It’s rare when a player only has one season with a club. It’s even more rare when that player is someone who heavily featured for the club and looked to be someone that would stick around, however that is not the case for Angel City FC defender Miyabi Moriya. The Japanese international joined the club at the start of 2025, and after just one season, has hit free agency and already signed elsewhere. While rare, it isn’t all that surprising given the nature of the season, and the club not having a permanent, longterm manager selected until the summer. That said, we take a look at the season had by one-year wonder Miyabi, who did a pretty decent job in her short time on the Angel City backline.
Zoomin into her professional @NWSL debut like 🏎️ Go off in the comments for Miyabi Moriya! pic.twitter.com/osAmZTjpOq
— Angel City FC (@weareangelcity) March 17, 2025
Miyabi signed for the club in January on a one-year deal with a club option for 2026. Not only was this her debut season for Angel City, but it was her inaugural season in the NWSL after coming from INAC Kobe Leonessa, who plays in the WE League which is the top flight women’s division in Japan. Miyabi made 25 appearances with Angel City, missing just one match all season, and had 13 starts for the club. She logged 1,420 minutes in 2025, she got on the scoresheet with one goal this season, and even set up fellow new arrival, SveindĂs JĂłnsdĂłttir, for a goal in one of her two assists for the club.
Miyabi Moriya finishes from close range! pic.twitter.com/AMagxP8cWz
— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) November 2, 2025
Defensively, Moriya had 51 tackles, won 94 duels (57% win rate on duels), won 12 aerial duels (42% win rate on aerial duels), had 15 interceptions, made 45 recoveries, was only dribbled past on 11 occasions and earned just one yellow card. With her playing on the flanks, Moriya wasn’t just tasked with stopping the attack defensively, but was also leaned on to help push the attack forward. In addition to her two assists, Miyabi made 393 successful passes (68% successful pass rate), 18 long balls that found a teammate, created 22 chances, and had 17 successful crosses.
Always part of the ACFC family đź’Şđź–¤
Thank you, Miyabi. pic.twitter.com/76J4Bm5pc1— Angel City FC (@weareangelcity) December 2, 2025
Even with her solid inaugural season in both the NWSL and for Angel City, it appears it wasn’t enough to keep her in the plans for the future. Even with the club option for another year, the club opted to let her go to free agency where she ended up signing with the Utah Royals for 2026. It will be interesting to see where her development goes from what was a very solid foundation in 2025, and it will be equally interesting to see how the club replace the production she showed both defensively and in attack.
Thoughts on the 2025 season from Miyabi Moriya? Drop us a comment below!
3 Comments
One of my favorite players of the season. This is a huge mistake that will haunt us when we play Utah this next season.
She’s the only player of those who left that I thought should have been kept.
This loss of Miyabi is just one more example of the generally deficient management of ACFC in terms of their ability to compete on the field. Their most momentous loss was Thompson leaving for Chelsea, but in the course of Parson’s tenure, these losses were just 2 of many where players were traded or lost or essentially forced to retire. The latter category was epitomized by Straus’s total misuse and neglect of a world class player like Press who despite having recovered from injury and available to contribute her skill and saavy to the team was only utilized as a utility player off the bench for the final 10 minutes of a match. The result of this general mismanagement by both Parsons and Straus was the abysmal record of the past season which they rationalize as “building for the future”. There is no good future when it relies on untested rookies, a generally mediocre roster, and Parsons/Straus in charge.