Photo Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images
In this week’s iteration of Anatomy, we’re bringing you a special edition. Let’s call this Anatomy of an Own Goal, courtesy of the Washington Spirit’s backline. The Spirit battled Angel City to a 2-2 draw on Thursday, September 18, and managed to secure a single point from the match after scoring 75% of the goals.
The own goal of interest was the third goal scored, and actually gave Angel City the lead in the 55th minute before Washington’s Croix Bethune saved the day with an equalizer in the 71st.
Before we break our goal of interest down frame-by-frame, let’s take a look at the sequence in full.
Riley Tiernan forces an own goal to put @weareangelcity back in front 🪽 pic.twitter.com/llU78dtqyv
— Attacking Third (@AttackingThird) September 19, 2025
This one started right around midfield, with Angel City’s central defender Sara Doorsoun-Khajeh collecting the ball at her feet and facing up.

The German international drove forward into space before hitting new teammate Nealy Martin with a square ball. At this point, the sequence was almost stymied by the referee.
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