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Angel City FC back home for the first time since June 7

August 21, 2025

It has been months, but the Angel City Football Club finally returns home for a NWSL game.

Angel City, which last played a league game at home June 7, ended the first half of the season with a road game against the Kansas City Current and started the second half with three consecutive road games.

“In this league, you want to scrap out any point you can get,” Angel City defender Sarah Gorden said. “It’s been a tough few months, but that’s because we’re learning a new system and a new process and you have to go through different phases.

“So within that, I haven’t lost any belief in our group. I feel like we’re still building and it’s always a straight line up. There’s some bumps in the road while you’re going up, but we’re still learning the system and the process and with that comes a lot of challenges, but we are committed to that process.”

During the four-game road stretch, Angel City lost the first two (1-0 against Kansas City and 2-0 against Seattle). Angel City then picked up two draws (1-1 against San Diego and 0-0 against Utah).

Angel City has slipped to 12th in the NWSL (17 points), but enters the week only three points out of the ninth playoff spot. Coach Alex Straus said he’s looking for consistency from his team, which was still reeling from defender Savy King’s mid-game collapse May 9 that resulted in heart surgery four days later when Straus coached his first ACFC game June 7.

“The final pass (in attack) is a big thing for us,” Straus said. “When we get into good areas of the field, to make that last chance to execute, that’s what we’re still missing.

“We need to build on a confidence and we need to have consistency in the team and this year has been very much up and down. We have big injuries, we have big incidents that nobody has to do deal with, within our team, with the Savy King thing … It’s a lot of emotional things that also influence performance, new coach and a change of direction of how we’re going to play.

Angel City (4-7-5) has scored 21 goals through 16 games and allowed 27. The club enters Thursday still looking for Straus’ first league win since arriving at Angel City.

“We need to humble about where we are and where we’re going. And at the moment, we are where we are,” Straus said. “We are in the bracket (below the playoff line) with Chicago, Houston and Bay (FC), with Utah and we want to be with Washington and Orlando, Kansas (City), San Diego and those teams.”

After Thursday, Angel City will have a second consecutive home game Sept. 1 against Bay FC. The rest of September will call for three more road games and one home game.

“That’s the beautiful thing about this league, it is so tight and it’s going to be a race to get into one of those playoff spots,” Gorden said. “As we continue to improve, garner more belief and excitement in the group, I think it gets more exciting for us.”

Homecoming for Orlando quartet

Orlando Pride has four players with Southern California ties.

Simone Jackson (Redondo Beach, USC), Viviana Villacorta (Lawndale, UCLA), Ally Lemos (Pasadena, UCLA) and Julie Doyle (Laguna Niguel) are all making a return to Southern California.

ORLANDO PRIDE at ANGEL CITY FC

When: 7 p.m. Thursday

Where: BMO Stadium

How to watch: CBSSN; FDS SoCal

Orange County Register

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Angel City FC back home for the first time since June 7

Homecoming for Orlando quartet

ORLANDO PRIDE at ANGEL CITY FC

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