Utah Royals Shutout By Angels City, Scoreless In Third Straight
May 9, 2025, 11:16 PM
Photo courtesy of Utah Royals FC on X.
LOS ANGELES- The Utah Royals are in California to take on Angel City FC under the Friday Night Lights. The Royals come in with only four points and a single victory on the season, but with a golden opportunity to get right against the NWSL’s worst defense.
Angel City FC has allowed a league-worst 14 goals in seven games, but the Royals have only scored four in all their matchups. Will Utah be able to get right offensively against Angel City?
Matchday in the city of dreams 💭 pic.twitter.com/8borZZnHiq
— Utah Royals FC (@UtahRoyalsFC) May 9, 2025
First Half
The home team set the tone early in the match, creating most of the game’s scoring chances through the first seven minutes, but the Utah defense in the box held strong and didn’t allow them to convert.
In the 8th minute, Angel City saw its first real dangerous chance, but missed the shot wide left.
From the miss, Utah pushed the other way and Ally Sentnor found herself on a break and took a shot that ultimately missed the target, but sparked the Utah attack for the rest of the first half.
While both teams found energy in their own third, there was also a lot of possession in the midfield as teams tried to break out, but ultimately turned it over.
In the 11th minute, Utah found themselves with the best scoring chance of the night as a through ball was sent to Ally Sentnor, who became wide open on goal. To stop the chance, Gisele Thompson bront Sentnor down, earning a yellow card. On the ensuing free kick, Utah came up empty-handed.
On the other end, Angel City created a few chances from just outside the six-yard box in the 15th and 16th minutes as the action in the game started to build.
In the 19th minute, Alyssa Thompson sent a perfect through-ball to Riley Tiernan, but once again, she was unable to take advantage.
In the last 15 minutes of the half, Angel City got in a groove of setting crosses into the box. Pressure mounted on the Utah defense with each ball, and the home team was clearly the more dangerous team as the game approached the break.
Ultimately, the first half ended with the score line tied at no goal apiece.
Second Half
The tenor of the game was completely different from the conclusion of the first half to the start of the second half. Utah came out of the locker room with much more energy and were the ones pushing the pace out of the gate.
In the 48th minute, Utah won a free kick as a result of their effort, but couldn’t convert. Despite the empty trip, the beginning of the second half clearly belonged to the Royals.
In the 60th minute, Angeles City found their first chance with an extremely dangerous cross across the face of goal, but there were no players in black jerseys in the area.
While Utah clearly had momentum, it started to teeter as the game entered the last half hour. In the 66th minute, a flurry of substitutions occurred for Angels City, including Christen Press coming on. This sub would end up being instrumental as she would score the first goal of the game, and her first of the season, less than a minute after entering the game.
Vintage Christen Press! 🎯
Watch the slicing and dicing on this one pic.twitter.com/g0XXojntuu
— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) May 10, 2025
In an attempt to quickly find the equalizer, Brecken Mozingo sent a screamer on net for Utah just two minutes later, and it would have tied the game had Angelina Anderson not gotten her fingertips on it after a diving stop.
In the 74th minute, a scary moment happened on the field as Savy King of Angels City FC went down and immediately received extensive medical attention for about 11 minutes of real time. Eventually, she was carted off the field and transported to the hospital, per the team.
Sending prayers to Savy King 🙏
(via @Katie_KarlTV) pic.twitter.com/AahgIEzu8i
— Just Women’s Sports (@justwsports) May 10, 2025
Play restarted in the 85th minute. A few seconds later, Mina Tanaka found herself in front of everyone on a breakaway for Utah, but before she could fire a shot, she was defended from behind while trying to make a move to the inside of the box.
There were 12 minutes of stoppage time added, and that was when Angels City put the nail in the coffin with a goal from Alyssa Thompson in the 90+7.
Alyssa Thompson seals the deal for Angel City 🩷
📷: @NWSL
— The Women's Game (@WomensGameMIB) May 10, 2025
Despite putting seven shots on goal, Utah came up empty-handed for the third game in a row and still only has one win on the season.
