Overview
- Angel City announced Wednesday that it had parted ways with head coach Alex Straus effective immediately and appointed senior assistant Leif Gunnar Smerud as interim head coach while it searches for a permanent replacement.
- The decision follows a sharp run of poor form in which Angel City won once in eight matches and fell to 12th place in the 16-team NWSL standings.
- On the same day the club traded 19-year-old midfielder Kennedy Fuller to Bay FC for $520,000 in intra-league transfer and allocation funds, and Fuller thanked teammates in a club-released statement.
- Straus was hired in April 2025 after success at Bayern Munich and lasted just over a year with Angel City amid mixed results, including a 3-9-4 second-half record last season.
- With the NWSL on a summer break and the team due to return July 3, Angel City faces a compressed timeline to find a coach, stabilize performance, and decide whether further roster changes are needed to reverse the slide.