Alyssa Thompson scored her first two goals of the season nine minutes apart Saturday, lifting Angel City FC to a 2-1 win over the San Diego Wave and spoiling the NWSL coaching debut of former Galaxy great Landon Donovan.
The victory, which ended the team’s three-game NWSL losing streak, was just the second in league play since May 3 for Angel City (5-9-3), which jumped to eighth place and into a playoff position in the 14-team league standings with nine games remaining.
The game also marked the NWSL return of Christen Press, who came off the bench in the 89th minute for her first league appearance in 26 months. A two-time World Cup champion, Press tore her right anterior cruciate ligament eight games into Angel City’s inaugural season in 2022 and needed four surgeries to repair the damage.
Press, 35, played limited minutes in a Summer Cup game with San Diego and in a friendly against FC Juárez earlier this month.
The Wave were missing seven players to injury and Angel City took advantage in the 20th minute when Thompson ran down a poor touch from Wave defender Hanna Lundkvist just outside the box, rounded goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan, then fired a left-footed shot into the back of the empty net for her first goal.
Thompson celebrated by racing to the Angel City bench where Press and backup goalkeeper Angelina Anderson wrapped her in a hug.
She didn’t have to wait long for her next goal, doubling the lead at the end of a counterattack in the 29th minute. The sequence started with former Wave midfielder Meggie Dougherty Howard getting the ball to Thompson in the Angel City end. After dribbling 40 yards through the center of the field, Thompson cut across the top of the penalty area to create space among a quartet of defenders, then pulled up to put a right-footed shot through Sheridan’s gloved hands and just across the goal line.
The brace, Thompson’s first as a pro, made the 19-year-old just the second teenager after Mallory Swanson to score multiple goals in a regular-season NWSL game.
San Diego’s only goal came on Abby Dahlkemper’s header off an Alex Morgan free kick seven minutes into stoppage time.
