Sveindís Jónsdóttir Has an Answer for Everything

Three minutes into Angel City’s second match of the 2026 season, Bay FC got its first look at the problem.

The Angel City back line collected the ball deep in their own half and sent it long. Sveindís Jónsdóttir was a few yards behind her defender when the pass was played. It didn’t matter. It took Jónsdóttir ten strides to leave her defender in the dust, take two touches, and slot past the Bay FC goalie. 1-0 Angel City.

Thirty minutes later, the Bay FC defenders tried a different approach.

It was more physical, as Evelyn Shores played Jónsdóttir into space again. The first Bay FC defender tried to get an arm in front of her, a shoulder into her, a handful of her #32 Angel City uniform, to at least slow her down. She grasped at air as Jónsdóttir made her way into the box, unbothered.

But a second defender stepped in; Jónsdóttir had proven to be a bigger problem than one defender could handle. This second Bay FC player knew that. She sprinted across the box like her boots were on fire. Jónsdóttir remained efficiently calm, unbothered again.

As the second defender threw herself to the ground, begging the universe for divine intervention to prevent a second Jónsdóttir goal of the half, Jónsdóttir calmly cut the ball back into the now-abandoned space for Gisele Thompson, who tucked it home to give Angel City a 2-0 lead.

Early in the second half, Angel City won a corner. Shores sent it toward the near post, and Jónsdóttir rose above the traffic to head home her second goal of the night.

Three goals for Angel City. Jónsdóttir scored two and created the other. More interestingly, each one presented a completely different problem for her opponents.

That has become the defining feature of the 25-year-old’s game.

There are plenty of fast players in the NWSL. There are plenty of strong ones. There are plenty of forwards with the size to win a header or the willingness to spend 90 minutes wrestling with a defender.

Jónsdóttir can do all of it.

Give her space behind the back line, and she has the speed to get there. Get tight to her, and she has the strength to keep playing through contact. Let her receive it facing goal, and she’ll absolutely slice you in half. Force the ball out of play and joke's on you; she can throw that thing a country mile.

Jónsdóttir has eight goals and three assists in 19 appearances this season. The production alone is impressive, but how she gets there says more about the dynamism she brings to the Angel City attack.

Her game is built around turning small advantages into big advantages.

It can happen in transition, where a pass that looks slightly overhit suddenly becomes perfectly weighted because Jónsdóttir eats up the space with strides that look more made for a track than a soccer field.

It can happen with a defender on her shoulder, where what should be enough contact to disrupt a run simply isn’t.

And it happens without the ball, too. She wins 5.71 duels per 90 minutes and 2.37 aerial duels, while adding 3.01 defensive contributions and winning possession in the final third 1.41 times per 90 minutes*.

Jónsdóttir has all the traits of a classic, goalscoring number nine: the speed to break the line, then the strength to hold defenders off until she, at the very last moment, makes her final, lethal decision in front of goal.

That combination has followed her for years.

At Wolfsburg, where she spent four seasons and made 93 appearances in all competitions, Jónsdóttir was already talking about the value of playing wide because it gave her more room to use her pace. She won a Frauen-Bundesliga title there and played at the highest levels of European club soccer before signing with Angel City in May 2025.

Her résumé extends to the international game, too. Jónsdóttir has scored 16 goals in 60 appearances for Iceland and was part of the squad at Euro 2025. Now another piece of Icelandic soccer history is within reach. Iceland has never qualified for a Women’s World Cup, but Jónsdóttir and her teammates are two playoff rounds away from potentially changing that, with Croatia first up this fall and the 2027 tournament in Brazil waiting on the other side.

It is already a career that has taken Jónsdóttir across countries, leagues and some of the biggest stages in the sport. The starting point was considerably more modest.

Jónsdóttir grew up in Keflavík, a fishing town in Iceland of around 20,000 people. She started playing soccer at 10. Before she became a professional footballer, she worked in a fish factory with two of her best friends from her team, cleaning fish in the town where she grew up.

From Keflavík came Breiðablik, then Sweden, then Wolfsburg.

And eventually, Los Angeles.

Jónsdóttir visited LA with Iceland years before joining Angel City and came away interested in the NWSL. When Angel City emerged as an option, the combination of the league and her experience playing against some of the Angel City coaching staff helped convince her to make the move.

The distance between Keflavík and Los Angeles is massive in just about every sense. The weather. The culture. The traffic. On the field, though, the NWSL makes a certain amount of sense for Jónsdóttir.

The league is full of transitions, individual battles, and open space that disappears quickly. Being faster than one defender and stronger than the next proves useful when the game opens up.

Her goal against Racing Louisville in July was a perfect illustration. Sophia Mattice played long from the back. Jónsdóttir got herself goal-side of defender Arin Wright, took control, and finished underneath the goalkeeper. Nothing to something in about 6 seconds.

Against Chicago a week earlier, she appeared at the back post in stoppage time to finish another transition and put the match away.

Jónsdóttir has a collection of tools that change the geometry of an attack. Her teammates can play balls into spaces only she can reach. Defenders can get shoulders and arms into her without knocking her off balance. Throw some crosses at her too; more often than not she’ll meet them with her forehead.

Those qualities have traveled with her. The leagues, teammates, and surroundings have changed, but the problems she creates for defenders have stayed consistent.

Once she gets moving, that tends to be the case.

And if her year and a half in Los Angeles are any indication, she’s got plenty more ground to cover.

*all stats as of Sept. 17, 2026