Angel City falling behind in playoff race

Angel City is currently up against it now.

In its quest to make it back to the NWSL playoffs, Angel City didn’t make it any easier on themselves in its Saturday afternoon matchup against the North Carolina Courage. Angel City spotted the Courage two early goals, and while Angel Cit eventually made things interesting down the stretch, the early deficit was eventually too much to overcome, and Angel City fell at WakeMed Soccer Park 2-1.

“There was one team that came out guns blazing and there was one team that was not switched on,” Angel City head coach Alex Strauss said. We cannot start games 2-0. That is what happened. We were maybe the better team as the game went on, but when you start a game at 2-0, it is going to be hard.

Manaka Matsukubo and Brianna Pinto found the back net for the Courage, while Sveindís Jónsdóttir scored Angel City’s lone goal. The result was beneficial to the Courage, who are now just two points back of Racing Louisville for the final playoff spot, while Angel City fell four points back.

North Carolina got going just six minutes in. Matsukubo beat Angel City defender Sara Doorsun to a loose ball inside the penalty area, Matsukubo then fired a left-footed shot towards goal, another Angel City Defender, Sarah Gorden, tried to block the shot, but the ball deflected off her, then went in at the far post to give Carolina the lead. The Courage added to it moments later, as Shinomi Koyama split the Angel City defense with a through ball, and Payton Linehan timed her run to keep herself onside and chase down the ball. Linehan sent a cross into the penalty area, Giselle Thompson cut off the cross, but couldn’t recover in time to clear the ball, and Pinto came in and took the shot, keeper Angelina Anderson got her left hand on the ball, but not enough to stop the ball from going into the back net for a 19th minute goal that gave North Carolina a 2-0 lead.

“These are things we need to address and fix, it is not acceptable,” Strauss said. “I think there are three times in our box in the first 20-25 min and it is two goals. I am very disappointed. We made mistakes. We started the game by giving the ball away without pressure. They got in the front foot and we didn’t get into a rhythm. They won the game in the first 20-22 minutes.”

Angel City did not go down without a fight. Angel City finally got on the board in the 88th minute, as Christen Press played a ball to Miyabi Moriya, who then work a one-two with Jun Endo that got Moriya into the penalty area, Moriaya played a ball to Jonsdottir, who slotted the right-footed shot past keeper Marisa Jordan into the back net to pull a goal back for Angel City. The Courage however were able to kill off the remaining time.

“I’m happy I scored in this game, but it’s not as nice to score in a loss,” Jonsdottir said. “I hope this goal opens up more goals for me.”

Angel City is back in action on Thursday night, as they host the Washington Spirit.