Angel City routs Boston Legacy 5-2, snaps six-game winless run

Six games without a win can weigh heavy on a team, but sometimes it only takes a quarter of an hour to shake it all off. That's exactly what happened to Angel City, which routed Boston Legacy 5-2 at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough and finally snapped a losing streak that had started to weigh on the locker room.

The match opened at breakneck speed. Four goals had already gone in within the first 18 minutes, a rare sight even in a league as competitive as the NWSL. It started with Ally Sentnor, who fired a right-footed strike from outside the box in the 5th minute that left no chance for the goalkeeper. Legacy answered quickly: just three minutes later, Sammy Smith equalized with a shot from distance that took a bounce and slipped past goalkeeper Angelina Anderson at the far post.

Angel City wasted no time reclaiming the lead. Prisca Chilufya struck in the 14th minute, finishing with a shot that took a slight deflection before beating goalkeeper Laurel Ivory. And there was more to come: in the 18th minute, Sveindís Jónsdóttir showed up from an almost impossible angle and slotted the ball through Ivory's legs to make it 3-1. That goal was also the Icelandic forward's seventh of the season, the highest total on the roster.

With that cushion, the visitors controlled the pace better in the second half. Chilufya struck again in the 58th minute, this time pouncing on the rebound from her own shot to complete her personal brace. Shortly after, in the 66th minute, Maiara Niehues made it 5-1 and all but sealed the result.

Boston Legacy, already struggling coming into the match, pulled one back through Aïssata Traoré in the 88th minute, though by then the gap was already too wide to close. The loss was the fourth in a row for the home side, which fell to a season record of 5-12-5.

For Angel City, on the other hand, the win comes at a crucial moment. The team improved to 8-8-5 and, more importantly, found some relief after a long stretch without a victory. It's one thing to fight for position in the standings while carrying doubts, and quite another to do it with the confidence of a road rout and of having put away a match that, in its opening minutes, looked like it might turn into an uncontrolled shootout.

Now, with the skid behind them and with Chilufya, Sentnor and Jónsdóttir all finding the back of the net, the next challenge will be sustaining that level. Because reacting on one particular night in Foxborough is one thing, and turning that momentum into something lasting for the rest of the season is quite another.