Olivia Moultrie scored both goals in the Portland Thorns’ 2-0 victory over Angel City in Los Angeles.
With the win, the Thorns (10-8-7) clinched a league-record ninth consecutive playoff appearance.
Angel City (7-12-6) was already eliminated from playoff contention prior to kickoff at BMO Stadium. ACFC’s last postseason appearance came in 2023.
Moultrie got the Thorns off to the perfect start in the 23rd minute. The 20-year-old switched the ball between her feet to buy a yard of space and then unleashed a shot into the top corner from 21 yards out to make it 1-0.
After Sara Doorsoun fouled Reilyn Turner in the box, Moultrie stepped up from the penalty spot and coolly converted to make it 2-0 in the 60th. It was her eighth goal of the season.
Christen Press came off the bench for Angel City in the 60th, with Ali Riley entering in the 82nd. Both veteran players received a standing ovation from the home fans on their final appearance at home in Los Angeles. The veteran duo are set to retire at the end of season.
Kennedy Fuller and Maiara Niehues scored and Angel City staved off elimination from postseason contention with a 2-0 victory over the Houston Dash on Sunday at BMO Stadium.
Angel City (7-11-6), which would have been eliminated with a loss or a draw, ended a five-game winless streak with the victory.
Dash goalkeeper Abby Smith pushed away a cross from Hina Sugita, but Fuller scored her fourth goal of the season off a rebound in the 53rd minute to break a scoreless stalemate.
Niehues scored an insurance goal in the 86th minute, charging forward and taking advantage with Smith well out of her goal.
It appeared the Dash might be awarded a penalty after a handball was called on the field in stoppage time, but the decision was overturned after video review.
Houston (7-10-6), which finished last in the league last season, had lost just two of the previous 10 matches. The Dash were not yet eliminated.
Because of Sunday’s result, the Orlando Pride clinched a playoff berth.
Michelle Cooper scored in the 59th minute and the Kansas City Current extended their unbeaten run to 16 straight matches with a 1-0 victory over Angel City on Monday night at BMO Stadium.
It was a league record 19th overall win for the first-place Current, who have already clinched a playoff spot and the NWSL Shield. It was also Kansas City’s 10th win on the road.
The loss snapped a three-game unbeaten streak at home for Angel City (6-11-6).
After a scoreless first half, Jun Endo had one of Angel City’s best chances in the 48th minute, but her shot from distance hit the post.
Cooper broke through just moments after being subbed in, scoring on her first touch off a pass from Haley Hopkins from out in front of the goal.
Kansas City goalkeeper Lorena had her 13th shutout.
Temwa Chawinga, who leads the Golden Boot race with 14 goals, did not play for the Current because of a knee injury.
Both the Orlando Pride and the Washington Spirit had 18 wins last year, the previous league high. The Current are 19-2-2 with three games left in the regular season.
Croix Bethune scored on a header in the 71st minute to pull the Washington Spirit into a 2-2 draw with Angel City on Thursday night in the National Women’s Soccer League.
The Spirit (10-4-7) remained in second place in the league standings behind the Kansas City Current with a nine-game unbeaten run.
The draw stopped a two-game losing streak for Angel City (6-9-6), which was below the playoff line but still within reach of a berth.
Trinity Rodman’s penalty attempt was stopped, but she scored on the rebound to give the Spirit the lead in the 12th minute.
Just two minutes later, rookie Evelyn Shores scored her first NWSL goal off a cross from Gisele Thompson. Thompson has five assists this season, tied for the league lead.
Angel City went ahead in the 56th on an own goal by Spirit defender Tara McKeown. Bethune pulled Washington back even with her header.
Deborah Abiodun was bloodied when she caught a cleat in the head in a collision with Angel City’s Jun Endo that caused a lengthy delay in the first half. Abiodun returned to the match with a wrap on her head.
It was a moment that should have been celebrated on both sides of the Atlantic. What could prove to be the most expensive transfer in women’s soccer history — and already is the largest outgoing transfer in NWSL history — had sent Alyssa Thompson from Angel City and the NWSL to Chelsea of England’s Women’s Super League.
It was a monumental deal, one that could come to define Thompson’s career and help repair Angel City’s brand as a rich club that has mostly bumbled its way through its first four seasons.
It was a massive win for the player and both clubs.
Yet before the ink on the agreement had dried Angel City was already tarnishing what it should have been cheering. Coach Alexander Straus refused to even say Thompson’s name, opening a conference call with reporters Thursday by insisting he would not answer questions about “a certain player” or “a certain transfer.”
It was the second time in four days Straus refused to acknowledge his team’s best player.
Thompson, of course, has never been “a certain player” or “a certain transfer.” She’s a player Angel City moved heaven and earth to draft and sign in 2023, giving her a contract worth an estimated $1 million, then one of the richest in the NWSL. She’s a player who went on to become the club’s all-time leader in goals and rank sixth in appearances.
The least the coach could do is say her name.
Then three hours after that conference call, and about an hour after Thompson’s transfer became official, the club muddled things even further by reaching out to anyone who would listen to say it had done everything it could to keep Thompson, who had professed her desire to stay with Angel City when she signed a long-term contract extension just nine months earlier.
Thompson has the right to change her mind when a better opportunity comes along, of course, and Chelsea offered exactly that. Just 20, Thompson has already proven to be one of the most dynamic players in the world but she hasn’t come close to realizing her full potential and it’s unlikely she would have stayed in the NWSL.
The transfer was necessary for Thompson to find out how good she can be. And just as important is the fact that Thompson, who lived with her parents for the first year of her professional career, will now be on her own for the first time. How she adapts will no doubt have a major influence on her career as well.
But the club’s admission it did everything it could to keep her — a message aimed at fans angry at seeing the team’s best player go — simply confirmed what many in Thompson’s camp had thought since Chelsea first approached Angel City with a transfer offer last month: the club was more interested in blocking the deal than facilitating it.
“She wants to go to Chelsea and made it very clear,” a Thompson confidant said late in the process. “ACFC has to respect her.”
Angel City forward Alyssa Thompson competes against the San Diego Wave on March 16.
(Kyusung Gong / Associated Press)
For the club to suggest it had tried to hold up the transfer was the exact wrong message to send and one that — along with Straus’ lack of respect — won’t soon be forgotten by ambitious young players Angel City may approach in the future.
Thompson was one of eight players on the Angel City roster aged 20 or younger. Many, if not all, of those young women must be confident the club won’t stand in their way if they have a chance to move on and develop their talent on a bigger stage.
That’s the way soccer works. It’s why clubs allow players to leave in the middle of a season to play for their national teams despite the risk of injury. It’s unfortunate the transfer happened now, hampering Angel City’s final push for a playoff berth. But as long as the NWSL plays on a different calendar from the rest of the world, the transfer windows will always be awkward.
Yes, Angel City should — and it did — fight hard for every last penny in the transfer talks. The team recruited Thompson, signed her, paid her good money and gave her an opportunity and a platform to play both professionally and in a World Cup.
By all accounts, the team was masterful in its negotiations with Chelsea and it was rewarded with a record-breaking transfer fee. They deserve a huge pat on the back for that.
Just which records the deal broke depends on how you look at it. Multiple sources involved in the talks confirmed the transfer’s value at $1.65 million, which would make it the most expensive transfer in women’s soccer history.
Yet that’s not what Angel City deposited in the bank last week. Whether Chelsea will pay the full amount will be determined by non-disclosed escalators, mainly based on Thompson’s performance, that were included in the deal. For the time being, however, Angel City will have to get by with about half a million less, putting the initial value of the transfer somewhere between the nearly $1.1 million Chelsea paid the San Diego Wave last January for defender Naomi Girma and the $1.5 million the Orlando Pride paid Mexico’s Tigres for Lizbeth Ovalle last month.
Either way it’s the largest fee for an outgoing player in NWSL history and probably enough for Angel City to keep the lights on. So on Friday morning the club sent out a tepid three-paragraph statement announcing a transfer everyone else knew was done.
“We thank Alyssa for her contributions to Angel City and are grateful for the mark she has left on our team and the city of Los Angeles,” it read.
At least they said her name.
⚽ You have read the latest installment of On Soccer with Kevin Baxter. The weekly column takes you behind the scenes and shines a spotlight on unique stories. Listen to Baxter on this week’s episode of the “Corner of the Galaxy” podcast.
Rose Lavelle scored her first goal of the season and Gotham FC defeated Angel City 3-1 on Sunday.
Kennedy Fuller put Angel City in front 1-0 less than two minutes into the match. The Angel City midfielder stuck the ball on the edge of the box on the half-volley.
Gotham coach Juan Carlos Amoros made two significant substitutions at the break: Midge Purce replaced Josephine Hasbo and Lavelle came on for Sarah Schupansky.
Gabi Portilho scored the equalizer in the 47th minute. The Brazilian tucked away a short pass from Purce. Then, Lavelle made it 2-1 by pouncing on a goalkeeping mistake in the 51st minute.
Jaelin Howell capped the scoring in the 68th minute.
Gotham (7-6-6) moved up to sixth place in the NWSL standings, and opened a four-point gap ahead of 10th place Angel City (6-8-5).
Angel City winger Alyssa Thompson left for London on Wednesday afternoon as negotiations continued on a transfer that would send her from the NWSL to Chelsea of the Women’s Super League. But she might be running out of time since the WSL transfer window closes at 3 p.m. PDT Thursday, less than 24 hours after she boarded her flight.
“She wants to go to Chelsea and made it very clear she wants to leave,” said a person close to Thompson, who would speak only on condition of anonymity for fear of disrupting the delicate negotiations. “The rest is out of our hands.”
Thompson’s agent, Takumi Jeannin, declined to speak about the negotiations on the record while Angel City did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
The speedy Thompson, 20, has already said goodbye to her Angel City teammates and did not suit up for the team’s win over Bay FC on Monday. She reportedly spent two days waiting to fly to London, where the transfer would be announced, only to repeatedly be told the deal had hit a snag.
If the transfer is agreed to, the fee for the U.S. international and World Cup veteran is expected to top $1 million and could smash the record $1.5 million the Orlando Pride paid Mexico’s Tigres for Lizbeth Ovalle last month.
USWNT defender Naomi Girma was the first $1-million transfer in women’s soccer history when she went from the San Diego Wave to Chelsea last January. Canadian Olivia Smith broke that record in July, going from Liverpool to Arsenal for $1.3 million.
Thompson was still an 18-year-old senior at Harvard-Westlake High when she became the youngest player taken in the NWSL draft, going to Angel City with the No. 1 pick in January 2023. That summer she became the second-youngest player to appear in a World Cup game for the U.S.
Thompson signed a three-year contract worth an estimated $1 million after the draft in 2023, then agreed to a three-year extension in January. She is the club’s all-time scoring leader with 21 goals in all competitions and she ranks sixth in appearances with 74. Her six goals in 16 games this season ranks second behind Riley Tiernan’s eight and she also has three goals and three assists in 22 games with the national team.
Thompson leaving Angel City would also mean leaving her sister and roommate Gisele, 19, a national team defender who was signed by Angel City in December 2023.
For Angel City, meanwhile, losing Thompson would strike a significant blow to the team’s playoff hopes. The club, which has won two straight and is unbeaten in its last four, is a point out of the league’s eighth and final postseason berth with eight games to play. But Angel City already lost two players — midfielders Alanna Kennedy and Katie Zelem — on transfers to London City of the WSL for undisclosed fees last month. And the week before that it traded forward Julie Dufour to the Portland Thorns for $40,000 in intra-league transfer funds and an international roster spot.
In addition, the club is without Scottish international Claire Emslie, who is on maternity leave, defender Savy King, who is on medical leave, and U.S. World Cup champion Sydney Leroux, who has stepped away from soccer to deal with her mental health.
After Monday’s win over Bay FC, Angel City coach Alexander Straus said the uncertainty over Thompson’s future with the team has been distracting.
“If I’m being honest, the last couple of days, it’s been difficult,” he said.
Straus said he learned Thompson would not be available just a day before the game.
“It’s been hard for me in my position when things change,” he said. “It changes our plans and changes the plans for the players.”
“But none of us is bigger than the club,” he added. “We focus on that, what is our value together. And if somebody leaves at some point — or somebody has left a couple of weeks ago — I think it does something to a group. It’s not easy, but it’s how you manage it.”
While the loss of a player like Thompson would hurt Angel City on the field, the likely seven-figure transfer fee would help ameliorate that. The same might not be true for NWSL, whose success and its marketing has long been built around the personalities playing in the league.
Yet in recent years it has lost Alex Morgan to retirement while national team stars including Girma, Crystal Dunn, Emily Fox, Lindsey Heaps (nee Horan), Catarina Macario and Korbin Shrader (nee Albert) have left to play in Europe.
Losing Thompson would be another blow.
As for Chelsea, it is the most successful club in the WSL, having won a domestic treble last season in Sonia Bompastor’s first season as coach. Bompastor replaced Emma Hayes, who left to take over the U.S. national team.
Chelsea will open its WSL season on Friday against Manchester City.
Maiara Niehues scored the go-ahead goal on a header in the 77th minute to give Angel City a 2-1 victory over Bay FC at BMO Stadium on Monday.
Riley Tiernan also scored for Angel City (6-7-5), which won its second straight after an eight-game winless streak.
Angel City’s Alyssa Thompson was an excused absence for the game as rumors swirled that Chelsea was in talks to acquire the 20-year-old winger. The transfer deadline in the English Women’s Super League is Thursday.
Any fee for Thompson is likely to exceed $1 million. The Orlando Pride recently paid an international record $1.5 million transfer fee for forward Lizbeth Ovalle from Mexico’s Tigres.
Bay (4-9-5) is winless in its last seven matches.
Tiernan took a pass from M.A. Vignola and ran it down field before cutting inside and dancing around Bay defenders before firing a shot past Bay goalkeeper Jordan Silkowitz in the 12th minute.
It was Tiernan’s team-leading eighth goal. She moved into second for most goals ever by an NWSL rookie.
Rachel Hill scored the equalizer for Bay, scoring on the rebound off her own shot on Angel City goalkeeper Hannah Seabert in the 37th minute.
Niehues broke the stalemate on a header off a corner kick.
On Bay FC’s side, Asisat Oshoala was also an excused absence amid numerous reports of a move to Al Hilal Saudi Women’s Premier League.
Alyssa Thompson scored in the 86th minute and Angel City snapped an eight-game winless streak with a 1-0 victory over the Orlando Pride on Thursday night at BMO Stadium.
Angel City (5-7-5) had not won a match since May 9. Thompson’s goal was her sixth of the season, second most on the team.
It was Alex Straus’ first win as Angel City coach and the franchise’s first win against the Pride since 2023.
“It felt really good. I feel like I haven’t had a goal in a while,” Thompson said. “So being able to get those goals that I’ve been working on, and just the positions that I’ve been in, in training. It was really nice.”
Orlando (8-5-4) is winless in its last five matches. The Pride were without top scorer Barbra Banda, who injured her hip in the team’s scoreless draw with the Kansas City Current last week. Banda has eight goals this season.
Orlando announced earlier Thursday that they had signed Lizbeth Ovalle from Mexico’s Tigres UANL for a record transfer fee. Ovalle, known as Jacquie, is set to play in the Liga MX Femenil All-Star game this weekend before joining the Pride.
Angel City welcomed back defender Ali Riley, who was available on the bench for the match. Riley was placed on the season-ending injury list midway through the 2024 season because of a chronic leg injury that threatened her career.
Hannah Seabert made the most of her first NWSL start.
The veteran goalkeeper, who starred at Woodcrest Christian High in Riverside and Pepperdine University, made five saves as she helped Angel City FC to a 0-0 draw against the Utah Royals in Sandy, Utah.
Seabert was signed by Angel City in May and joined the club July 1 after playing professionally in Norway, Denmark and Portugal for the past seven years.
Sveindís Jónsdóttir had both shots on goal against Utah goalkeeper Mandy McGlynn.
Angel City beat the Royals 2-0 on May 9 and remain unbeaten all-time with a 2-0-2 record against Utah.
Angel City improved to 4-7-5. The Royals are 1–11–4.
Alanna Kennedy scored a late equalizer and Angel City tied the San Diego Wave 1-1 on Saturday night in their Southern California rivalry.
Just as the Wave looked to be securing a first home win over Angel City since 2022, Sveindís Jane Jónsdóttir sent in a cross and Kennedy scored on a header to make it 1-1 in the second minute of stoppage time. The goal was Kennedy’s first for Angel City.
San Diego opened the scoring in the 85th minute, when Makenzy Robbe curled in a shot across the goal from the right side of the box. It was Robbe’s first goal of the season, but her 10th career goal for the Wave.
In the first half, after being struck in the head by the ball, Angel City defender Sarah Gorden left the game with a concussion.
The fourth-place Wave (7-4-4) are undefeated in their last four matches, although the last three have been ties.
Angel City (4-7-4) remains 11th in the standings and is winless in its last seven games. The team is winless since coach Alex Straus came aboard in June.
Ever since she visited Los Angeles with her national team three years ago, Sveindís Jane Jónsdóttir knew she wanted to play in the National Women’s Soccer League one day.
When the opportunity to play for Angel City presented itself, Jónsdóttir was eager to join the league and play for new Angel City coach Alexander Straus.
“When Angel City came up, I was just really excited about it,” she said. “I know Alex. I played against him when he was at Bayern and so I knew he was a great coach.”
Three new players have joined Angel City (4-3-6) during the past few months, delivering an infusion talent for a team that sits in 11th place in the 14-team NWSL standings. The league’s top eight teams advance to the playoffs.
Jónsdóttir, a forward with Icelandic national team experience, signed with Angel City on May 21. After finishing her stint with Frauen-Bundesliga club VfL Wolfsburg, Jónsdóttir joined her first Angel City practice on Tuesday afternoon.
Midfielder Evelyn Shores, who most recently played for the University of North Carolina, signed with Angel City on July 10. She has played for the U-23 U.S. women’s national team.
Goalkeeper Hannah Seabert, who was Sporting Clube de Portugal’s captain earlier this year, signed with Angel City on May 30 and has been training with the team for three weeks.
Seabert, a Riverside native and Pepperdine alum, spent most of her career playing abroad and wanted to return to the United States.
Angel City goalkeeper Hannah Seabert kicks the ball during a friendly against Bay FC on July 19 at PayPal Park in San Jose.
(Icon Sportswire / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
“As soon as Angel City opened up several years back, I just knew it was a team I wanted to be a part of,” she said of the franchise that began play in 2023.
When Seabert’s contract with Sporting CP expired, she pursued her goal of joining Angel City.
“When I came and visited here a couple weeks ago, it felt like a home away from home,” she said. “The facilities are amazing and the girls were so welcoming. It just felt right when I came here.”
Angel City sporting director Mark Parsons said the new players earned contracts because they aligned with the vision for the future of the club: winning.
“Who are the players that we believe represent where we’re going and can play for Angel City when we’re fighting for trophies,” Parsons said, referring to the question Angel City leaders asked before signing any new players.
While the new players present an infusion of fresh talent, Angel City also is benefiting from the return of a familiar face.
Forward Jun Endo, who tore her ACL in February 2024, played for the first time in 18 months during a friendly against Bay FC on Saturday. Endo was on the pitch for 30 minutes and scored the only goal of the game.
“If you’re missing a player like Jun Endo for as much time as Angel City has been missing her, of course it affects [the game] because you cannot replace a player like that,” said Straus, the team’s coach.
Angel City’s Jun Endo dribbles the ball during a friendly against Bay FC on July 19 at PayPal Park in San Jose.
(Icon Sportswire / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Straus said he expects Angel City to evolve and move closer to achieving its long-term championship goals with the new signees and Endo available to play.
Angel City, which is in the midst of an international break, plays a friendly Saturday against Carolina Ascent FC and resumes NWSL competition on Aug. 1 at Seattle Reign FC.
“Its not just about filling a roster,” Straus said. “We need quality. We need people who can make a difference for us and so we hope they will do this for us.
“We will be good now, but we will be better in January.”
That’s a rhetorical question, of course. But it’s one that has a basis in fact because girl power is real.
From Joan of Arc to Cassidy Hutchinson, whenever men have proven too cautious, cowardly or complacent to act, women have had the courage to do the right thing. The latest example of this feminine fearlessness came last Saturday, after federal immigration agents launched a series of raids throughout the Southland targeting everyone from schoolchildren to elderly churchgoers.
Within hours of the first arrests, Angel City, a women’s soccer club, became the first local sports franchise to issue a statement, recognizing the “fear and uncertainty” the raids had provoked. A day later LAFC, Angel City’s roommate at BMO Stadium, released a statement of its own.
That was a week and a half ago. But Angel City didn’t stop there. While the collective silence from the Dodgers, the Galaxy, the Lakers, Kings and other teams has been deafening, Angel City has grown defiant, dressing its players and new coach Alexander Straus in T-shirts that renamed the team “Immigrant City Football Club.” On the back the slogan “Los Angeles Is For Everyone /Los Angeles Es Para Todos” was repeated six times.
“The statement was the beginning,” said Chris Fajardo, Angel City’s vice-president of community. “The statement was our way of making sure that our fans, our players, our staff felt seen in that moment.
“The next piece was, I think, true to Angel City. Not just talking the talk but walking the walk.”
Angel City, the most valuable franchise in women’s sports history, has been walking that walk since it launched five years ago with the help of A-list Hollywood investors, including Natalie Portman, Eva Longoria, Jessica Chastain, America Ferrera and Jennifer Garner.
Angel City coach Alexander Straus wears a shirt with the words, “Immigrant City Football Club” before Saturday’s match.
(Jen Flores / Angel City FC)
It has used its riches and its unique platform to provide more than 2.3 million meals and more than 33,000 hours for youth and adult education throughout Southern California; to provide equipment and staff for soccer camps for the children of migrants trapped at the U.S.-Mexico border; and to funnel $4.1 million into other community programs in Los Angeles.
But while much of that has happened quietly, last Saturday’s actions were provocative, boldly and publicly taking place in a city still under siege from thousands of National Guard troops and hundreds of U.S. Marines.
“We always talk about how we wanted to build a club that was representative of our community. But we built a club where we are part of the community,” said Julie Uhrman, who co-founded the team she now leads as president.
“In moments like this it’s how do we use our platform to drive attention for what’s happening, to create a sense of community and tell our community that we’re there for them.
“Our supporters wanted to do more,” Uhrman added. “And we wanted to support them.”
Angel City’s Sydney Leroux poses for photo before a match against North Carolina on Saturday.
(Ian Maule / NWSL via Getty Images)
So Fajardo reached out to the team’s staff and supporters. What would that next step look like this time?
“We knew we wanted to do shirts but like, is this the right move?” Fajardo said. “Also, let’s talk about language. It had to resonate and it had to be something they felt was true.
“And so it was through conversation that we landed on the Immigrant City Football Club and everybody belongs in L.A.”
That was late Wednesday afternoon. Fajardo needed more than 10,000 shirts to hand out to players and fans by Saturday morning. That led him to Andrew Leigh, president of Jerry Leigh of California, a family-owned clothing manufacturer based in Los Angeles.
“We wanted to be a part of it,” Leigh said. “These were definitely a priority as we believe in the cause and what Angel City stands for.”
That first run of T-shirts was just the start, though. Leigh’s company has made thousands more for the team to sell on its website, with the net proceeds going to Camino Immigration Services, helping fund what the team feels is a pressing need.
The campaign has resounded with the players, many of whom were drawn to Angel City by the club’s commitment to community service and many of whom see this moment as especially personal.
“My mom’s parents came here from China, and it wasn’t easy for them,” captain Ali Riley told the team website. “They had to find a way to make a life here. My dad is first-generation American. Being from Los Angeles, everything we do, everything we play, everything we eat, this is a city of immigrants.”
“It feels so uncertain right now,” she continued, “but to look around the stadium and see these shirts everywhere, it’s like we’re saying, ‘this is our home, we know who we are, and we know what we believe in.”
It has resonated with the supporters as well.
“It is great that they showed support and put it into action,” said Lauren Stribling, a playwright from Santa Clarita and an Angel City season-ticket holder from the club’s inception. “They really showed an empathy for the community they serve.
Shirts with the words “Los Angeles Is For Everyone” in English and Spanish were handed out to fans before Angel City’s game against North Carolina at BMO Stadium on Saturday.
(Jen Flores / Angel City FC)
“They stand up. It makes me proud of the team and makes me a bigger fan.”
And it makes the Dodgers, the Galaxy and the other Southern California franchises who have remained silent look smaller. On the same night Angel City was stepping up, seven miles away the Dodgers were once again stepping back, warning singer Nezza, the daughter of Dominican immigrants, to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” in English, not Spanish.
“I didn’t think I would be met with any sort of like, ‘no,’ especially because we’re in L.A. and with everything happening,” said Nezza, whose real name is Vanessa Hernández. “I just felt like I needed to do it.”
So she sang in Spanish. Of course she sang in Spanish.
⚽ You have read the latest installment of On Soccer with Kevin Baxter. The weekly column takes you behind the scenes and shines a spotlight on unique stories. Listen to Baxter on this week’s episode of the “Corner of the Galaxy” podcast.
Brianna Pinto scored just seven minutes after entering off the bench for the North Carolina Courage in a 2-1 win against Angel City on Saturday.
The Courage (4-5-3) had lost all three of their previous visits to BMO Stadium.
Cortnee Vine had made it 1-0 in the first minute of the game when she slid the ball into the net from a cross by Manaka Matsukubo.
Riley Tiernan scored her seventh goal of the season to bring Angel City (4-5-3) level at 1-1 in the 11th minute, heading in a cross from Gisele Thompson.
The winner came from a scramble in the box in the fifth minute of stoppage time. After Angel City defender Miyabi Moriya blocked a shot on the line, Pinto scooped up the ball and fired it in from five yards out.
Angel City FC players and staff wore T-shirts and read a pregame message declaring their support for immigrants on Saturday, a day of protest against ICE raids throughout Los Angeles.
The front of the black T-shirts read: “Immigrant City Football Club.”
The back featured the phrases: “Los Angeles is for everyone” and “Los Ángeles es Para Todos.”
Angel City players lock arms while standing for the national anthem. Their shirts read “Los Angeles is for everyone.”
(Courtesy of Jen Flores / Angel City FC)
The club was the first of the city’s 11 major professional sports teams to release a statement in support of those impacted by immigration raids during the past week focused on Los Angeles County and surrounding areas.
Angel City gave out “Immigrant City Football Club” shirts to the first 10,000 fans at Saturday’s match against the North Carolina Courage.
Singer Becky G, a founding investor in Angel City, read the following statement as players walked onto the field for introductions before the game:
“At Angel City, we believe in the power of belonging. We know that Los Angeles is stronger because of its diversity and the people and the families who shape it, love it, and call it home.
Angel City FC gave away shirts to fans at BMO Stadium on Saturday, June 14, 2025, supporting immigrants.
Mary Alice Vignola scored the equalizer in the 80th minute and Angel City salvaged a 2-2 draw with the Chicago Stars at BMO Stadium on Saturday night.
Angel City (4-4-3) took a 1-0 lead into halftime on Kennedy Fuller’s goal from inside the box in the 29th minute.
Chicago (1-8-2) made it 1-1 just before the hour mark when an attempted cross from substitute Nadia Gomes took a wild deflection and looped over the head of goalkeeper Angelina Anderson.
The Stars went up 2-1 up when Ally Schlegel scored from 25 yards out in the 66th minute. Anderson got one hand to the shot but could only tip the ball onto the crossbar and into the back of the net.
Vignola rocketed in a rebound from close range to make it 2-2.
The tie was Alex Straus’ first game as Angel City coach. Straus, who has never previously coached in the NWSL, arrived from Bayern Munich last week.
It doesn’t seem that long ago that Christen Press was helping the national team to consecutive World Cup titles. She was unstoppable then, a key cog in the greatest women’s soccer team in history.
Yet she played her 155th and final match for the U.S. in the Tokyo Olympics.
It doesn’t seem that long ago that Press, just 18 days removed from those Olympics, became the first player signed by expansion club Angel City. She was bringing the NWSL to her hometown and was being rewarded with what was then the richest contract in league history.
Yet she’s started just 10 games since then, losing most of the last three seasons to a stubborn anterior cruciate ligament injury that took four surgeries to repair.
Press eventually will be inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame, but she isn’t ready for that trip just yet. If her body isn’t always willing, her mind and her heart are still keen on the sport, so Press makes her most valuable contributions now in the quiet of the locker room.
At 36, she has completed the transition from wunderkind to elder stateswoman. And on a Angel City team with 13 players under the age of 25, her presence is being felt.
“It’s a different role. I wasn’t that type of person,” said Press, who admits she has grown into the job.
“When I was 20 I didn’t have a relationship with a senior player like they have with me. I’m enjoying the presence that I have with these young players.”
Press has paid special attention to Alyssa Thompson, the 20-year-old Angel City player whose early career may be most reminiscent of her own, taking the locker next to Thompson in the team’s spacious dressing room.
Both are Southern California natives who played soccer and ran track in high school, led their teams to CIF titles and won national player of the year awards. Both committed to play for Stanford — Press went, Thompson didn’t.
Angel City forward Alyssa Thompson controls the ball during a match against Seattle in October.
(Lindsey Wasson / Associated Press)
But Thompson’s career is just starting while Press is winding hers down. So the most valuable thing she can offer now is advice.
“The thing that I’m good at is scoring goals. It is an art and I love it,” Press said. “I’m now kind of showing Alyssa how I trained to become a goal scorer. How you can think about goal-scoring in a very nuanced and methodical way.
“I’m learning as I teach her. I’m seeing the ways that she approaches it differently. It’s just kind of a spirit of collaboration I see as a win-win for everybody.”
Thompson agrees, saying she appreciates the chance to learn from a master.
“She’s definitely my mentor,” Thompson said. “She’s entering a new era of her career and she still wants to continue to play and stuff like that. But when she’s not playing, she’s able to [offer] her guidance and support.”
Goalkeeper Angelina Anderson, the team’s vice captain and, at 24, a key member of Angel City’s youth movement, isn’t sure Press fully appreciates the impact she’s having. The extra work Press puts in with Thompson, for example, has also made Anderson better.
“After training she’ll pull me aside and say ‘Hey, Ang, can you stay? I’m going to play a few balls through for Alyssa.’ That alone, dealing with such an elite finisher, is making me better obviously,” said Anderson, who was recently called up to the national team for the first time.
“She’s probably had to change a lot; just her mindset and mentality going through her injury and being older. I think she’s embraced her role and she seems like she’s in a really healthy spot.”
Listen to Press for a moment and the depth of her wisdom, experience and intelligence is obvious. But that doesn’t exactly make her rare in the Angel City locker room. Ali Riley, Press’ former Stanford teammate, and Scottish international Claire Emslie also have played on multiple continents and in multiple international championships and have become mentors to the team’s younger players.
“I enjoy that,” Emslie said. “I definitely find myself saying things to the younger players that I remember getting told and I think it’s important to pass on that information and have those relationships.
“I want to help them as much as I can because they’re going to go on and have even better and more successful careers. If I can help them along the way, it’s rewarding.”
That approach seems to be working. Angel City (4-4-2) is in playoff position through 10 games despite starting six players younger than 25.
“It’s important to have experienced players like Christen around. Especially when you’ve got so many players that are so young and exciting and dynamic,” interim manager Sam Laity said.
How long Press continues to do that in person is uncertain. The one-year contract extension she signed in January ends when the season does and she has a budding business empire to manage, one that includes a wildly entertaining podcast and a social entrepreneurship company founded with former USWNT teammates Megan Rapinoe, Meghan Klingenberg and Tobin Heath.
But if her playing days are indeed numbered, she’s enjoying those she has left. And that may be the most important lesson Professor Press passes on to her young students.
“There’s only one thing I haven’t done in soccer and that’s enjoy it,” she said. “All of my peers retired and I’m still here. I’m still given this gift of being able to appreciate it, play with gratitude, be a role model. And when I think about Angel City and my legacy, I think about ‘wow, what an opportunity to show the next generation that this can — and should be — fun and rewarding and it’s a gift that we get to chase greatness.
“The truth is the other things that I’m doing, from a career standpoint, are more lucrative than playing for Angel City this season. [But] there’s no better job in the world. We get so wrapped up in winning and greatness and titles and trophies that sometimes we don’t just get to be there. Like, I run around for my job. And I’m grateful that I have the opportunity to do so.”
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Oh, sure, the Angel City forward is far too nice to call it that, but that’s what her first NWSL season has become.
“Everybody loves an underdog story,” she said. “It kind of added fuel to my fire. When people doubt you, it makes you want to prove it that much more.”
Tiernan was definitely being doubted about six months ago when she finished her college career at Rutgers as the school’s all-time leader in assists, yet didn’t get a call from 12 of the 14 NWSL teams. In the first winter without a league draft, every player was a free agent, available to the highest bidder. Only no one bid on Tiernan.
So she accepted an invitation to training camp with Angel City and now she’s showing the others what they missed, with her five goals leading all NWSL rookies and ranking second in the league overall heading into Saturday night’s home match with Racing Louisville.
“A fair shot,” said the 22-year-old. “All I wanted, literally, was just a chance to prove myself. Without the draft it was kind of like you get what you get and you’ve got to hope for the best.
“Once I got this invitation it was ‘let’s go big or go home.’ I got to show out. And pretty much did.”
Four of her five goals have given her team a lead; two were game-winners. Without her, Angel City (4-3-2) would not be in playoff position a third of the way into the season.
If Tiernan gets credit for passing her preseason test with the team, then technical director Mark Wilson and the rest of Angel City’s staff deserve praise for doing their homework. They identified Tiernan as a player worth watching last summer and nothing they saw — even the lack of interest from other clubs — swayed their thinking.
“We decided Riley was a top, top target once we’d kind of curated all of her stuff,” Wilson said. “You have to trust your process.”
So in November, Wilson had a Zoom call with Tiernan and found that he liked the person even better than he liked the player.
“That was the final piece of the puzzle,” he said. “We believed she had a big ceiling after watching her and we wanted to at least invite Riley in to spend some time with us.
“We really liked her character after the interview.”
Angel City forward Riley Tiernan heads the ball downfield during a game against the Washington Spirit on May 2.
(Roger Wimmer/ ISI Photos via Getty Images)
Tiernan said the only other offer she received came from Gotham FC, which trains 35 miles from Rutgers. But after spending her entire life in South Jersey, she felt Southern California offered a different sort of challenge.
“It just felt like it was time for me to spread my wings and step out of my comfort zone,” she said. “I had nothing to lose. After the first couple of training sessions, I started feeling comfortable and I started feeling like it was a place that I should be, an environment where I belonged.”
She’s certainly fit in, starting all nine Angel City matches and ranking second among outfield players in minutes played. Plus her five goals are just two shy of the franchise single-season record with 17 games left.
“She’s a big presence, but she turns on a sixpence,” Wilson said. “She has the ability to send players into the stands with a little check and her balance and mobility for a big presence is deceiving.
“She exhibited all of those qualities and more in all the work we did.”
She’s continued to prove she belongs despite playing as an attacker on a team that has seven forwards with World Cup experience.
“Isn’t it funny how that worked out?” Wilson said with a wry grin. “While we had quality attacking players, we want you looking over your shoulder. When you’re looking over your shoulder, you’re not comfortable. When you’re not comfortable, you’re pushing yourself. That level of competition for places drives standards and performance.
“Riley exhibited that from Day 1 and it hasn’t stopped. I don’t see her ever taking her foot off the gas.”
At least not until she’s finished proving herself to all those who doubted her. If she was once unwanted she’s now in high demand, having earned her first callup to the U-23 national team earlier this week. She’ll leave after Saturday’s game for Europe and two games against Germany, which constitute another new challenge.
“I think it’s good to have a sense of humbleness and be intimidated by such a high level in a new environment,” she said. “But I also think it’s important to turn that intimidation into motivation.”
It wouldn’t be the first time Tiernan has used others’ opinion of her to fuel her fire.
“I love this game because it does reward talent that works hard,” Wilson said. “Riley’s a talent, she is working hard, and eventually that value will be recognized.”
Louisville (4-4-2) has won three of its last four games. Angel City (4-4-2) has lost two in a row.
Taylor Flint put Louisville up 1-0 at BMO Stadium with a penalty kick in the 23rd minute. Rookie Riley Tiernan scored for Angel City in the 48th minute.
Emma Sears nodded the ball in from close range off a corner kick in the 53rd minute and USC alum Savannah DeMelo made it 3-1 Racing Louisville in the 56th.
Fischer was sent off for a physical altercation with Madison Hammond inside the Louisville box in the 67th minute. Alyssa Thompson converted on the ensuing penalty kick for Angel City.
Naomi Girma was called up to the women’s national soccer team Tuesday for the first time this year, joining 23 others for friendlies with China and Jamaica.
Girma, who was named to FIFA’s global Best XI last year, has been sidelined with calf injuries but recently returned to fitness, going 90 minutes in two of Chelsea’s last three games in the Women’s Super League. Her last appearance for the U.S. came in the gold medal final of the Paris Olympics in August.
Sisters Alyssa and Gisele Thompson, who started their second senior national team match together last month, were also called up but this time with Gisele, a defender, making the roster as a winger. Alyssa has four goals and two assists this season for Angel City, for whom her sister also plays.
“Everyone always earns their call-ups but there are some much-deserved call-ups in this camp for players who have shown consistency in league play,” USWNT coach Emma Hayes said in a statement. “We have two different types of opponents ahead of us so we’ll have to be creative in breaking down those teams in different ways.”
In addition to Girma, seven other players from the Olympic championship team were called up. But Hayes also summoned three uncapped players in Orlando Pride defender Kerry Abello, Kansas City Current midfielder Lo’eau LaBonta and Seattle Reign goalkeeper Claudia Dickey. Canyon Country teenager Olivia Moultrie, who hasn’t played for the U.S. since Hayes took over last May, is also on the roster.
“This camp and the following camp are going to be two amazing opportunities to develop squad depth,” Hayes said.
Still missing from the team are forwards Sophia Wilson (née Smith), Trinity Rodman and Mallory Swanson. Smith and Swanson are on maternity leave while Rodman is injured. The trio combined for 10 of the 12 U.S. goals in last summer’s Olympics.
The U.S. will play China at Allianz Field in St. Paul, Minn., on May 31 and Jamaica on June 3 at Energizer Park in St. Louis. Here’s the roster:
