Sunday, March 30, at 5:00 p.m., Angel City is back at home against Seattle Reign FC. The match will be ACFC’s Women’s History Celebration and will be broadcast on CBS Sports Network, with an English-language radio broadcast on iHeart. Tickets are available here.=
Matchup
Angel City’s last game was a 1–1 draw on the road against Portland Thorns FC on Friday, March 21. Midfielder Kennedy Fuller scored in the ninth minute for Angel City, with Thorns forward Reilyn Turner equalizing in the 30th minute.
Seattle last played on March 22 away at North Carolina, earning a 2–1 win. Jess Fishlock opened the scoring, with a second-half wonder goal by Jordyn Bugg making the difference.
These two teams last met in Seattle on October 4, 2024, with Angel City winning 1–0. ACFC is 2–4–0 (W–L–D) against the Reign.
Heading into week three, Angel City are in eighth place with a 0–0–2 record, while Seattle are in fifth with a 1–0–1 record.
Scouting Report
One of the NWSL’s original eight teams, Seattle Reign had their worst finish since the league’s inaugural 2013 season last year, placing 13th out of 14 teams and allowing a league-worst 44 goals.
That disappointing finish was something of a surprise for the Reign, who have made the playoffs in all but three other seasons. Their poor defensive record in 2024 is especially striking, as the team has only allowed more than 25 goals in a season in three other years.
Having lost two experienced defenders, Sofia Huerta and Alana Cook, midway through 2024, Head Coach Laura Harvey has turned to a group of young players to address the team’s defensive woes. Emily Mason, a rookie out of Rutgers, and Madison Curry, a standout last year in her rookie season with Angel City, both signed with Seattle in the offseason. Both have gotten starts in the team’s first two games of 2025, with Curry playing the full 180 minutes.
Another young defender, Jordyn Bugg—a U-18 signing who joined midway through 2024—was the starter at right center back in both games, and contributed the eye-popping game-winner against North Carolina last week.
On the forward line, Harvey added Lynn Biyendolo (née Williams) via trade with Gotham, though the veteran—the league’s all-time second-most prolific scorer—has sat out the first two weeks due to injury.
Highlight: Sarah Gorden
Angel City started the same back four in their first two games: Gisele Thompson, Savy King, Sarah Gorden, and M.A. Vignola. The diversity of age and experience levels within this group are a microcosm of the team as a whole: Thompson and King are 19 and 20, respectively, while Vignola is in the middle of the pack at age 27, and Gorden is one of the team’s veterans.
The 32-year-old Gorden is an Angel City original, having signed with the club ahead of the 2022 Expansion Draft. Before coming to LA, she had spent her whole life in the Chicago area, growing up in Elk Grove Village, attending DePaul University, and signing with the Chicago Red Stars after being selected in the third round of the 2016 Draft.
Gorden, who reached 10,000 career NWSL minutes last week against Portland, has been one of the league’s most consistent central defenders since her time with the Red Stars. She has earned “iron woman” status—playing every minute of the season—twice in her career, once in 2021 and again in 2023.
Her longevity is even more impressive in light of her athleticism: in college, Gorden was a dual-sport athlete in soccer and track, and today her sprinting speed serves as an insurance policy against conceding on transitional plays.
