Angel City FC capped off its week of signing announcements on Friday, acquiring United States women's national team defender Emily Sams in a trade with the Orlando Pride. Sams' contract with the Los Angeles-based club runs through 2028.
In exchange for the 2024 NWSL champion, the Pride receive $650,000 in intra-league transfer funds.
"Angel City is a club with ambition, purpose and a clear commitment to excellence, and that's what drew me here," Sams said in a statement provided by Angel City. "I'm excited for the opportunity to keep growing as a player in an environment that pushes standards and believes in winning, while staying deeply connected to its community."
The 26-year-old earned a gold medal with the U.S. at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris . She now joins an Angel City side in the midst of another significant transformation.
"We see a quarterback who can help the build-up and improve the way this team will dominate with the ball," Angel City sporting director Mark Parsons told The Athletic . "However, I also see one of the best defenders in the league who loves defending, 1v1 defending, controlling, manipulating the opponent, the attacker in those key moments, how to defend a box, how to communicate.
"I'm not trying to use comparisons of other players, but something that I talked about earlier was (how) Becky Sauerbrunn was the best defender in this league year after year after year, but she didn't get the attention or time or respect on her name until she was probably 30, which is crazy of all the trophies that she won."
Sams joins Brazilian midfielder Ary Borges , a free agent who last played for Racing Louisville. The Pride have also made three collegiate signings in defender Karsyn Cherry from the University of Louisville, midfielder Carina Lageyre from Duke and midfielder Taylor Suarez from Florida State, which is also Sams' alma mater. Suarez is a two-time NCAA champion and signed with Angel City following her sophomore year.
The five-part announcement signals Angel City's next chapter following myriad changes during the 2025 season. The season began with interim head coach Sam Laity, who managed the team until Alex Straus was hired in April from Bayern Munich in the Frauen-Bundesliga. Angel City's roster also saw the departures of veterans and young stars, from USWNT forward Christen Press and former club captain Ali Riley (who both retired from professional soccer) to Alyssa Thompson , who signed with Chelsea in September.
"A bit of context on this process (is) that we do have a lot of great people working in the recruitment and the scouting departments," he said. "Their job is to get it to 90 percent, and then myself and Alex tag team to be obviously making the final call and trying to close, trying to get us to a situation where our team gets better."
Parsons said that with 2026 being his first full season together with Straus, they seized the opportunity to recruit aggressively and intentionally. Angel City had been eyeing Borges throughout the year. Their discussions with her took on a new shade after their trip to Louisville for a Sept. 25 match in which Racing won 1-0 and Borges, according to Parsons, was "the best player on the pitch and she crushed us."
The process took about six months overall.
"Me and Alex are very aligned on if we can't get the absolute fit that we want, we have to wait. What we don't want to do is compromise," he said.
Bookending the announcements with well-known NWSL players is sensible from an engagement perspective, but Parsons is just as excited about Angel City's newest rookies. He and the scouting and recruitment staff believe Cherry already has the physicality and technical ability to make for a smooth transition into the NWSL.
Lageyre, he said, has "the best brain of a No. 6 or No. 8 that we've seen in college." Suarez was not initially a target for Angel City given her age, but Parsons said one of the lessons he learned from recruiting during the days of the NWSL draft was the importance of readiness on the off chance a player is ready to turn pro sooner than expected. That wound up being the case with Suarez, whom he said was a standout player in both of Florida State's title-winning years.
There's been a noticeable shift toward younger players on Angel City's roster, many of whom, such as Kennedy Fuller, Evelyn Shores and Gisele Thompson, played significant minutes last season. Parsons said he and Straus plan to carry that forward with their latest signings as they continue cultivating Angel City's identity.
"We're not just trying to be a tourist and get close to a playoff and then be out in a week or two," Parsons said. "We're trying to get to the top and stay at the top, and that takes time. It took the top four anywhere between two to three years to get to where they are right now. We're trying to do it in less time."
This article originally appeared in The Athletic .
Orlando Pride, Angel City, NWSL
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