Angel City Football Club Draws Utah Royals FC in Second Straight Draw on the Road
NWSL Angel City FC

Angel City Football Club Draws Utah Royals FC in Second Straight Draw on the Road

Published on August 15, 2025 under National Women's Soccer League (NWSL)
Angel City FC News Release


SALT LAKE CITY - Angel City Football Club (ACFC) kept a clean sheet on the road tonight, earning a 0-0 draw against the Utah Royals. The shutout was the first NWSL appearance and first Angel City appearance for goalkeeper Hannah Seabert.

The Royals had an early half-chance in the fifth minute when defender Imani Dorsey made a run up the right and sent a low cross into the six-yard box, but ACFC defender Miyabi Moriya cut the pass short and cleared the ball.

ACFC had their first look in the 15th minute following a long throw-in by forward Sveindís Jónsdóttir. A Utah defender got her head on the ball around the six-yard line, and it bounced to midfielder Madison Hammond, whose headed shot hit the post.

A stoppage-time attempt by Utah forward Mina Tanaka, who headed a cross into the box by Claudia Zornoza over the bar, was the last real action of the half.

The visitor had two looks in quick succession early in the second half. In the 54th minute, forward Alyssa Thompson and midfielder Madison Hammond combined through the center of the pitch to find midfielder Kennedy Fuller, who took a crack from the top of the 18, but her attempt sailed high.

One minute later, Jónsdóttir dribbled up the right wing, cut into the box, and beat her mark to put a left-footed shot on target, but goalkeeper Mandy McGlynn blocked it.

In the 70th minute, Tanaka had a long-distance attempt courtesy of a cross to the top of the 18 from defender Bianca St-Georges.

Angel City is back at home next week, taking on the Orlando Pride on Thursday, August 21 at 7:30 p.m. at BMO Stadium.

POST-MATCH QUOTES

ACFC Goalkeeper Hannah Seabert

On getting her a clean sheet in her first NWSL match:

"I think we had a calmness out there today. I think that we really dug down when we needed to, and it was super awesome to see us grind it out to the last minute, and not concede a goal."

"Going into the game today, I just wanted to support the team however I could. We talk about so many things throughout the week, and I wanted to make sure that I performed those and supported the defense, and that helps the ball get forward and succeed in the offense. I think we did an okay job with it. There's always room for improvement, and honestly, we need to start taking out points away from games, but at least we got the clean sheet."

On the mood of the team and moving forward:

"We talk a lot about what we want to do and the potential, and our plan moving forward. Honestly, I think after this game, we are disappointed, and we have ambitions, and we want to be comparing ourselves with teams at the top of the table, and I don't think we can walk away doing that today."

"We got a defensive shutout, but we have to start scoring goals. We have to start being more cohesive, so honestly, we're not stepping away from this happy and there's going to be a lot of work in this coming week to make more things happen for us."

On setting up defense

"We have worked a lot on set pieces recently. I think we do a really good job defensively. When we get back to set up, we're communicating a lot. We just want to make sure that we have a lot of awareness going on, so that we're not letting easy mistakes happen."

ACFC Head Coach Alex Straus

On assessment of the game:

"It's a step backwards. Honestly, I think we all agree on that. It's the easy stuff. Sometimes we miss stuff, but you need to execute on the things that we've been working on all week at the standard we want if we expect to go where we want to be.

"It's all of us. Maybe we need to be more accurate in training. Maybe we need to put things differently. It's all of us as a team, but that's not up to the standards of what we expect from ourselves and each other. I think it's in high performance cultures, that's what needs to be addressed and talk about where we want to be and when there is a gap between where we want to be and where we were today, that needs to be addressed.

"We didn't let in any goals. That's not been something that we have been able to do very much this season. So that was good, but we expect more of ourselves, everybody on our team. And I think that's important for people traveling, watching us.

"I think we defended set pieces well today. I think they had a lot of corners, and we defended those corners well. So that was a step in the right direction."

"Performance wise, it is what it is, and we will not be perfect every time, but I believe we can do much better than we did.So today, we were not there. And sometimes it is like that. We just need to go back again and work harder. But the good thing is that we didn't lose. We could have lost the game today. We didn't do that. We got a point out of it, and we know that we need to get better."

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