Riley Tiernan leads 4-3 victory against Washington Spirit

WASHINGTON D.C.-- During Friday's match, which kept fans at the edge of their seats, Angel City came out of a brief slump, defeating the Washington Spirit 4-3 on the East Coast. Goals from a star-studded roster, including Riley Tiernan, Gisele Thompson and Katie Zelem, proved one thing for certain: the kids are alright.  

Angel City scored early in the 8th minute with a goal by Tiernan. Forward Alyssa Thompson played a through ball to MA Vignola, who made a run into the 18. The defender moved the ball to the endline and then sent it flying toward the center of the box where Tiernan was making a run, and one-timed a low shot into the back of the net. It was her fourth of the season.

Tiernan started off her professional journey as a non-roster invitee during the preseason and has since cemented herself as one of Angel City’s biggest offensive threats. 

“We were looking for a young, hungry player to bring in. She came into preseason, as well as all the rookies, to be fair to the rest of them too. They've just played with such determination and a willingness to learn. You're seeing the rewards of that now,” said assistant coach Eleri Earnshaw on her recruitment. “We knew that she was great back to goal, not only in protecting the ball, but turning and creating. We also knew that she could finish.”

ACFC doubled their lead in the 22nd minute with a Thompson sister duo combination that filled the stadium with celebration. Midfielder Alanna Kennedy sent a long ball over the top to A. Thompson on the left who crossed the ball into the six-yard box. Her younger sister and defender Gisele Thompson jumped to make contact, volleying the ball past goalkeeper Sandy MacIver from close range.

It was G. Thompson's first NWSL goal and the first sister-to-sister goal to have occurred in league history. “I'm so happy we got the win and the sister-to-sister goal. I feel like we've always dreamed about this. Doing it together is amazing and getting my first goal was just so incredible. A dream come true,” she said in the press conference afterwards. 

“They do everything together. It makes sense that one assisted and one scored. I’m really happy for Gisele. She's always a threat in the final third. When you see how far she traveled to get into the box and her movement to get blindsided the center back, recognizing the center back's position, and then darting in front with the timing that she did, it's a really mature piece of football from her,” added Earnshaw. 

Despite Angel City leading the early part of the first half, Washington made their way to the scoreboard in the 30th minute. Forward Ashley Hatch flicked a header to the corner of the six-yard box, where defender Esme Morgan caught up to the ball. Morgan took an angled shot into the far post to put Washington back in the game. The Spirit equalized ten minutes later when Gift Monday made a run and volleyed the ball into the net in the 40th minute.

Heading out of the locker room, ACFC pushed hard for another early goal. A. Thompson led the pursuit in the 50th minute with a shot on frame that was saved by Washington’s keeper. In the 63rd minute, Claire Emslie had a similar fate as the Spirit keeper dove to swat away Emslie’s free kick over the wall. 

In the 72nd minute, Angel City regained its lead thanks to an exchange between G. Thompson and midfielder Zelem. The two exchanged a pair of one-two passes on the right edge of the 18, allowing Zelem to create space between herself and a defender. Zelem sent a right-footed shot into the back of the net to bring the score to 3–2. Alongside her first professional goal earlier in the match, Thompson also recorded her third NWSL career assist at 19 years old. 

“After every goal that they scored on us, we knew what the problem was. It’s about being able to address it and then move on from it. We wanted to win the game, so having that fight in us to keep scoring goals, no matter what the score, helped us a lot. We had a belief in this game that no matter what happened, we were winning or we were coming away with points," said A. Thompson on the club's bounce back. 

Angel City’s lead was short-lived when Washington again equalized in the 89th minute. Carle sent a ball over to forward Brittany Ratcliffe, who headed it back across the back line. The ball deflected off an Angel City defender and fell to Morgan, who netted a goal to bring the score to 3-3.

But ACFC wasn’t going down without a fight and thanks to rookie Tiernan, found their game-winning goal in the eighth minute of stoppage time. Forward Christen Press headed a corner kick towards the face of the goal post, where Tiernan nailed a one-touch shot into the top netting.

The last-minute goal marked Tiernan's first professional match brace and her fifth career goal. The 22-year-old has now scored five goals in the last five matches for the club. Her contributions on Friday night led the club to its second-highest goals scored in a match in club history (they had five against Portland in 2023). Tiernan's first goal resulted in Angel City becoming the first club in league history to score a goal in the first 15 minutes of a match in four consecutive road games. 

“We've been working a lot on getting in the box and scoring, along with different ways of scoring. Our team has proven that there are multiple different ways that we can score off-set pieces, off crosses, off individual things. We're really excited for what's to come and just continuing to build off that momentum in the final third,” said A. Thompson on the team's four goals. 

Although the team saw tremendous offensive success, there were noticeable areas that needed improvement. Defensively, Angel City failed to defend three separate times and hadn't managed to fill in coverage gaps in the back line. 

“I think just working on the balls in the air and defending crosses. We've been working on that, but just being clinical in the end of the games and staying focused. We lose momentum, so shifting that and gaining more momentum in that aspect. We're continuing to work on that throughout the season,” said G. Thompson when asked about future defensive improvements. 

Overall, Friday's performance highlighted the grit and resilience the team has developed in recent seasons. “There's a common term, “NWSL After Dark”, and we lived up to that expectation. We were disappointed with the result against Orlando, and we felt like we stumbled to the finish line. We asked the team at halftime to sprint to the finish line and we did that,” said Earnshaw.

The club's victory moves them up from ninth to sixth place on the league table with a 3-2-2 record and 11 points. There is only a four-point difference between ACFC and the current standing leaders, the Orlando Pride. 

Angel City returns home to BMO Stadium to take on the Utah Royals on Friday, May 9 at 7:30 p.m.