Angel City opens 2026 season with rout of Chicago

It may have been just the opening game of the season, but first impressions are always key.

Angel City certainly put on a show in its season-opener against the Chicago Stars on Sunday evening. Four different players found the back net for Angel City, as they put their collective foot on the pedal and never looked back, going on to the convincing 4-0 win at BMO Stadium.

“When you look at this, it’s a part of the vision and what we want to bring to Angel City,” head coach Alex Straus said. “We stayed in the zone, and we stayed locked in on what we wanted to do.”

Kennedy Fuller was the catalyst for Angel City as she score the opening goal and assisted on the second goal. Emily Shores, Ary Borges and Maiara Niehues also found the back net for Angel City, who hopes this win and the way it happened can allow them to take that next step and become a title contender in NWSL.

“We are expected to score goals, take players on and look fearless but that comes from the people behind us,” Fuller said. You feel that and that is something that we are really proud of.”

Fuller  got Angel City going in the 33rd minute. Borges passed to Fuller, who then dribbled about 10 yards into the penalty area, then fired a right-footed shot that got past keeper Alyssa Naeher into the back net to get Angel City on the board.

It was the second half however that Angel City fully asserted themselves. Angel City doubled its lead in simple fashion in the 53rd minute, as Fuller sent a corner kick into the penalty area and Shores sent a header that beat Naeher to the back post for its second goal of the match. Angel City was then gifted an opportunity to triple its advantage and capitalized as Borges pounced on an errant goal kick by Naeher inside the penalty area and slotted the ball into the back net. Goal number four for Angel City came in a beautiful sequence, as Sarah Gorden passed to Sveindís Jónsdóttir, who took a touch that freed her up for a run down the right side. Jonsdottir dribbled into the penalty area, Riley Tiernan joined her on her left but Jonsdottir chose to pass to a trailing Niehues, and she slotted a shot past Naeher into the back net.

Sunday’s match also featured the return to action of defender Savy King. King had been out since a medical even that was eventually diagnosed as a heart abnormality in a match against the Utah Royals last May forced her to miss the remainder of last season. King entered the match as a substitute, replacing Emily Sams in the 63rd minute.