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Angel City FC puts faith in coach Alex Straus’ first full season

March 13, 2026

The 2025 season took the Angel City Football Club through a wave of emotions.

From the departure of hometown star Alyssa Thompson to Chelsea, to a midseason coaching change, to the night Savy King collapsed on the field, ending with the retirement of local pillars Christen Press and Ali Riley.

“Every year is going to have ups and downs,” goalkeeper Angelina Anderson said at the end of last season. “It’s about where do we go from here?”

The here and now is 2026 and Angel City’s fifth season.

The club arrived on the scene aiming for immediate success. Off the field, the performance can’t be matched. Sportico recently listed Angel City as the most valuable club in the NWSL, for the third consecutive time, at $335 million. Factor in the club’s numerous community initiatives and Angel City distances itself from the competition, both in the league and in Los Angeles.

However, on the field, consistency has been lacking. Angel City has made the playoffs only once in four seasons and has finished 12th and 11th, respectively, the past two seasons.

Alex Straus took over as at midseason last year, which coincided with a late-season roster makeover that continued into this offseason.

He had his first full training camp this season.

“It’s a different intensity,” Straus said of the preseason. “Intensity in our training has been different. The competitiveness in the group has been different than I’ve felt before.

“Of course, we have good days and bad days, but it is a little bit of a different vibe, it is a different group. It’s a lot of new players and they’re trying to find each other and build their connections and the relationships that they need to build on the field and off the field.”

Is that enough to turn Angel City into a playoff contender?

ACFC secured its only playoff berth in 2023, but hasn’t been able to ride the momentum.

Straus replaced interim coach Sam Laity, who had Angel City off to a 4-4-2 start after Becky Tweed was fired following the 2024 season. The remainder of the season saw Angel City slip 3-9-4 under Straus.

Straus admitted there were a lot of things he couldn’t prepare for with the move to the U.S.

“I left the team that you’ve been working with for multiple years, we were winning, almost every week,” Straus said. “And you come to Angel City and we were in different situation and for me, I needed to get used to that and not let my emotions and understand this was also part of the game. But this was also the part of the game that I seek. I’m not going to say what had become in Germany was easy, because it was a tough job, but we had arrived and the challenges was lesser to be fair.

“I wanted a new challenge and I wanted to test … I needed to test myself. I needed to go to a different environment where we need to build something new.”

Straus said he learned early that life in the NWSL wasn’t going to be easy.

“It’s not like you can go out and run over every opponent that you play,” he said. “I’ve never been in a league or in a competition that is so competitive as the NWSL. There’s always this debate, which is the best league in the world, second best, third best … what I can say, based on my experience, is that the NWSL is by far the most competitive league. And if that makes it the best league, maybe, but I don’t think that you have a league (in the world) that have so much competition from the first play between each team.”

With the competitive levels equal, the importance falls to the details and Straus has stressed that through his first full preseason training camp.

“It’s just really good to get on the same page and see how he (Alex Straus) functions with the staff and with the players, and to understand how he views the game and the game model that he wants to implement,” said midfielder Nealy Martin, who was acquired from Gotham FC late last season. “I think it’s always really nice to understand the function and how someone views the game, because then you can get a feel for the field, for the spaces that we want to exploit or the style that we want to implement.”

The new-look Angel City again has a roster of youth and veterans, with the likes of Gisele Thompson looking to cement herself as one of the top players in the league, Kennedy Fuller heading into her third season, Riley Tiernan coming off of a strong rookie season and the return of King. Sarah Gorden anchors the backline, and Martin, newly acquired Emily Sams and Hina Sugita adding championship experience. Angel City also added Ary Borges.

“Last year, we didn’t make the playoffs and we didn’t win a lot of games, where I feel like we should have,” Gisele Thompson said. “We had to adapt with so many different changes from the team and I think we kind of really connected over that. There were so many people leaving, so many people coming in, but learning how to kind of get through that, but also sticking together and supporting each other through the whole process was the biggest thing I got out of last season.”

“I think this year, just focusing on ourselves, focusing on this group, I know we have a lot of new people on the team, so working on those connections and kind of finding our flow to get there, but I think in the way we’re playing right now, I definitely see us making it to the playoffs and going far.”

NWSL SEASON OPENER: CHICAGO STARS FC at ANGEL CITY FC

When: 4 p.m. Sunday

Where: BMO Stadium

How to watch: Victory+

Orange County Register

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Angel City FC puts faith in coach Alex Straus’ first full season

NWSL SEASON OPENER: CHICAGO STARS FC at ANGEL CITY FC

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