Angel City heads into break on sour note with loss to Courage

Playing its final match before a month-long break at home against the North Carolina Courage, Angel City FC had hope to go out on a high note, but in the end, had points stolen from them at the last moment.

For the third time in its last four matches, an opponent of Angel City scored a late goal that ended up being the difference in a match. This time, it was Manaka Matsukubo that broke Angel City’s heart, as her goal in the 79th minute enabled the visiting Courage to come away with three points via the 2-1 win.

“We wanted nothing more than to end with a home win,” ACFC captain Sarah Gorden said. “We need to go back to the drawing board and figure it out because we need to put our chances away and do a better job of keeping the ball out of our net.”

After a scoreless first half, North Carolina surged ahead just three minutes into the second half. Sanchez broke up a pass from Kennedy Fuller near the halfway line, gained possession, then evaded Fuller and dribbled outside -in from the left side. Fuller played a ball to Matsukubo at the very top of the penalty area, played a ball to Evelyn Ijeh, who managed to keep herself onside as she slotted a left-footed shot just outside the six-yard box that beat keeper Angelina Anderson to the back post to give the Courage the lead.

Angel City however had a response just three minutes later. Carina Lagerye sent a long ball down the left side of the field, Jun Endo chased down the ball, dribbled into the penalty area, but facing a double-team, chose to play the ball out of the box to Evelyn Shores, who immediately sent a ball back inside the 18 and Maiara Nieheus outjumped former Angel City defender Dani Weatherholt and headed a ball past keeper Kailen Sheridan near post to level the match.

“In all of these games, we do enough to win, and that’s the frustrating part,” Angel City head coach Alex Straus said. “The structure and organization today were good. We created some big chances at the end, and we should have scored. Strategically, we were good today. We need to do more with the ball, and we need to ask ourselves why these things keep happening to us.”

The Courage however had one more goal left in them, and it came in the 79th minute. Natalia Staude sent a long ball foward, the ball too a bounce and Ijeh flicked a header forward, Sanchez continued her run to get to the ball, dribbled inside, played a ball to Riley Jackson, who then played a ball to Matsukubo, who had snuck in behind the Angel City defense, and Matsukubo slotted a left-footed shot past Anderson far post to put the Courage back in front.

Angel City resumes play on July 3 when they host the Orlando Pride.