An old nemesis showed up in the late moments of Angel City Football Club’s trip to Houston last weekend.
Holding onto a 1-1 draw against the Dash, Angel City allowed a 90th-minute goal and left with a disappointing 2-1 loss.
Angel City has allowed only 12 goals this season, but three have come in stoppage time and five have come after the 76th minute.
“It’s been an emotional ride going through a week like we did last week,” ACFC coach Alex Straus said. “We’re finishing the first third of the season now and it’s been a rollercoaster. Like I said in the winter, it is going to be a season of heights and a season of difficult periods and we started the season on a very high. We flew out of the starting blocks, then reality hit us a little bit in Orlando and I think we spent too much time to recover.
“We performed well … even though we didn’t get the outcomes that we wanted, but we performed well and like I’ve said, it’s important for us to understand the process and the progress of what we are working on.”
Angel City faced a three-game week and were two-thirds of the way through with a positive showing. A scoreless draw on the road against the Portland Thorns was followed by a midweek home win against the Kansas City Current. Then a chance of at least a point, went awry on the Dash’s late goal.
“It’s a setback,” Straus said. “That we don’t continue to build on the Kansas game, which we all believe that we could, it’s frustrating to be honest. We need to acknowledge that and I try to be very open and honest and that we are accountable for our own fortunes. I’m a strong believer that you create your own fortunes, in most cases.
“We are among the teams that has given away goals the most in the last 15 minutes of the games this season. Maybe there is a connection to having a really young team, but one part of it is, we need to learn and we need to learn quick because it affects our outcome of the season. So we need to learn that quick and we need to develop the quick, our game management, that goes for all of us.
“Even if the players are younger or old, we have expectations to each other and we need to try to achieve those expectations and meet those expectations every day.”
Sunday’s game is the 11th of the season for Angel City. Afterward, it heads into the monthlong summer break due to the men’s FIFA World Cup. Angel City will return to action July 3.
Pasadena’s Ashley Sanchez leading North Carolina
Pasadena native Ashley Sanchez enters the week second in the NWSL’s golden boot race with seven goals. They are already a career high for the UCLA alum.
Another busy international window
As of Saturday, six Angel City players will depart after Sunday’s game for international duty.
Gisele Thompson (USWNT) and Ary Borges (Brazil) will join their respective national teams for a pair of friendlies against each other June 6 and 9 in Brazil.
Evelyn Shores and Taylor Suarez are also headed to Brazil with the U.S. U-23’s. The team will face Brazil’s U-23 squad June 6 and 9.
Kennedy Fuller heads to Spain to join the U.S. U-20 team from June 1-9. The U-20s will face France on June 5 and 8.
Claire Emslie returns to the Scotland national team for games June 5 and June 9 against Israel.
NORTH CAROLINA COURAGE at ANGEL CITY FC
When: 4 p.m. Sunday
Where: BMO Stadium
How to watch: Victory+