The midseason break couldn’t have come at a better time for Angel City FC. The team clearly needed a period to mentally recharge after teammate Savy King went down with a medical emergency, form had dipped a bit with the team dropping points to teams like Chicago Stars and NC Courage, and newly hired Head Coach Alex Straus had just arrived and was immediately thrown into the fire with no preparation. Now, the team have had what is essentially a preseason as they have recharged, Straus has gotten even more familiar with his new team, and the club has even brought in some new faces to help provide a boost as the team head into the second half of the season. We had the chance to sit down with Head Coach Alex Straus, to discuss how the break went, what the rest of the season ahead looks like, and the focus on making sure, regardless of what happens to end this year, the foundation for lasting success is firmly built as the 2025 campaign wraps up.
Allow us to officially introduce our Head Coach, Alex Straus. #AngelCityFC pic.twitter.com/SwgbPojyRc
— Angel City FC (@weareangelcity) June 6, 2025
The common theme you hear when Alex Straus talks about this club and his vision for it, as he takes the helm as head coach, is sustainability. What is important for him is not just pulling off a magical run to a championship this year, though that would be phenomenal, but above all making sure he is building a foundation for the club that sustains success. Not just competing for a championship this year, falling off by the wayside next year, and possibly rising again in year three, but making sure that every year from this point forward, is one where the team can call themselves contenders, where they sit far closer to the top of the table consistently, than they have in recent years. “Most importantly for me from the start, and going forward into the second part of the season, to the end of the season, into the start of preseason for next year is I need to know where we are at for myself, in comparison to the others [teams in the NWSL] for how we can make this team a championship winning team” said Straus when sitting down with us to talk about his vision for the road ahead. “It’s a little bit trying, failing, try again, do again, switch and change a little bit. That has been my first part of this and will continue like this for a period of time because as we’ve said from the start, we are not here to be successful in the short term, but building foundations so this team is successful every season.”
If there is one thing Straus knows how to do, its take a team and build them up into perennial contenders, and you can look no further than his last job at Bayern Munich Women FC for proof of that. For years, the powerhouse in German women’s football had been Wolfsburg. While Bayern had the name recognition and were doing well enough, they were a club that couldn’t quite get over the hump consistently, enter Straus. In just a few short years he not only began winning trophies and winning the league, with Bayern in the midst of winning three-straight Frauen-Bundesliga titles, but as he leaves Bayern for Los Angeles, he leaves behind a club that has taken the crown from Wolfsburg. Not only domestically, but in Europe at large, with Bayern now a club that not only competes in the Champions League, but is a team that is favored in the competition and will be for years to come. That is the sustained success he looks to achieve here with Angel City. It isn’t just about a strong second half of 2025, but making sure what we do see to finish the year, is something that can be carried over into 2026, and 2027, and years beyond that.
Getting that summer grind on. #AngelCityFC pic.twitter.com/lQfoL0lA36
— Angel City FC (@weareangelcity) July 2, 2025
That success doesn’t just come with the scoreline on the pitch either, and Straus knows this. One of his major philosophies is not just focusing on tactics or positional responsibilities, but making sure he knows each player on a personal level. What makes them tick, what drives them, what flusters them, what needs to be done to ensure he is getting the absolute most out of them as players, while still understanding they are, at the end of the day, people too. “I think I know them better now [during the break] but we still need to get to know each other better” said Straus. “It’s still a process but we are further with that. I was looking forward to this break, we’ve been working a lot, we have put in some of the standards that we want, and I feel we have raised the bar.” For Straus it’s far less about where this team sits in the standings, but about where he feels the team are from experience of having built champions in the past. “The reference points aren’t so much 10th, 11th, 12th, 9th or whatever, it’s about reference points being the benchmark on what kind of habits makes a championship winning team.”
“We have tried to place some of those standards into the group. We train in a bit of a different way, maybe a bit more for some of them [players], a different type of intensity that gives you a reaction for the short term, but still builds you for the future to be more robust and resilient” said Straus when speaking to us about how training has felt during this break. Don’t misunderstand though, while the focus is most definitely on building a contender for the longterm, this team still knows what it needs to do on a week in, week out basis to help boost results in the short term. For example, their last NWSL outing prior to the break against league best, KC Current. A match many had pegged as a potential blowout given Angel City’s struggles defensively, ended in a 0-1 loss, but it wasn’t easy for KC.
Los Angeles was able to adjust defensively, playing a lot more contained to prevent goals and set themselves up for a counter, or break away to find a goal while striking quick. In the end, they didn’t get the result, but it was the first glimpse of improvement that we saw under Straus, a tactical adjustment that was clear. “We need to be humble enough to understand where we are at. We are where we are and that is in a bunch [in the standings] with a lot of teams. At the moment, it’s not Kansas City, San Diego, or Orlando. We are not in that bracket, we are in a different bracket at the moment performance wise. You need to understand where you are at, to go where you want to go” said Straus. “We made the approach that game [KC Current] to be more defensive, but this is not the way we want to play. I don’t think we can do that, and excite our fans and supporters. We need to be more ambitious than going out to just defend, but at that point, in that game, it was the right approach at that time. Hopefully next time we go to Kansas and play, we’re going to attack them more than we did.”
The more we talked with Straus, the more we saw what the players see in him. The more we see the “genius” Evelyn Shores mentioned, the more we saw the vision that sold Icelandic International Sveindís Jónsdóttir on coming to Los Angeles. For the first time ever, with all due respect to those form the past, Angel City has a coach not only with a vision for what this club should be, but the tangible experience to make it happen. As fans, the goal for the second half of the season is results based. Climb the standings, win matches, and maybe even sneak into the playoffs to see where the chips fall during a Cinderella-esque run. For Straus and Angel City as a whole, the goal is to play exciting football, yes win matches, but more importantly and above all, its to put this team into a position where come season’s end we feel like the club is on the right track to compete for next year, and the year after. In a place that leaves us feeling like we are keeping pace with the Kansas City Currents and San Diego Waves of the league.
Some new and friendly faces ☺️ pic.twitter.com/CWzLdgXPxK
— Angel City FC (@weareangelcity) July 27, 2025
“You can do things in this sport, very often when you come in during the middle of the season like I did” said Straus. “We can decide to do something very quick, or do something lasting. Since I’ve come here with a long contract and I’m going to stay for a long time, the people around who’ve come in are going to stay for a long time, we brought in some players who’s going to stay here for a long time, we are building an environment with people who want to be successful together. For that part, it’s very important to us to build something that’s lasting. I would never compromise on where this team is going to be next season or the season after, by doing things that might make it easier for us in the short term. We want and we need to have this team in the playoffs every season.”
So, what can we expect from Angel City in the second half of the season? Change, for one, as we mentioned before, we have already seen it with how they approached Kansas City. A team unafraid to adjust in the moment and humble enough to understand how they need to play for the time being. With a handful of new signings made over the break, we also will see a team injected with fresh, exciting talent. A team committed to winning, not just for the last 11 matches of the 2025 NWSL season, but committed to winning in 2026, 2027, etc. Yes, we will see a club looking to win every match they play in, that immediate desire will never change, but we will see a club willing to take risks to play exciting football, and if the result doesn’t work out this time around, you better believe it will the next. More than anything, in this second half of the season, we are going to witness the true beginning of a new era for Angel City FC. One that might take time to build, as they say Rome wasn’t built in a day, but one that will, if things go to plan, last a lot longer than even the Roman Empire did. That itself, is reason to be really excited about things to come.
Thoughts on the team, Alex Straus, and the second half of the season to come? Leave a comment below!