LOS ANGELES (May 31, 2026) – Angel City Football Club (ACFC) fell 2-1 to the North Carolina Courage on Sunday afternoon at BMO Stadium, despite a second-half goal from Maiara Niehues and strong saves by goalkeeper Angelina Anderson.
After a scoreless opening half, North Carolina struck first in the 48th minute when forward Evelyn Ijeh found the back of the net to give the visitors a 1-0 advantage.
Angel City responded almost immediately. Defender Evelyn Shores helped spark the attack, setting up Niehues for the equalizer in the 51st minute as the midfielder calmly finished to make it 1-1.
The teams traded chances throughout the remainder of the second half before the Courage regained the lead in the 79th minute via midfielder Manaka Matsukubo.
“We wanted nothing more than to end with a home win,” ACFC captain Sarah Gorden said. “We need to go back to the drawing board and figure it out because we need to put our chances away and do a better job of keeping the ball out of our net.”
Anderson made two saves to keep Angel City within reach, while the defense worked to limit opportunities as the hosts pushed for a late equalizer.
“In all of these games, we do enough to win, and that's the frustrating part,” Head Coach Alex Straus said. “The structure and organization today were good. We created some big chances at the end, and we should have scored. Strategically, we were good today. We need to do more with the ball, and we need to ask ourselves why these things keep happening to us.”
ACFC nearly found that goal in the closing moments when forward Taylor Suarez saw her attempt denied on the goal line by Courage goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan, preserving North Carolina's one-goal lead.
“As we've said, soccer is about momentum,” Gorden said. “When you put the ball in the net early, it changes the momentum of the game. We would like to score earlier and play with the lead. Ultimately, it's up to all of us to be better on both ends of the field.”
Sunday's match marked Angel City's final contest of May. The club now enters the NWSL's June break before returning to league action Friday, July 3 at home against the Orlando Pride live on Prime.