New Head Coach Alex Strays and Defender Megan Reid Discuss Preparation Ahead of Home Match against Chicago Stars FC

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NWSL Angel City FC

New Head Coach Alex Strays and Defender Megan Reid Discuss Preparation Ahead of Home Match against Chicago Stars FC

June 5, 2025 - National Women's Soccer League (NWSL)
Angel City FC News Release


LOS ANGELES - Angel City Football Club (ACFC) prepared for their upcoming home match against Chicago Stars FC on Saturday, June 7, streaming live on ION (7:00 p.m. PT kickoff). New Head Coach Alex Straus and defender Megan Reid were made available to press today to discuss the match along with Straus's first week of training with the club.

ACFC Head Coach Alex Straus

On joining the team this week in training and his expectations:

"I started here at my first training session on Tuesday. To be honest, we started this journey here and it's a special thing because it is in the middle of the season. You don't have a preseason, you need to learn a little bit as you go forward.

"There is still a lot of work to be done. We need to walk that road because it's not done over 24 hours, one week or three weeks. It is a long journey and that is what identifies all successful teams in every sport.

"There's no shortcuts and we want to do this the right way and make it lasting when we become successful. That means that you sometimes sacrifice things in the short term to do things in the longer term, but I think the club needs stability in the players and management."

On the culture of the NWSL and how he believes ACFC will be successful:

"It is a completely different culture and it's a different league. Football is a small world. It's very well documented. There are a lot of unknowns about European soccer in America and the other way around.

"There are a lot of things to be achieved here that have not been achieved yet. Let's make that 100 percent clear, this club will be successful [on the pitch].

"If it happens in next year, if it happens in two or five years, we don't know, but it will be successful. If you look at all the infrastructure around, then you know that it will happen at some time."

On keeping up with the team while finishing up with Bayern Munich:

"I watched all the games and discussed my thoughts with people here at ACFC after the game. I was pretty much up to speed on the performances of the team and what they've been doing. I didn't have any influence on what they were doing. I stayed away because I only had the capacity for one team at the time. At that time, I had to focus on Bayern, but I was up to date."

ACFC Defender, Megan Reid

On the team's focus this week in preparation to face Chicago:

"We've been trying to build on our own building blocks, continue to get back to our basics, and really focus on the fundamentals of who we are as Angel City. We want to keep it simple and try not to complicate things too much. That's been the focus for the last week and a half."

Thoughts on having Alex Straus in his first week of training with Angel City:

"It's been really fun having Alex around. He's one of those people that's unintentionally funny, which makes training and meetings a blast. I'm really looking forward to what he'll bring to the table at Angel City. I think that's the sentiment amongst the staff and the locker room as well."

On defensive adjustments ahead of match against Chicago:

"It's finding the simple options. Sometimes we complicate things a little bit too much. We went back to our building blocks and our basics. We are sticking to those while making sure that we are looking for our easiest or simplest option, instead of putting ourselves under pressure and in bad situations. We control that. Moving forward, that's where we have to start going from the simple passes."

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