Last month, during a pregame media availability, defender Savy King was asked if she thought Angel City Football Club was a playoff team.
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“Yeah, absolutely,” King said. “We have been in the hunt to be above the playoff line. This 100 percent feels like a playoff team. We have some amazing individual players and collectively we are just great off the field and I think that translates onto the field as well. So yeah, I think 100 percent we have a really good chance of making playoffs and making it really far. That’s always the goal and I have no doubt that we’re going to get there.”
Saturday, Angel City could officially stamp itself as a playoff team. The club can clinch a playoff berth with a win against Bay FC at BMO Stadium. A draw could also get the job done, but that dependings on results from Friday night’s games.
Angel City has made the NWSL playoffs just once in its short history. In 2023 under the leadership of interim coach Becki Tweed, Angel City went on a late eight-game unbeaten streak and went 6-4-1 over its last 11 games, finishing fifth in the then six-team playoff field.
That team won just eight games, at 8-7-7 for just 31 points, both figures that have been eclipsed by this current group.
Fast forward to 2026, Angel City is again under the leadership of an interim coach (Leif Smerud) and has set club records with 13 wins and 46 points.
The season started, under coach Alex Straus, with Angel City winning its first three games for the first time in its history. Then came a slump. Angel City hit a five-game winless stretch in April and May and then went into the summer break losing consecutive games to Houston and North Carolina.
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Ahead of the return, Straus was out as a coach and Smerud, who was initially hired to the coaching staff, was promoted to interim coach. Angel City went went into the break with 19 games remaining and a lot of uncertainty.
Now, Angel City (13-8-7, 46 points) is one of the best in-form clubs, riding an eight-game unbeaten streak (6-0-2) into the penultimate game of the regular season.
Smerud has been a key factor in the turnaround.
“I’m trained in psychology,” Smerud said after a win last month against Seattle. “If I’m a psychologist, I have a special position with working with people in a therapy or counseling or whatever. I don’t have that as a coach. It’s a different role, but I of course have all the sort of knowledge and understanding of the field and that is very helpful as a coach.
“It’s about human beings. It doesn’t change, whether it’s handball or football or swimming, whatever, it’s human beings. I try to use that the best I can and I think it’s underrated still if you look at the resources in sports, it’s still very underrated … every athlete and coach will say the mental side is a very big part of a game like this.”
The first meeting against Bay FC (7-15-6, 27 points) was back in the second game of the year, with Angel City winning, 3-1, on March 21 in San Jose.
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BAY FC (7-15-6, 27 points) at ANGEL CITY FC (13-8-7, 46 points)
When: Saturday, 5:45 p.m.
Where: BMO Stadium
How to watch: ION