It has been more than a month since Angel City Football Club played a NWSL game.
Despite the 41-day break, new coach Alex Straus said he didn’t accomplished everything he wanted.
“It takes more time than that,” Straus said. “But we started the process of going in the direction that we want to go.”
Straus took over as coach June 1, arriving from Bayern Munich. He is still searching for his first league win.
“We have planted the ideas that we had to start to work on and move forward,” he said. “But to create an identity in a football team is a long project and it would take some time.
“What we did focus on was our model of play and how we want to attack. We also worked on how we want to defend, to give more clarity for the players than we had before. We are trying things to see if it’s the best fit for the team compared to the team that I’ve arrived from in Bayern Munich. We have been very successful in doing it one way and then trying to change to utilize the quality of the players here.”
Angel City went into the break in 11th place (4-6-3, 15 points) in the 14-team league.
Angel City was busy during the break adding to their roster. German defender Sara Doorsoun was signed through 2026. Midfielder Evelyn Shores, who left North Carolina after her sophomore year, signed on through 2028. And forward Sveindís Jónsdóttir arrived from Wolfsburg. Plus, forward Jun Endo has returned after recovering from a torn ACL suffered in February 2024.
That’s a lot of pieces to the puzzle for Straus.
“We are still in that process to see how we can optimize and utilize every player that we have,” he said. “That’s our job going forward. There is going to be a little bit of new thoughts, some wrong and some right.
“We have been in the phase of trying and failing this season. When you come in a situation like we did where the head coach arrives in the middle of the season, it’s going to be a season with trial and error to find the right things that we want to do moving forward.
“Make no mistake, we still want to challenge ourselves to go to the playoffs. We still want to win in the short term. It’s not like we’re only talking about next season, because I really do believe that we are very close to be competing for high positions on the table.”
Riley activated
Earlier this week, Angel City announced that defender Ali Riley had been removed from the season-ending injury list and back on the active roster. Riley was sidelined due to “a chronic and persistent leg injury.” She made just five appearances last season.
Phair signs extension, goes on loan
Phair, who signed with Angel City as a 16-year old in 2024, recently signed a three-year contract extension through 2028. Phair also was sent on loan at Djurgårdens IF in Sweden through the end of this current year.
ANGEL CITY FC at SEATTLE REIGN FC
When: 7:30 p.m. Friday
Where: Lumen Field, Seattle
How to watch: Paramount+, FDSNSC
Originally Published:
