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A wild ending unfortunately did not go Angel City’s way on Friday night.
For 83 minutes, Angel City and the Orlando Pride went toe to toe and thus battled to a standstill. However, just when it looked like both teams would end up splitting the points, an offensive explosion occurred, with three goals being scored inside the final six minutes, including two in stoppage time. However, it was Orlando that got one more goal, and they handed Angel City its first loss of the season with the 2-1 win at Intel & Co Stadium.
Giselle Thompson found the back net for Angel City, and her goal had Angel City poised to at the very least keep its undefeated start in tact. However, it was Haley McCutcheon that gave Orlando the upper hand, as she had a brace in the match, the first being the match’s opening goal and the second the game winner late in stoppage time.
“This is a difficult result for us to allow them to score in 90-plus, because we do feel like that is a mentality thing, which is what we’ve been working on,” Angel City captain and defender Sarah Gorden said. “So it is really disappointing.”
It was Orlando that finally broke the scoreless deadlock in the 84th minute. Barbara Banda received a ball from Hannah Anderson on the left side and made her move, going one on one with Thompson and dribbled just inside the penalty area before she sent a ball into the six-yard box, keeper Angelina Anderson and defender Savy King tried to make a play on the ball, but it remained inside the six-yard box, and McCutcheon came in and buried the loose ball into the back net to give Orlando the late lead.
Angel City however had some heroics up its own sleeve. It happened two minutes into stoppage time, as Evelyn Shores sent a free kick into the penalty area, Riley Tiernan brought the ball down, then passed to Thompson at the top of the box, and Thompson fired a left-footed shot for the upper right corner, out of reach of keeper Anna Moorhouse, the ball went off the bottom of the crossbar, but bounced at the right spot for Angel City, as the ball bounced inside the goal line for the equalizing goal.
However just when it looked like Angel City was going to split the points with Orlando, the Pride ended up stealing all the points late into the 10-minute stoppage time. It happened in the 98th minute, as Marta sent a corner kick into the penalty area, Anderson got her hands on the ball, but it stayed inside the six long enough for McCutcheon to come in and take a shot that Trickled into the back net for a goal that put Orlando back in front.
“Today, we could have gone away from here with a very, very good point and played an almost perfect away game,” Angel City Head Coach Alex Straus said. “But we threw it away in the end. And that’s unacceptable for us as a team and as a unit.”
Angel City will have some time off to recover from the loss as its next match will not be until April 26 when they host the Portland Thorns.
