Angel City parts ways with GM Angela Hucles Mangano amid playoff slump

Kevin Baxter, Los Angeles Times on Dec 5, 2024

Published in Soccer

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LOS ANGELES — Angel City has parted ways with general manager Angela Hucles Mangano after the team missed the playoffs for a second time in three seasons.

The decision is the first significant move under new controlling owner Willow Bay, who joined with her husband, Disney CEO Bob Iger, in investing in the team last July. More changes are expected with coach Becki Tweed now on the hot seat.

Tweed, who took over midway through the 2023 season, narrowly got the team into the playoffs that year. But Angel City went 7-13-6 and scored just 22 goals, second-lowest in the NWSL, in her only full season in charge. The team's goal differential of -18 was also second-worst.

Tweed was hired by Hucles Mangano, and a new general manager would be expected to chose their own coach. Changes could be coming in the team's management structure as well.

Bay, dean of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, has impressed people close to the club with her insistence of rolling up her sleeves and digging into her new job, her first in professional sports. Angel City was founded in 2020 by actor Natalie Portman, venture capitalist Kara Nortman, and entrepreneur Julie Uhrman. Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian was the founding controlling owner.

Bay and Iger invested at least $50 million in Angel City last summer, according to the club, bringing the value of the franchise to $250 million, a record for a women's sports team. And while the team has had a presence in the community, delivering more than 2 million meals to needy individuals in Los Angeles, pledging 10% of its sponsorship dollars to local programs and mobilizing 1,300 people to contribute more than 4,200 volunteer hours to nonprofits, it has been a loser on the field, going 23-29-18, conceding more goals than it has scored and ranking among the league leaders in the number of times it has been fined or penalized by the NWSL for violating league rules.

Bay is determined to turn that around.

Hucles Mangano, a two-time Olympic champion with the U.S. women's team, joined Angel City as vice president of player development ahead of the club's first season, then transitioned to general manager, replacing former England international Eniola Aluko in August 2022.

During her time as GM, Hucles Mangano engineered the complicated three-team trade that allowed Angel City to land high schooler Alyssa Thompson, signed former Manchester United captain Katie Zelem and started construction on a new 50,000-square-foot performance center, the largest in the league.

Assistant general manager Matt Wade will assume Hucles Mangano's duties while the club conducts a search for a new full-time GM.