Angel City FC blanks Bay FC, moves closer to home playoff game

LOS ANGELES — Angel City Football Club has come a long way in a short time.

In 2023, Angel City, in its second year, qualified for the NWSL playoffs on the last day of the regular season.

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This season, Angel City secured its playoff spot on a day off.

Ahead of the team’s penultimate game of the regular season, Angel City officially qualified for this year’s playoffs Friday night, thanks to the Portland Thorns’ 1-0 win over the North Carolina Courage.

Despite achieving one of the team’s goals, there is work left to be done. Angel City has its sights set on hosting a playoff game and Saturday was a step in the right direction.

Angel City, behind a 49th-minute goal from Gisele Thompson and a late second-half finish from Riley Tiernan, increased its unbeaten streak to nine consecutive games with a 2-0 win over Bay FC at BMO Stadium in front of 20,568.

“We really want to go into the playoffs with a lot of good momentum,” Angel City goalkeeper Angelina Anderson said. “This game could have easily been one of those surprise games where we let our foot up off of the gas and Bay comes in here and does something.

“To get that second goal (from Riley Tiernan) really solidified it, and I think it gives us good momentum going forward.”

The win moved Angel City (14-8-7) into fourth place with one game remaining. As of now, Angel City would host its first-round playoff game against the fifth seed.

“It would mean so much to us,” Thompson said Thursday regarding a potential home playoff game. “I have been on this team for three years, and I haven’t made the playoffs. There’s so much motivation for us.”

Angel City dominated possession throughout the night, but the game was scoreless at the half. Angel City had just two shots on goal.

In the second half, Thompson’s goal was the breakthrough the team needed. Thompson, who had just moved to her traditional right-back spot minutes before, made a darting run toward goal and her shot was too hard for Bay FC goalkeeper Jordan Silkowitz to handle.

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Tiernan finally put the game away in the 83rd minute. The win improved Angel City to 7-0-2 in its last nine games.

“We’re just so together as a group,” Anderson said. “I think that can’t be understated. Even players who don’t play a lot, you saw it tonight. Riley, Nealy (Martin) coming on and making a huge difference from top to bottom, left to right. We’re all just a really tight-knit group. There’s also, maybe it’s from that, but there’s something just like intangible about really good teams, they get results when sometimes we shouldn’t even get results.

“Winning teams just have that intangible quality, and I feel like we kind of have that right now.”

Angel City’s first playoff appearance came in 2023. Then, the NWSL regular season was just 22 games and Angel City qualified for fifth after routing the Thorns 5-1 on the final game of the regular season.

The postseason “run” was short, however. Angel City suffered a 1-0 loss against the Seattle Reign, ending the season.

This season, Angel City found its groove in the second half. Angel City went into the summer break with just a 4-6-1 record, which led to coach Alex Straus’ removal. Since then, under interim coach Leif Smerud, Angel City has posted a 10-2-6 record.

“I think we were in a difficult situation,” Smerud said. “We have played under pressure, a long time, a lot of key games, where if you lose this, you’re basically out of it and we have handled that really, really well.

“We have stayed very focused, we have managed to focus on what we can control. It’s been a great mentality. I mean, the results speak for itself.”

Angel City will conclude the regular season Nov. 1 at Dignity Health Sports Park against Boston Legacy FC.

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