The odds were certainly against them, but Angel City held its ground.
Going on the road to face a Kansas City squad that was unbeaten in its last 10 matches, Angel City found themselves on the defensive for most of the first half and well into the second half. Angel City however stood its ground, and even took the lead late in the half, but Kansas City took advantage of a key mistake to eventually push across the equalizer, and the two sides had to settle for the 1-1 draw at Children’s Mercy Park.
“It was not our best performance by an absolute mile, we struggled to impose ourselves on the game,” Angel City head coach Freya Coombe said. “I thought we defended well at times but not as well enough at other times. We showed that we are hard to break down, but overall our performance, especially in possession, was not good enough. For us to come away with a point against a Kansas City team that are in the form that they are as a club, we’ll take it right now, especially after that performance, and move on to the next game.”
The result stretches Kansas City’s unbeaten run to 11 matches, and are two points behind both Portland and Houston for the league’s top spot. Angel City also benefitted from the result, as they are one point behind Chicago for the sixth playoff spot.
After withstanding on onslaught for most of the match, Angel City for one of the few times in the match marched deep into Kansas City’s side of the field in the 78th minute. Jun Endo dribbled into the penalty area, Endo, marked by Kristen Edmonds, motioned to cross, but pulled back, forcing Edmonds to go to ground, Endo chose to pass back to Ali Riley, who then crossed back into the penalty area and Cari Roccaro outjumped Lo’eau LaBonta to head a ball over keeper Adrianna Franch into the back net, and just like that, Angel City was suddenly in position to get all three points against the Current.
“Jun crossed the ball in, then it popped back out to Ali,” Roccaro said of the goal. “I thought she was going to hit it first time and I was going to run on the end of it, because the other team was stepping up. But Ali took a touch, and I rerouted and got it on frame. Good things happen when you get in the box”
Kansas City howeve got a break in the 80th minute. Elyse Bennett crossed into the penalty area, Angel City’s Paige Neilsen cut off the cross, but LaBonta came in from behind, took the ball away while Neilsen was in the motion of clearing the ball away. Compounding matters, Neilsen clipped LaBonta from behind and the Current were awarded the penalty. LaBonta stepped up to the penalty shot and beat keeper Didi Haracic with a shot to the upper right corner to tie the match.
The first was all Kansas City, as they outshot Angel City 9-2, with six of those nine shots going right at goal. Its best chance at goal came in the 15th minute, as LaBonta played Alex Loera into the penalty area, Loera then crossed towards the six-yard box, and Kristen Hamilton took the point-blank shot just outside the six, but Haracic calmly collected the ball. Haracic also got lots of help from her teammates, who threw themselves into all of Kansas City’s shooting and passing lanes and as a result collected a lot of blocked shots.
“Congratulations to DiDi for keeping us in the game, she made a number of good saves,” Coombe said of Haracic’s first-half performance. “We had to look at ourselves at halftime because we knew that our performance in the first half wasn’t good enough. It was a relief to get in at halftime still being nil-nil, because I don’t think we were deserving of that. But also, knowing that gave us a chance in the game and we had to perform better in the second half.”
Angel City next makes its first trip to the New York-New Jersey Metropolitan area, as they face Gotham FC next Sunday.
