Angel City rallies, but ultimately falls to Washington

Angel City is up against it now.

Angel City continued to display its resilience on Friday night. Facing the Washington Spirit at home on just three days rest, Angel City erased a one-goal deficit six minutes into the second half on the foot of Messiah Bright. It looked like Angel City was in position to either get the win or at least salvage a point. But instead, the Spirit stole al three points. Makenna Morris’ late second half goal propelled the Spirit to the 2-1 win at BMO Stadium.

“We beat ourselves again,” Angel City head coach Becki Tweed said. “We scored the equalizer, had momentum and got ourselves back into the game, which was pleasing. In the last ten minutes we showed the grit we have, but it should not come down to the last ten minutes.”

This result, combined with Bay FC’s win over the Seattle Reign meant bad news all around of Angel City (6-12-4, 22 points), who who sits six points back of its Northern California rivals for the eighth and final playoff spot with four matches left to play.

Trailing 1-0 at the start of the second half, Angel City leveled matters in the 51st minute. Megan Reid played a ball to Alyssa Thompson on the left side, Thompson then dribbled past Paige Metamayer all the way into the penalty area, played a short cross just inside the six-yard box and Bright tapped the ball past keeper Aubrey Kingsbury into the back net to tie the match.

“Alyssa [Thompson] put a great ball in with me being in the right place at the right time,” Bright said. “I’m trying to hone in on those things a little bit more, especially in games like these where it can be a little frantic. Overall, we’ll just put our heads down and continue to work.“

Washington however retook the lead in the 77th minute. Kingsbury saved a shot attempt by Kennedy Fuller, then made the perfect throw-in to Rosemonde Kouassi, igniting a Spirit counterattack. Kouassi then sprung Morris into the penalty area and Morris, who also successfully kept herself onside, slotted the shot past keeper Didi Haracic to put the Spirit back in front.

The Spirit took the lead in the 30th minute. Ashley Hatch forced Megan Reid to turn over the ball just outside the penalty area. Hatch dribbled into the penalty area, took a couple of touches to get herself into shooting position, then fired the left-footed shot past Haracic far post to give Washington the early lead.

“We let transition take over and we didn’t do what we planned on doing defensively,” Angel City defender M.A. Vignolia said. “We had the fight, we had the bite. It’s just that final piece that we were missing again tonight.”

Angel City gears up for another match under Friday night lights, as they travel to Seattle to face the Reign.