Wins in soccer, much like love, find you when you least expect it. If you go searching for it, you may find it, but more times than not the more you press and hope and crave it, the more heartbroken you become, until finally one day when you’ve nearly given up, it hits you right in the face. Sure, Angel City caught Orlando at the “best” time, with no Barbra Banda and new megastar signing Lizbeth Ovalle not making her debut until after this match, but the Pride still had the legendary Marta and a very solid defense coming into Los Angeles. Not to mention the history of never having conceded a goal in BMO, let alone not coming away with a win. But as we said, when you least expect it, it hits you in the face, or in this case, a late-minute banger from your rising superstar, gets you the three points.
disneyland >>>> disney worLd 🤷♀️#Volemos | #NWSL | #LAvORL | #AngelCityFC pic.twitter.com/MUnSKO12zN
— Angel City FC (@weareangelcity) August 22, 2025
On a very warm evening in Los Angeles, Angel City welcomed one of the best teams in the NWSL at the moment, a team that won the NWSL Championship and NWSL Shield just last season, and dominated them. Yes, you read that right, Angel City FC finally had a truly dominating performance last night and it came against one of the league’s best. Angel City kept 60% of the possession in the first half, they racked up four shots with all four finding their target as they got tantalizingly close to an opener on a few occasions, they tallied 228 passes with 91% success rate and earned two corners. Technically four corners if you count two of Sveindís’ throw-ins which, if you have not seen yet, are legitimately like corners on their own with how well she gets the ball into the box. Orlando weren’t silent, racking up seven shots of their own, with only two finding the target but those two also came dangerously close to being goals. One of those was in the first five minutes in the match, when Ally Watt got on the end of an amazing pass into the box, but the effort was stopped by an incredible kick-save by Hannah Seabert to keep it scoreless early.
What a kick save by Hannah Seabert 😱
The teams went into the half scoreless and fairly even. Orlando did well to threaten the goals early, but couldn’t muster much after 15 minutes, while Angel City stayed consistent on peppering the goal, building up decent attacks and doing well defensively. The second half is when we really saw Angel City turn the screws on the visitors. They kept 54% of possession, racked up a staggering 19 shots, earned eight corners, had over 150 passes, with three shots on target and the all-important goal to win the match. “Today we dominated a really good team” said Angel City Head Coach Alex Straus when talking to media after the match. “What we are doing, the way we are playing, how we control the game, how we build, we wanted to create a lot of chances to get that balance right, and today we did. They played beautifully, and I am very impressed. We just need to be consistent and grow from this.”
For a lot of those shots, it was starting to feel as it had the last few matches for Angel City, where the ideas were clear, the movement and build-ups were on point, but that last bit in the final third was missing still. Timing slightly off, runs just not being made early enough, the right shots falling to the wrong people in moments. The team, however, stuck with it and never let up, they kept knocking and poking and prodding until finally, in the waning moments of the match, they got the reward. Riley Tiernan had a shot in the box blocked by the defense, with the ball rebounding right to Alyssa Thompson on the wing. With legendary Marta on defending the 1 v 1, Thompson hit her with the hesi, put her on skates, and got by her for the look at a pretty difficult angle. She smashed the shot with the force of three months of frustration, and while there was as slight deflection, it was a ball that was always finding the back of the net in the 86th minute.
A stunning strike by Alyssa Thompson in the 86th minute! 😱
It was very much one of those cathartic moments where you could feel the weight of the long wait for another win, lift off the shoulders of many. There was still time to lock-in defensively, but the team did well to see the match out and make sure to come away with the win at home. It was another in what is a long list of heroic moments for the young attacker, securing the three points at home and giving her new head coach Alex Straus, his first-ever NWSL win. “I felt like when I was in that position throughout the game, I didn’t really take all my 1-V-1 situations” said Alyssa Thompson after the match when speaking to media. “We were towards the end of the game, so I just felt like I was going to go and do what I usually do and faint and then try to cut it and score.” The win makes it the first win since early May, their first-ever goal scored at home against an Orlando Pride side, their first-ever win at home against the Orlando Pride, and the first-ever win in the NWSL for Alex Straus. It also pushes the team’s unbeaten run to three matches. Now, they look to keep that momentum rolling as prepare for a rivalry match at home, against Bay FC next weekend.
Thoughts on the win over Orlando Pride? Leave a comment below!