Maiara Niehues Scores Again as Angel City Blanks Chicago Stars for Club-Record Third Straight Clean Sheet

For 45 minutes, Angel City FC looked like a team that had left its legs in San Diego. Then halftime happened, interim head coach Leif Smerud apparently delivered a very persuasive speech, and the Chicago Stars spent the second half chasing shadows in their own penalty area.

Angel City beat Chicago 2-0 on Saturday evening at Northwestern Medicine Field at Martin Stadium, with Maiara Niehues scoring from the penalty spot in the 56th minute and Sveindís Jónsdóttir sealing it in the eighth minute of stoppage time. The shutout was Angel City's third in a row, which the club said is a club record, and the win was its third straight, a feat it had already pulled off once this season.

A Sluggish Start in Evanston

Chicago actually had the better of the opening stretch in front of 6,678 fans. Michelle Alozie fired wide off a Mallory Swanson cross in the first minute and pulled another effort just wide in the eighth. Nádia Gomes cleared the bar in the 13th, and Jameese Joseph forced Angelina Anderson into a save down at the bottom left corner in the 20th.

The Stars lost forward Jordyn Huitema to an injury in the 28th minute, with Ivonne Chacón coming on, and the half bogged down from there. Between the injury stoppages, a drinks break and a pile of free kicks, the fourth official added nine minutes. Angel City's best chances came from Carina Lageyre, whose shot from distance Katie Atkinson saved in the 38th minute, and Niehues, who blazed a shot high and wide a minute later on a fast break. At the other end, Anderson saved Swanson's header from an Alozie cross in the third minute of added time.

Both teams went into the locker room with six shots, per Angel City. Jónsdóttir did not sugarcoat it. "The first half was just not good for us. We didn't play the football we wanted," she said.

Smerud saw the same thing. "In the first half today, we were a bit on the back foot, and we had to figure out why," he said.

The Turning Point

Whatever they figured out, it worked immediately. Gisele Thompson had a shot blocked in the 47th minute, Atkinson got a hand to a Niehues header from a Jónsdóttir cross in the 48th, and Evelyn Shores pulled one just wide in the 51st.

Then, in the 53rd minute, Manaka Hayashi brought down Ary Borges in the box and the referee pointed to the spot. After a lengthy video review, Niehues stepped up in the 56th and drilled a low right-footed penalty into the bottom left corner. Angel City led 1-0, and the game changed shape completely.

"Niehues is a goal scorer," Smerud said. "As soon as the ball is inside the box and she can shoot it or head it, she is really dangerous, and that's invaluable to have in a team."

Siege Mode, Then the Dagger

From there, Angel City camped in Chicago's half. Niehues missed narrowly off a corner in the 67th minute. Atkinson saved from Emily Sams in the 71st. In one wild 76th-minute sequence, Shores had a header blocked, Lageyre shot wide and Atkinson stopped Ally Sentnor from close range. Chicago's 40 clearances tell you exactly how the second half felt from inside the Stars' penalty area.

Chicago's best answer came in the 81st minute, when Swanson sent a shot from the right side of the box just over the bar after a set piece. That was one of only two Stars shots after the break.

Angel City thought it had the clincher in the 86th minute when Jónsdóttir finished a move with Prisca Chilufya, but VAR ruled it out, with the club saying Chilufya was offside. The two simply ran it back. Deep into 10 minutes of stoppage time, Chilufya carried a counterattack into the Stars' half, drew two defenders and slid a low pass to a wide-open Jónsdóttir, who tapped it in from point-blank range in the eighth added minute.

"That goal is 100 percent Prisca's," Jónsdóttir said.

Star Turns

Niehues keeps doing this. Her penalty was her team-leading sixth goal of the season and extended her own club-record scoring streak to five straight matches. Angel City said the 21-year-old became the second-youngest player in NWSL history to score in five consecutive matches. She finished with five shots, two on target.

Jónsdóttir's goal was her fifth of the season, second on the team behind Niehues, and she also supplied the cross for Niehues' 48th-minute header. Sentnor was a volume shooter on a mission, firing eight times, though only one of those reached Atkinson. Anderson made three saves for the clean sheet, including a late stop on Aaliyah Farmer's header in the 11th minute of stoppage time.

For Chicago, Atkinson made four saves and kept the score respectable, and Swanson, who made her 100th regular-season NWSL start according to the Stars, put one of her two shots on target. Farmer won seven duels, and Gomes and Sam Staab led the Stars in clearances, per the club. Leila Ouahabi made her NWSL debut off the bench in the 84th minute after signing with Chicago in June.

Stats That Matter

• Shots: Angel City 22, Chicago 8.
• Shots on goal: Angel City 6, Chicago 3.
• Saves: Atkinson 4, Anderson 3.
• Clearances: Chicago 40, Angel City 24.
• Corners: Angel City 7, Chicago 4.

What It Means

Angel City climbs to 7-1-6 with 22 points, and the last three matches have all ended 2-0: at home against Orlando, at San Diego and now at Chicago. Angel City heads home to face Racing Louisville FC at BMO Stadium on Sunday, July 26.

Chicago falls to 4-0-11 with 12 points after a second straight 2-0 loss, following one at Boston Legacy FC the week before. Angel City won the first meeting between these clubs 4-0 in Los Angeles in March, the first match of the season for both. The Stars travel to the Orlando Pride on Friday, July 24.

Smerud summed up the second half with zero modesty and full accuracy. "We managed to build the intensity in the second half, and I think we rolled over them," he said.

Closing Take

This was a two-act play with a very obvious intermission. Act one was a slog. Act two was Angel City turning the Martin Stadium penalty area into its personal playground. Three straight clean sheets, a club record and a 21-year-old who scores like it is a habit: if this is the version of Angel City that sticks around, the rest of the league should start paying attention.

Stats from ESPN's match data. Postgame quotes as reported by AngelCity.com; additional details from ChicagoStars.com.