Friday, May 2, at 5:00 p.m. Pacific, Angel City Football Club is on the road for the second week in a row and will face the Washington Spirit. The game will stream live on Prime Video, with an English-language radio broadcast on iHeart. Angel City will host a watch party at 33 Taps West Hollywood.
Matchup
Angel City’s last game was a 2–3 loss on the road against Orlando. Forward Riley Tiernan and midfielder Katie Zelem put ACFC up 2–0 in the first half, with midfielder Marta and forward Barbra Banda equalizing after the break, and an Angel City own goal putting the game out of reach.
Washington also lost last week, 0–3 at home against NJ/NY Gotham FC.
ACFC last faced the Spirit on September 27, 2024, losing 1–2. They are 2–4–0 (W–L–D) all-time against Washington.
LA are currently in ninth place with a 2–2–2 record. Washington are in third at 4–2–0.
Scouting Report
In 2024, Washington were runners-up in both the standings and the playoffs, having bounced back from an eighth-place finish in 2023 to reclaim their status as one of the top teams in the league.
Jonatan Giráldez started as head coach following the conclusion of his final season with FC Barcelona, taking over what was already a winning team under Assistant Coach Adrián González in July. The club made a few key roster additions, starting with rookie midfielder Croix Bethune, who finished the year with a league-leading 10 assists despite injury ending her season in early September. Last week’s loss against Gotham had a silver lining in the form of Bethune making her return to the field as an 80th-minute sub.
Bethune’s return, however, comes amid a slew of injuries to other key players on the roster. Midfielders Andi Sullivan and Hal Hershfelt, defender Casey Krueger, and forward Ouleymata Sarr—all of whom were key contributors in the Spirit’s 2024 campaign—are among the players who have landed on the injury list either coming into the current season or since its beginning.
Most recently, superstar USWNT forward Trinity Rodman was ruled out for the Spirit’s meeting with Orlando two weeks ago due to a recurrence of a nagging back injury that has plagued her for several years. Rodman was Washington’s co-leading scorer last year, notching eight goals, in addition to six assists.
Sister, Sister
Last week rookie forward Riley Tiernan scored her third professional goal; she scored those three goals in the span of four games, with Angel City’s April 19 loss to Gotham being the only game in the last month Tiernan did not score in. She is currently tied with a handful of players league-wide for fourth-most goals on the season, leading all rookies in that stat.
Tiernan signed with Angel City after a preseason trial. She was a standout at the team’s second-annual trip to the Coachella Valley Invitational in February and impressed the coaching staff with her physicality and work ethic in training camp.
“She has all the intangibles that Angel City is trying to build our foundation on,” said Technical Assistant Coach Mykell Bates last week. “Her work ethic is relentless, her defending is relentless. She's overwhelming, she’s strong, and she just has a presence about her.”
The 22-year-old comes to Angel City out of Rutgers University, where she was a four-year starter. She scored goals in college—19 in 83 games—but stood out most as a creator, as she left Rutgers as the program’s all-time assist leader with 34 in her career.
Tiernan’s older sister, Madison, also played at Rutgers, and had a three-year professional career with then-Sky Blue FC. When Riley Tiernan recorded her first professional goal on March 30 against Seattle, the Tiernans became just the second sister duo to score in the NWSL, following Sam and Kristie Mewis.
