Angel City Football Club Shows Promise in Hard Fought Loss to North Carolina Courage at Home

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NWSL Angel City FC

Angel City Football Club Shows Promise in Hard Fought Loss to North Carolina Courage at Home

June 15, 2025 - National Women's Soccer League (NWSL)
Angel City FC News Release


LOS ANGELES - Angel City Football Club (ACFC) fell 1-2 at home tonight against the North Carolina Courage. Forward Manaka Matsukubo and midfielder Brianna Pinto scored for the Courage, with forward Riley Tiernan notching the single ACFC goal.

North Carolina opened the scoring less than a minute into the game. Forward Manaka Matsukubo received a short pass from midfielder Shinomi Koyama and sprinted toward goal, unleashing a cross as she reached the penalty area. Forward Cortnee Vine made a run into the box and slid to the ground as she struck the ball into the back of the net.

Angel City had a chance to equalize in the seventh minute, when forward Alyssa Thompson took the ball to the endline, beating several defenders to send it back towards the six-yard line. Forward Riley Tiernan received the pass and turned to shoot, but her attempt was wide.

Two minutes later the hosts had another look when forward Julie Dufour sent a free kick to the top of the 18. Defender Megan Reid got her head on the ball, but sent it wide.

In the 11th minute, ACFC broke through. Defender Gisele Thompson did a one-two pass with Dufour to get loose on the right wing before going to the endline and firing a cross into the box. Tiernan didn't miss a second time, jumping to make contact with her head and sending the ball into the back of the net to level the score.

The Courage had one more look before halftime. A first half stoppage time service into the box by midfielder Riley Jackson was incompletely cleared, falling to Matsukubo near the center of the box. The forward put a hard shot on target, but goalkeeper Angelina Anderson saved.

In the 55th minute, Anderson came up with another big stop to keep the score level. Courage forward Tyler Lussi crossed the ball into the area for Vine, who tapped it to an onrushing Matsukubo. Anderson came off her line to cut down the angle, stopping Matsukubo's close-range shot as she dropped to the ground.

Reid had an attempt in the 71st minute that was similar to her first look- a header off a free kick by Dufour- but this one was on target and had to be stopped by goalkeeper Casey Murphy.

The home team had a pair of near misses in the 82nd minute when midfielder Ashley Sanchez dribbled up the center of the field and shot from inside the box. Anderson blocked the shot, but the ball fell to Matsukubo, who sent it across the face of goal to forward Hannah Betfort. Defender M.A. Vignola blocked Betfort's close-range attempt for a corner kick.

North Carolina sealed the win in the 95th minute, with a blocked shot by Lussi landing at the feet of midfielder Brianna Pinto, who made an initial attempt that was also blocked, then put away her follow-up attempt to bring the score to 2-1.

Angel City are on the road next week, facing the Kansas City Current on Friday, June 20 at 5:00 p.m. Pacific. The game will stream live on Prime Video, with a radio broadcast on iHeart.

ACFC MILESTONES

Rookie Forward Riley Tiernan scored her seventh career NWSL Regular Season goal in tonight's match. She is now tied for 2nd most goals scored by a rookie.

Defender Gisele Thompson earned her fifth career NWSL Regular Season assist in tonight's match.

POST-MATCH QUOTES

ACFC Team Captain and Defender Sarah Gorden

On having Alex Straus as the new head coach and the team's mentality:

"The last two weeks have been a lot of new information, but the game is the game and we have a lot of positives to our team. There's a lot of individual efforts that we still want to highlight and use to expose other teams. We are not trying to change who we are in that way, on an individual basis.

"We're trying to evolve who we are and evolve what kind of football we want to play. One of the biggest things is becoming a winning club. Giving up these late losses is really tough, and to give them up at home in front of our fans is doubly tough."

On if the issues facing the LA community have affected the team:

"Yes, of course it has influenced us and affected us. There's been so many things this season that have affected us, but like I said before, we are all very proud to represent LA. We wore our shirts for the walkout and we really wanted to stand with the community. I wish we could have given a little bit of love and joy to everyone tonight with a different result."

ACFC Midfielder Madison Hammond

On the team's identity with the community impact that it supports:

"That's also why it's upsetting for us to lose the game at the last minute. We all feel so proud to represent LA and we're grateful for every single supporter that comes out here, supports us and cheers us on. It just makes it even more tough because we really wanted to put on a good performance, for everyone, for everything that everyone is going through right now."

On fixing the team mentality:

"We 100 percent have the talent within the group to honestly go wherever we want to go, but it's the little details, it comes down to the smallest things. It's definitely the mentality piece that can always outweigh any tactical or technical performance."

ACFC Head Coach Alex Straus

Overall thoughts on the match:

"We saw a few small steps from last week to this week in parts of the game. North Carolina is one of the better teams in the league and we have competed against them. We had good moments, when we scored the equalizer.

"We scored a fantastic goal tonight and did things really well. We were able to get some momentum in the game."

On what the team needs to improve on moving forward:

"We have to start to control things more. A big part of what we want to do is control possession and play against the best possession style teams in the league today, which we did. However, we need to be more efficient and we are not there yet.

"We need to get the ball higher and be able to keep it higher, so we can attack the dangerous spaces more. We need to make better decisions on the ball, so we can create more chances. It's a starting point. This is the way, but we need to be better and keep control of the ball. We gave some transition moments away when we were too slow on the ball."

On habits and the importance of that in upcoming training in July:

"I'm a big believer in habits and at this moment we have too many. We need to get out of our own way. This is a big job that we need to start fresh with in July. Which to me, is more important than how many positives. Last week, the same thing could've happened to us."

Box Score - June 14, 2025 (BMO Stadium)

Attendance: 14,933

Goals:

NC - Vine 1' (A: Matsukubo)

LA - Tiernan 11' (A: G. Thompson)

NC - Pinto 90+5'

Shots Saves Fouls Offsides Corners

LA 12 4 5 3 6

NC 20 1 5 0 8

LA Starting XI: Anderson, Angelina; Gorden, Sarah; Reid, Megan; Vignola, M.A.; Thompson, Gisele; Kennedy, Alanna; Fuller, Kennedy; Hammond, Madison; Dufour, Julie; Thompson, Alyssa; Tiernan, Riley

Subs: Miyabi; Phair, Casey; Press, Christen, Hodge, Macey; Zelem, Katie

DNP: Stambaugh, Hannah; Endo, Jun; Mattice, Sophia; Nabet, Lily

NC Starting XI: Murphy, Casey; Kurtz, Kaleigh; Berkely, Malia; Williams, Ryan; Bell, Maycee; O'Sullivan, Denise; Jackson, Riley; Shinomi; Lussi, Tyler; Vine, Cortnee; Matsukubo, Manaka

Subs: Betfort, Hannah; Shaw, Jaedyn; Sanchez, Ashley; Pinto, Brianna

DNP: Jordan, Marisa; Staude, Talia; Courtnall, Brooklyn; Speck, Meredith; Gomes, Aline

Check out the Angel City FC Statistics



National Women's Soccer League Stories from June 15, 2025


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