diff --git a/packages/angular/build/src/builders/application/tests/behavior/esbuild-for-await_spec.ts b/packages/angular/build/src/builders/application/tests/behavior/esbuild-for-await_spec.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..020e51a7f33f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/angular/build/src/builders/application/tests/behavior/esbuild-for-await_spec.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,75 @@
+/**
+ * @license
+ * Copyright Google LLC All Rights Reserved.
+ *
+ * Use of this source code is governed by an MIT-style license that can be
+ * found in the LICENSE file at https://angular.dev/license
+ */
+
+import { buildApplication } from '../../index';
+import { APPLICATION_BUILDER_INFO, BASE_OPTIONS, describeBuilder } from '../setup';
+
+describeBuilder(buildApplication, APPLICATION_BUILDER_INFO, (harness) => {
+  describe('Behavior: "Esbuild for-await"', () => {
+    it('should properly downlevel for-await loops with optimization enabled', async () => {
+      // Setup a for-await loop that triggers the esbuild minification bug when async/await is downleveled.
+      await harness.writeFile(
+        'src/main.ts',
+        `
+        async function test() {
+          const someAsyncIterable = {
+            [Symbol.asyncIterator]() {
+              return {
+                next() {
+                  return Promise.resolve({ done: true, value: undefined });
+                }
+              };
+            }
+          };
+          for await(const item of someAsyncIterable) {
+            console.log(item);
+          }
+        }
+        test();
+        `,
+      );
+
+      // Ensure target is ES2022 so that optional catch binding is supported natively.
+      await harness.modifyFile('src/tsconfig.app.json', (content) => {
+        const tsConfig = JSON.parse(content);
+        tsConfig.compilerOptions.target = 'ES2022';
+        return JSON.stringify(tsConfig);
+      });
+
+      harness.useTarget('build', {
+        ...BASE_OPTIONS,
+        optimization: true,
+        polyfills: ['zone.js'],
+      });
+
+      const { result } = await harness.executeOnce();
+      expect(result?.success).toBe(true);
+
+      // We expect the output to contain a catch block that captures the error in a variable,
+      // even if that variable is mangled.
+      // The pattern for the downleveled for-await catch block is roughly:
+      // } catch (temp) { error = [temp]; }
+      //
+      // With the bug, esbuild (when minifying) would optimize away the catch binding if it thought it was unused,
+      // resulting in: } catch { ... } which breaks the logic requiring the error object.
+      //
+      // The regex matches:
+      // catch \s*         -> catch keyword and whitespace
+      // \( [a-zA-Z_$][\w$]* \) -> (variable)
+      // \s* { \s*         -> { and whitespace
+      // [a-zA-Z_$][\w$]*  -> error array variable
+      // \s* = \s*         -> assignment
+      // \[ [a-zA-Z_$][\w$]* \] -> [variable]
+      harness
+        .expectFile('dist/browser/main.js')
+        .content.toMatch(
+          /catch\s*\([a-zA-Z_$][\w$]*\)\s*\{\s*[a-zA-Z_$][\w$]*\s*=\s*\[[a-zA-Z_$][\w$]*\]/,
+        );
+    });
+  });
+});
diff --git a/packages/angular/build/src/tools/esbuild/utils.ts b/packages/angular/build/src/tools/esbuild/utils.ts
index 6b8e44def11d..2730dafae97c 100644
--- a/packages/angular/build/src/tools/esbuild/utils.ts
+++ b/packages/angular/build/src/tools/esbuild/utils.ts
@@ -204,6 +204,9 @@ export function getFeatureSupport(
     // Native async/await is not supported with Zone.js. Disabling support here will cause
     // esbuild to downlevel async/await, async generators, and for await...of to a Zone.js supported form.
     'async-await': nativeAsyncAwait,
+    // Workaround for an esbuild minification bug when async-await is disabled and the target is es2019+.
+    // The catch binding for downleveled for-await will be incorrectly removed in this specific situation.
+    ...(!nativeAsyncAwait ? { 'optional-catch-binding': false } : {}),
     // V8 currently has a performance defect involving object spread operations that can cause signficant
     // degradation in runtime performance. By not supporting the language feature here, a downlevel form
     // will be used instead which provides a workaround for the performance issue.