A ghost from Angel City past came back to haunt the team, at least for one evening.
One month after being traded to the Houston Dash, defender Paige Neilsen, who spent the last two seasons with Angel City before the trade, played her first game back in Los Angeles. And while there are no hard feelings between player and former team, the end result of Sunday’s match had to be gratifying for Neilsen, as her goal in stoppage time enabled the Dash to sneak out of BMO Stadium with the 1-0 result.
“We were at home, we wanted to win, and we shot for a win,” Angel City midfielder Rocky Rodriguez said. “It’s really disappointing to lose a game like that at literally the last minute. We have to accept our mistakes. We may have lost track of the little details.”
With the match well into stoppage time and a draw seeming more likely for both clubs, the Dash got one chance and made the most of it. Amanda West sent a corner kick into the penalty area, the ball bounced in the box, and Neilsen came in and fired a left-footed shot that got past keeper Didi Haracic near post for what turned out to be the final kick of the match.
“It’s a really tough way to lose at home in the last minute, in a lot of ways,” Angel City defender Sarah Gorden said. “When we talk about things like this, it’s pretty unacceptable. It’s the second time that it’s happened to us this year off of a set piece at the end of the game. We have some work to do as a group.”
Angel City had two great chances in the first half. The first came when Claire Emslie sent a cross into the penalty area and Clarise Le Bihan timed her run perfectly to give herself a scoring chance at the penalty spot, Le Bihan took the shot, but Neilsen threw herself in front of the shot and got the block. Le Bihan took the worst of the collision with Neilsen, as she got shaken up on the play, though she was able to continue. The second chance came when Emslie sent a cross into the penalty area and Sydney Leroux tried to get on the cross, but keeper Jane Campbell not only managed to beat Leroux to the ball, but also hold onto the ball as well.
