Angel City Football defeated by Utah Royals for third consecutive loss

LOS ANGELES — The wild “NWSL After Dark” moments didn’t have anything on Angel City FC before sunset in Saturday’s meeting with the Utah Royals.

In one of the wildest and chaotic games in its short history, Angel City (3-3, 11 points) ended up on the wrong end of two video review decisions, both would have given the club a penalty attempt, saw a player sent off with a red card, and in the end, it all added up to a third consecutive defeat.

Utah Royals’ Cloé Lacasse’s first-half goal stood up as the difference-maker, handing Angel City a 1-0 defeat at BMO Stadium. The win was the fourth consecutive for the Royals (4-2-1, 13 points).

The game took a turn in the first half, even after Utah’s opening goal. Angel City midfielder Maiara Niehues was issued a red card for violent conduct after a swing of her elbow toward a Utah player, just before halftime.

“It happens probably two meters in front of me,” Angel City coach Alex Straus said of Niehues’ incident. “So I have the best view in our stadium. … I’m not going to say anything more about it. It changed the game.”

In the second half, with 10 players, Angel City went into a “tactics-free zone” early, pushing from all angles. The first video review decision came in the 65th minute. Ary Borges attempted to play a ball inside the penalty area, but she collided with a Utah defender. Referee Lauren Aldrich was called over the video review, and after a long review, it was determined that Borges had initiated the foul.

Later, Prisca Chilufya was knocked down at the edge of the penalty area by another Utah defender and Aldrich didn’t hesitate in pointing to the penalty spot. However, after another trip to the video monitor, she ruled that Kate Del Fava didn’t commit a foul.

“If we come out in the first half like we did in the second, we win that game,” Angel City defender Emily Sams said. “It’s something that we can learn from that we don’t have to wait until we’re without a player.

“The goals that we’re conceding, we’re doing it ourselves. I think that’s a big talking point. We haven’t had a game where a team has really broken us down and obviously outplayed us, so I think we just really need to continue to be switched on in our moments.”

The end result for the lengthy video reviews was an 11-minute second-half stoppage time period.

It was all looking smooth for Angel City before the international break. Angel City won its first three games of the season, suffering its first loss before the break against the Orlando Pride.

The lone loss, probably should have been at least a draw, but the Orlando Pride scored in the eighth minute of stoppage time.

Since returning from the break, Angel City has suffered losses to the Portland Thorns and now the Royals.

“I said the same thing when we were winning three games (in a row) and everybody lost their mind and said how great we were,” Straus said. “We tried to keep everybody down, grounded. … We’re not terrible now. … We should have won (tonight), we should have won against Portland (last Sunday), if you look at all the stats.

“This was a big problem with Angel City last year and it’s a big problem the year before and the year before is to make these games draws or make these games three points.”

Angel City will conclude its string of three consecutive home games Saturday against San Diego Wave FC. After Saturday, Angel city will have four games remaining before the NWSL pauses for the FIFA World Cup, returning in early July.