Alyssa Thompson scores first regular-season goal as Angel City FC loses opener

LOS ANGELES — Alyssa Thompson scored within five minutes in her preseason home debut earlier this month.

Sunday, in the regular-season opener for Angel City, the Harvard-Westlake senior and No. 1 overall draft pick in the 2023 NWSL Draft, waited a little longer, scoring in the 11th minute in front of a sellout crowd of 22,000 at BMO Stadium.

ALYSSA THOMPSON ARE YOU KIDDING? pic.twitter.com/wT0Tg0J6Pt

— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) March 27, 2023

“I’m sure she has a lot of pressure on her shoulders, I think she had a great game, I think it was an incredible goal and I just see her as someone who has a bright future,” Angel City FC defender and captain Ali Riley said of Thompson. “I think it’s the first of many and she’s lived up to all of the hype and it is someone we’re going to rely on to score goals.”

Unfortunately, for Thompson and Angel City FC, the joy didn’t last the night as visiting NJ/NY Gotham FC scored twice in the second half to come away with a 2-1 win.

Gotham FC got on the board in the 51st minute on a successful penalty kick by Midge Purce. Gotham’s Svava Guomundsdottir was fouled by Angel City goalkeeper Didi Haracic. Initially, the referee didn’t call a foul, but moments later he stopped play and went to take a look at the video review and eventually signaled for the penalty.

In the 64th minute, with the game stretched, Purce had room down the center and fed Lynn Williams on her right for the finish and the 2-1 lead.

It was a frustrating night for Angel City, both on the field and at the video review.

In the first half, Jun Endo scored from approximately 40 yards out, getting the ball over Gotham FC goalkeeper Abby Smith’s head. However, the goal was disallowed after the referee went to video review due to a foul committed by Angel City in the build-up.

“When we didn’t get the VAR decision our way, we let down some momentum and that’s something we’re going to have to better, to be able to be more consistent through 90 minutes,” Riley said. “I do think there were times when we looked really, really good and dangerous and when we take our foot off the pedal, every team in this league is going to be good enough to punish you.

“I think we got a little bit sloppy with the ball and then our defending, we gave them too much space and they have really good players, so we can’t let things out of our control affect us.”

This is the first season that the NWSL is using VAR. On the first instance, a foul occurred away from where Endo picked up the ball and didn’t appear to have a bearing on the play.

“That goal (by Endo) was top class,” Angel City coach Freya Coombe said. “When we had our training in terms of VAR, it was understood that for a decision to be overturned, it had to be a clear and obvious error …I’m interested to see if the decision is clear and obvious, why did it take so long to be making a decision and looking at replay after replay.”

Angel City will look to get on track next week as the club visits the Orlando Pride.

“We started off really strong,” Riley said. “Hard work and heart are really important things, but we do want our football to even better. We want to take care of the ball more, we want to defend in packs, hunt in packs, we want this to be a fortress when we play here. We want to pride ourselves on not conceding goals and that’s something for us to work on.”