus]
(On assessment of the game)…
“It’s a step backwards. Honestly, I think we all agree on that. It’s the easy stuff. Sometimes we miss stuff, but you need to execute on the things that we’ve been working on all week at the standard we want if we expect to go where we want to be.
“It’s all of us. Maybe we need to be more accurate in training. Maybe we need to put things differently. It’s all of us as a team, but that’s not up to the standards of what we expect from ourselves and each other. I think it’s in high performance cultures, that’s what needs to be addressed and talk about where we want to be and when there is a gap between where we want to be and where we were today, that needs to be addressed.
“We didn’t let in any goals. That’s not been something that we have been able to do very much this season. So that was good, but we expect more of ourselves, everybody on our team. And I think that’s important for people traveling, watching us.
“I think we defended set pieces well today. I think they had a lot of corners, and we defended those corners well. So that was a step in the right direction.”
“Performance wise, it is what it is, and we will not be perfect every time, but I believe we can do much better than we did.So today, we were not there. And sometimes it is like that. We just need to go back again and work harder. But the good thing is that we didn’t lose. We could have lost the game today. We didn’t do that. We got a point out of it, and we know that we need to get better.”
