To understand the magnitude of Angel City being in the playoffs, you needed to have been standing on the train platform adjacent to BMO Stadium a week ago after their home victory over Bay FC. Instead of the usual forlorn bunch of fans muttering under their breath about the latest Angel City face plant, there was a carnival of communal joy with people of all ages, genders, ethnicities and tax brackets high-fiving and fist-pumping as if they had just won the NWSL championship.
They hadn’t but who’s to say they won’t? They haven’t lost in more than two months, they have the best goal difference in the league, and, let’s face it, the Soccer Gods owe them one.
Angel City fandom has historically been about feeling disappointment. Not disappointment, mind you, in its initiatives for diversity, its community outreach and the millions of free meals it’s donated to Los Angeles’s underserved.
“We’re not just building a soccer club, we’re building an organization that has impact” was the mantra of Angel City co-founder Julie Uhrman before a ball was kicked in 2021.
Social justice warriors they may be but a winning soccer team not so much.Trust us, we’ve been there for all of it sitting and suffering in Section 133, Row F, Seats 7 and 8. Being an Angel City OG season ticket holder comes with its own special Kumbaya vibe — win, lose or draw, you’re expected to walk out of the stadium with a smile on your face as if you just watched a feel-good Disney movie.
“I used to feel guilty for grumbling about a loss because everything Angel City does off the field is so noble,” said a slightly delirious Jeremy Weinreich, 32, sandwiched among a scrum of sweaty AC revelers on the E line. “But after five years you feel like you’re on a doom loop and I was ready to give up on the team after the first half of this season.”
Exit manager Alexander Straus from Champions League quarterfinalist Bayern Munich; enter his interim replacement Leif Gunnar Smerud, whose last head job was with FC Brann in the Norwegian Eliteserien. All Smerud has done since stepping gingerly onto the Angel City trapdoor (he’s the fifth manager in five seasons) is to win or tie 16 of the 18 matches he’s overseen and go unbeaten since Aug. 26. These kinds of numbers are so off-brand for Angel City that a stunned and vapor-locked front office has up to this point neglected to sign him for next season.
Smerud’s genius has been to take the same pieces that Strauss left him and reassemble them into a team capable of beating anyone in the league. He has imbued the players with a deep, burgeoning team spirit while tightening up the details on the fly as the season has progressed.
No team in the league has a more fortified defense than Angel City. Tall and imposing goalkeeper Angelina Anderson has nine shutouts. Center backs Sarah Gorden and Emily Sams read, block and intercept with unflappable authority. Evelyn Shores may be the most improved player in the NWSL.She’s gone from being a lucky-to-be-on-the-field wingback in her rookie season to a capped national team player whose verve on the ball and assured left-foot has led to eight assists, the most of any defender in the league. Since collapsing on the field from cardiac arrest last season, right back Savy King has emerged as a shoulder-barging blur. Talk about recovery speed.
Making Ally Sentnor, a superstar-in-waiting, the hub of the midfield turned out to be another canny stroke. Smart, head-up, quicksilver, she’s a surging presence in the center of the park.
Perhaps, though, no one embodies Angel City’s tectonic shift more than Maiara Niehues, an unheralded 22-year-old Brazilian who Smerud has unleashed as a high-impact substitute, bringing her on deep into the second half to torch tiring defenses with a raw strength and marksmanship that has produced nine goals. Her long-range missile in the 88th minute against the Washington Spirit, mere seconds after entering the field, nearly tore a hole in the upper right corner of the net. More importantly it gave Angel City a precious 1-0 victory over one of the league’s elites and ignited its rocketing ascent up the standings. Indeed, late goals rather than blown leads have become the team’s signature. To wit: Tigerish rookie midfielder Taylor Suarez, an 88th-minute substitute, scored a wondrous stoppage-time equalizer against Gotham as well as an 82nd-minute banger in a win over Seattle.
But Smerud’s biggest tactical upgrade has been to weaponize the team’s speed. Gisele Thompson, Sveindis Jonsdottir and Prisca Chilufya are three of the fastest players in the league capable of running onto balls over the top and laying siege to the opponent’s box. The trio has combined for 20 goals. Equally important, even if Angel City’s high press is broken, they are quick enough to track back and deny any numerical advantage.
When Mark Parsons, Angel City’s sporting director, told us at midseason about his three-year plan to revitalize the team, it was mired in 12th place. We asked why he didn’t try to sign an elite sniper like Sam Kerr to jump-start a moribund attack. At the time, it seemed like every other club in the league was opening its wallets to bring in global superstars. “We have the resources to compete for any top player in the world,” said Parsons. “No one, not even [Aitana] Bonmati and [Alexia] Putellas, is off the table for us. But first we need to develop into a team they want to play for and that’s what this season is all about.”
Angel City came into the league as if riding on a parade float of hype and Hollywood A-listers that made it the most valuable women’s franchise in the world. It was only when the high gloss started to wear off that the quality of play ratcheted up. And so, the train from BMO rocked on, a horde of giddy faithful aboard, hoping the ride would never end.
In a town of make-believe, Angel City had given us a team to believe in.
• David Hirshey and Roger Director are co-editors of “Pride of a Nation: A Celebration of the United States National Soccer Team.“
Well, done, Dave and Roger. You have captured the vibe perfectly. Can the gods cooperate now?