The Angel City Football Club allowed a goal within the first minute of Saturday’s game against North Carolina.
Then deep into stoppage time, Angel City allowed another goal that saw at least one point slip away as the Courage snatched all three points.
“If you go back to Saturday, there was a lot of disappointment in the way it ended and there were a lot of emotions,” ACFC coach Alex Straus said of the 2-1 defeat. “We reflect, we regroup, and we continue the journey. In high-performance environments, you need to regroup, you need to go on to the next thing and if you face disappointments, you need to put them aside and get to the next thing and move forward.”
That next thing and next opponent is the Kansas City Current, who sit on top of the league (30 points). The Current (10-2-0) lead the league with 28 goals scored, while Angel City (4-5-3, 15 points) has allowed the third most (23).
“Going against Kansas is a huge challenge,” Straus said. “They are a team that’s very successful at the moment and difficult to play against. They have some really high individual talent, so it’s gonna be a tough game.
“It’s games like these that we learn from and the games we need to play to progress in our development. It’s going to be a tough game, but we hope that we can make it difficult for them.”
Angel City is now in a four-game winless streak (0-3-1), falling to 10th place in the 14-team league. Since the arrival of Straus, players have likened it to going back to school as they try to get up to speed with a new coach.
“We’ve had a loaded couple of weeks with Alex,” midfielder Kennedy Fuller said. “We’ve had to obtain a lot of information, but it’s been great. I’m super excited to be able to learn from him and learn from the rest of the staff as well. It’s going to take time for us to build back up with all of the new information, but we’re excited. There’s a lot of little things that we’re tweaking and fixing and it’s gonna be fun to watch.
“I think the team is in the headspace of continuing to build, and we’re going to build off of what we learned in the first part of the season. We’re going to all regroup during this break and then we’re gonna go both feet in for July.”
The NWSL takes a summer break after this week’s game. For Angel City, it comes at a good time.
“We’ve had five or six training sessions with the full team and it will be very important to get the full team in where we can work on our model without the distractions of playing a game on the weekend,” Straus said. “We need to use this as a mini preseason to get going and develop so that we have improved when we come back in August.”
Angel City has two exhibitions matches scheduled during the break – July 19 against Bay FC and July 26 against Carolina Ascent FC. After Friday, Angel City will resume NWSL play on Aug. 1.
International call-ups
Alyssa and Gisele Thompson, along with goalkeeper Angelina Anderson, will join the USWNT camp for exhibition games on June 26, June 29 and July 2.
Goalkeeper Hannah Stambaugh and defender Miyabi will join Japan for a June 27 game against Spain.
ANGEL CITY FC at KANSAS CITY CURRENT
When: Friday, 5 p.m. PT
Where: CPKC Stadium; Kansas City, Missouri
How to watch: Prime Video
