Leroux saves the day for Angel City

It was around this time last season that Angel City set on its 12-match unbeaten streak that eventually shook Angel City FC out its early-season funk and into the playoffs.

Fast forward a year later, and could Wednesday night’s result mean de ja vu for Angel City? Hosting Racing Louisville at home on Wednesday night, Angel City grabbed a key win on Wednesday night, as goals from Kennedy Fuller, Rocky Rodriguez, and the late winner from Sydney Leroux enabled Angel City to come out on top 3-2 at BMO Stadium.

The win vaults Angel City (4-6-3, 15 points) back into the playoff race, as they are tied on points with Louisville for the eighth and final playoff spot (eight teams qualify for the playoffs starting this season).

“It was a hard fought win,” Angel City head coach Becki Tweed said. “We never make it easy for ourselves. We were brilliant in the first half. To go up two-nil, we played really good football, It’s something we’ve been working on, and I’m proud of the whole group. To come away with three points here is massive.”

Despite letting its advantage slip away, Angel City pressed on, and got one more chance in the 85th minute. Alyssa Thompson sprung Leroux with a perfectly weighted ball, and Leroux timed her run just right to get behind the Louisville defense. Leroux dribbled into the penalty area, and fired a shot that beat keeper Katie Lund far post to get Angel City back in front. Angel City was able to wilt away the remainder of the match.

“It’s poetic,” Leroux said on scoring the game-winning goal. “Juneteenth. I got the game winner. It’s amazing, I’m so happy to be here and still help my team in any way that I can.” 

Angel City started out as the dominant side in the first half. Angel City opened the scoring in the 17th minute, as Madison Curry played a ball into the penalty area, and Fuller came in and one-timed a right-footed shot near the penalty spot past Lund at the left post to give Angel City the lead. Angel City doubled its advantage in the 33rd minute, as Merritt Mathias sent a free kick into the penalty area, the ball took a few deflections, but ended up at the feet of Rodriguez, and she blasted a point-blanks shot just outside the six-yard box past Lund to make it a two-goal lead.

“Our biggest thing has been quality,” Fuller said. “That’s something that we really focused on. Our pregame talk was – we’re going to be quality in front of goal. We’re going to put our body on the line in front and behind the ball. That’s something that we did really well and played well for each other this game.”

However, Louisville caught a break late in the half. It started in the 39th minute, as Angel City’s Megan Reid and Louisville’s Elexa Bahr got tangled up inside the penalty area, with Bahr going to the ground in apparent paid. The referee soon got the call to go to VAR, and he concluded that Reid stepped on Bahr and thus warranted a foul and a yellow card for Reid. Compounding matters for Angel City, with the foul occurring inside the penalty area, Louisville was awarded the penalty, which Taylor Flint converted in the 41st minute to cut Angel City’s lead in half. The momentum soon switched to Louisville, and they eventually caught Angel City in the 64th minute, as Savannah DeMelo played a ball to Emma Sears, who then crossed into the penalty area, Carson Pickett brought the ball down, then fired a shot that took a deflection, but it enabled the ball to get past keeper Didi Haracic into the back net for the equalizer.