How Angel City found its stride and became one of the NWSL's hottest teams

Angel City's Sarah Gorden hugs teammate Claire Emslie after defeating Bay FC on Saturday night to clinch a spot in the NWSL playoffs. Angel City is undefeated in its last nine matches. (Ben Liebenberg / Getty Images)No one in Angel City history has played in more games or worn the captain’s armband more often than Sarah Gorden. So it’s unlikely any player has enjoyed this season, Angel City’s fifth in the NWSL, more than her.With Saturday’s 2-0 win over Bay FC, the team extended its franchise record for wins (14) and points (49) with one game to play. It has averaged more goals scored (1.7) and fewer goals allowed (1.07) than any team in franchise history, has the best goal differential (plus-19) in the league and has qualified for the postseason for just the second time.If Angel City (14-8-7) beats Boston in its regular-season finale Sunday, it could play host to a playoff game for the first time. For Gorden, none of that success is surprising. What is surprising is that it took so long to achieve.Read more:Trump budget cuts threaten late Redondo Beach couple's soccer refugee program“Did I think we’d get here? Yeah,” she said. “I always felt like we take two steps forward, one step back. Maybe two steps forward, three steps back. But I always felt like strategically, at some point, the right pieces would be here and we’d be doing the right things at the right time.“The backing was always there, the passion was always there, the vision was always there. For a long time it was just about getting the right pieces together.”That was the part that took a bit of trial and error, with the team going through 64 players, five coaches, three general managers/sporting directors and two controlling ownership groups since its founding. And Gorden, who became the second player in team history when she was acquired in a trade with the Chicago Red Stars in December 2021 — five months before Angel City’s first game — has been with the team for all of it.Gorden missed Angel City’s inaugural season after tearing her left anterior cruciate ligament in preseason training. But she’s missed just three games and four starts since then, which gives her a unique take on the team’s journey, from losing records in three of its first four seasons to the possibility of hosting a playoff game.“This is my job and my life,” said Gorden, 34, who is finishing her 11th NWSL season. “If I’m not believing in the plan and the vision of what the people ahead of me are saying, then I wouldn’t be able to put my heart and my passion into it.“Maybe blind faith, maybe not. But you have to believe or how are you going to continue to grow?”Read more:'I'm upset.' Frustrated Angel City fans excited yet wary amid a playoff pushAngel City finally found its stride this summer when it fired manager Alexander Straus and replaced him with assistant Leif Gunnar Smerud. Under the interim coach, Angel City has lost just twice in 18 matches and is unbeaten since Aug. 26. Smerud, however, declines to take credit for the turnaround.“A lot of players have stepped up,” he said. “It’s the details. It’s part[ly] how we organize, especially in the defensive part.”Since Smerud took over, Angel City keeper Angelina Anderson has had eight shutouts and given up just a goal five other times — a hot streak that coincides with the July hiring of goalkeeper coach Louis Hunt.“We managed to build momentum,” Smerud continued. “If we can sustain that, we have proven we are not easy to beat. I don’t think a lot of teams want to play us.”Smerud, 49, had a 12-year playing career in Norway that included 24 appearances for the country’s youth national teams before he turned to coaching, where he lost more often than he won before taking over for Straus. But his biggest strength as a manager isn’t something he learned on the soccer field. It’s something he learned in school, where he earned a psychology degree.“The mental part of the game is big,” said Smerud, who has a license to practice psychology as well as a UEFA Pro coaching license. “I’m a big believer in building a culture, building a mentality in a group, and we have done quite a bit of work on that.“How do you compete in training? How do you prepare? How do you get that calmness and that focus that you need in the key moments? So of course that informs a lot of my decision-making and the work I do.”That philosophy fits in well with Angel City, which, under sporting director Mark Parsons and majority owners Willow Bay and Bob Iger, has expanded its support staff to include a psychologist and a mental performance coach.Angel City's Sveindis Jonsdottir passes during a match against Portland at BMO Stadium in April. (Jessie Alcheh / Getty Images)It’s also been helpful that the league’s youngest team has gotten nine goals each from Sveindis Jónsdottir, 25, and Maiara Niehues, 22, and eight assists from Evelyn Shores, 21.Everything resets going into the postseason, however. But if Angel City manages at least a draw with Boston on Sunday, it will enter those playoffs riding a franchise-best 10-game unbeaten streak; no other NWSL team has been as hot over the past two months.Moreover, if Angel City wins and Kansas City does not win its finale in Louisville, Angel City would jump to fourth in the table, earning the right to open the playoffs at home. One win in the postseason would mark another franchise record while two would get Angel City into the NWSL Championship at Audi Field in Washington, D.C.But wherever the playoffs end, it’s likely to be a bittersweet finish for Gorden and Smerud. Both will see their Angel City contracts expire when the season does, and both appear ready, if not eager, to move on.Read more:U.S. women's soccer is no longer a juggernaut. Emma Hayes makes sure her players know it“This has been, of all my experiences in 11 years, my favorite locker room by far,” Gorden said. “But the job is bigger than just the locker room and you have to be where you’re valued and people want you and people see you for the future.“Wherever that is for me, I’m still figuring it out.”“The focus was on doing the job now and then take it from there,” added Smerud, whose family remains in Norway. “I was asked to do a job and my focus has been on doing that. And then I’ll take it from there.“It’s not really for me to answer.”⚽ You have read the latest installment of On Soccer with Kevin Baxter. The weekly column takes you behind the scenes and shines a spotlight on unique stories. Listen to Baxter on this week’s episode of the “Corner of the Galaxy” podcast.Get the best, most interesting and strangest stories of the day from the L.A. sports scene and beyond from our newsletter The Sports Report.This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.