Friday, April 18, at 7:30 p.m., Angel City is back at home facing East Coast rival NJ/NY Gotham FC. The game will stream live on NWSL+, with radio broadcasts on iHeart and KFWB in English and Spanish, respectively. Tickets are available here.
Matchup
Angel City’s last game was a 3–1 win on the road against the Houston Dash on April 12. Midfielder Macey Hodge opened the scoring, with forwards Riley Tiernan and Alyssa Thompson closing it out. Midfielder Barbara Olivieri pulled one back for the Dash.
Gotham’s last match was also a 3–1 win, at home against North Carolina. Forward Esther González scored a brace for the hosts late in the first half, with defender Lily Reale adding a third early in the second half.
ACFC last faced their east coast rivals on July 6, 2024, losing 1–2. They are 1–4–1 (W–L–D) all-time against Gotham.
LA are currently in fourth place with a 2–0–2 record—one of just three remaining undefeated teams (Orlando and Kansas City are the others). Gotham sit in fifth with a 1–1–2 record.
Scouting Report
Gotham have been one of the powerhouse teams in the league over the last few years, and while they currently have an even win-loss record and a 0 goal differential in 2025, it’s still early in the season. With the core of last year’s team mostly intact, the New Jersey-based club looks set to provide stiff competition.
That core includes USWNT defenders Emily Sonnett and Tierna Davidson (though the Stanford alum recently sustained a season-ending ACL injury); midfielder Nealy Martin; and forwards Esther González, Ella Stevens, and Midge Purce.
Purce will be somewhat new to Angel City fans, as the forward sat out almost all of 2024 and about half of 2023 with injury. Before her 2024 injury, however, the forward had just reached a new level in her career, assisting both goals in the 2023 NWSL Championship and being named Championship MVP for her efforts.
Gotham did say goodbye to a handful of players, including forward Lynn Biyendolo (née Williams), bringing in a group of mostly younger new players to fill their spots. That group includes three former UCLA players: goalkeeper Ryan Campbell, forward Khyah Harper, and defender Lilly Reale. Also new this season are midfielder Jaelin Howell, making the move from Seattle; goalkeeper Shelby Hogan, formerly of the Thorns; and two exciting internationals, Brazilian attacker Gabi Portilho and 19-year-old Ghanaian forward Stella Nyamekye.
Accounts Opened
Angel City has had two rookies score their first-ever professional goals in the last two weeks, highlighting the club’s success in bringing in talented young players who can have both an immediate and long-term impact in LA.
Two weeks ago against Seattle Reign FC, forward Riley Tiernan notched the 63rd-minute game-winner, heading in a cross from the left by forward Claire Emslie. Tiernan was a preseason trialist out of Rutgers who earned a contract after standing out at training and in the Coachella Valley Invitational.
“Riley kept showing up in practice every single day, every time we reflected on training sessions,” said Interim Head Coach Sam Laity after the Seattle match. “She showed up in all the clips. She started to be a bit more dynamic with the ball and started to get stronger and stronger. Started to make contact and get physical.”
Then in last week’s 3–1 win in Houston, midfielder Macey Hodge scored the opener, slotting in a deflected block by a Dash defender from the top of the 18 on a late-arriving run. Angel City recruited Hodge after she finished college at Mississippi State, looking, according to Technical Director Mark Wilson, for “a combative, dynamic destroyer in that number six position.”
Hodge has excelled in the midfield disruptor role the staff envisioned for her, but as she showed against Houston, she also has plenty to offer on the offensive side.
