LOS ANGELES — It didn’t take long for Kennedy Fuller to make an impact Wednesday night.
Fuller was summoned off the bench into the game against the Kansas City Current in the 69th minute. Two minutes later, she bagged the winning goal for Angel City FC on her first two touches of the game.
Fuller found space at the top of the 18-yard box, settled a pass from Gisele Thompson with her first touch and with her second laced the ball with her right foot into the back of the net for a 2-1 lead to propel Angel City (4-4-1, 13 points) to victory at BMO Stadium in front 11,574.
“That’s why I don’t like to call them starters and finishers. Kennedy Fuller was a finisher and came on and won us the game,” Angel City coach Alex Straus said. “It was pure quality.”
Minutes later, Fuller nearly had another, but her attempt hit the crossbar.
Fuller has come off the bench in three of the last four games, after starting the first part of the season.
“I was pretty fired up,” Fuller said. “(Playing) time has been lacking for me. My biggest job this week was putting time into training. G (Gisele Thompson) did all of the work. I was just in the right spot.”
From there, the challenge for Angel City was preserving the lead and taking the three points. Angel City has struggled allowing late goals again this season but was able to avoid any such trouble this time, though the win didn’t come without a nervous moment.
Angel City had to survive seven additional minutes of stoppage time and a video review for a potential foul that would have led to a penalty kick attempt before finally being able to celebrate the win.
The win snapped a four-game losing streak for Angel City against the Current and a five-game winless streak this season in league play (0-4-1). Angel City’s last win entering Wednesday was back in the third week of the season (March 27).
Angel City got off to a much-needed fast start thanks to Gisele Thompson’s goal in the 10th minute. Thompson did a bit of solo work to get the opener. She beat her defender down the right side and cut in toward the goal. Her shot appeared to take a slight deflection off of a Kansas City defender, past goalkeeper Lorena.
Unfortunately for Angel City, it couldn’t maintain the lead into halftime. Kansas City’s Ally Sentnor scored the equalizer in the 45th minute, deflecting a shot off an Angel City defender and past goalkeeper Angelina Anderson.
Kansas City came out of halftime and had control early. Just before the 1-hour mark, the Current had a penalty kick to take the lead, but Lo’eau LaBonta’s attempt was stuffed by Anderson, keeping the score tied at 1-1.
“You could feel the energy,” Fuller said of Anderson’s goal.
Midfielder Maiara Niehues returned to Angel City’s lineup after serving a two-game suspension, stemming from a red card incident against the Utah Royals on May 2.
Angel City snapped its four-game losing streak Sunday, playing to a scoreless draw on the road against the Portland Thorns.
“We deserved this win,” Straus said. “We have been good these last three weeks, players have been performing well. This is what we deserved. The first 2/3 of our week has been good. We took a strong point on the road against Portland and beat Kansas (City).”
The pre-World Cup break schedule continues for Angel City on Saturday with a trip to the Houston Dash, followed by a May 31 home game against the North Carolina Courage. After that, the NWSL will pause alongside MLS, with Angel City returning to the field on July 3.