LOS ANGELES — Fresh from last Friday’s exciting debut, Angel City Football Club looked like an expansion team on Sunday.
It was a bad day from the start as Angel City (1–1, three points) allowed a goal within the first three minutes, struggled to advance several times and never got on track, eventually leading to Orlando Pride. suffered a 1-0 loss. In front of 17,510 at the Bank of California Stadium.
Angel City coach Freya Combe said: “Last week we showed everything that was positive in terms of attacking mode.” “I thought we were in the race from the start and obviously under a lot of pressure.
“I think we looked sluggish, there were a lot of unforced errors especially in the first half. We were unable to proceed with our attack. I think we’ve shown that we have it, so we’ll look forward to the next game where we can start over and get those things right.
Gaurav (1-1) wasted no time reaching the scoreboard.
In the third minute, Sidney Leroux, a former UCLA and US National Team star, reached the end of the cross crossing Angel City goalkeeper Didi Harasik’s outstretched arm for an easy tap-in.
It was the first win for former UCLA coach Amanda Cromwell, who is in her first year as coach of Pride. Cromwell coached UCLA from 2013-2021.
The first half took some time, but Angel City finally found their footing.
“He pressed us well, especially in the first half,” Combe said. “We made a lot of mistakes that we were making ourselves and weren’t able to connect the passes.”
Kristen Press had two excellent chances to score in the first half. On the first occasion, the officer raised his flag for offside. In the waning moments of the half, Press found a piece of space and got a shot on goal, with Pride goalkeeper Erin McLeod slamming into it to force a corner.
Angel City had probably the cleanest chance in the 90th minute. Savannah McCaskill plays a through ball to June Endo, which cuts her back to Tyler Lucy, who was just outside the 6-yard box. Lucy’s shot was dropped by Orlando goalkeeper Erin McLeod and eventually got away.
The game shows how small the week-to-week margins are in the league. Last week, Angel City beat North Carolina Courage 2-1, and on Saturday, The Courage wrapped up the NWSL Challenge Cup championship. Also, last week, Pride was easily handled 3-0 by NJ/NY Gotham FC and this week, Gotham FC were beaten 4-0 by the San Diego Wave.
Angel City defender Jasmine Spencer said: “I think we are disappointed with our performance overall.” “I think we’ve shown we’re a better team and we want to be a fort at home and we’re disappointed that we didn’t come out with three points.”
Angel City had to play without captain and defender Ali Riley, who missed the game due to the COVID protocol. Madison Hammond steps into her position on the back line.
“His presence and leadership definitely helps with the team,” Combe said of Riley.
Angel City will travel next week for their first regular season road game, visiting the Washington Spirit for the competition on Sunday afternoon (2 p.m.). Its next home game is against the Kansas City Currents on May 21.
“I think it’s easy to forget, especially after last week that we’re still a new team,” Spencer said. “It’s only our second regular season game. These learning curves hurt, but again, we’ve had a long season and we’ll go back, fix what we did wrong today and hopefully we’ll be back next weekend.” I’ll be back on track.”
