FIFA Women’s Champions Cup Preview

Happy new year and happy offseason! Gotham is back in action in less than a week as the Bats take part in the inaugural FIFA Women’s Champions Cup in London. The team first takes on the champions of South America (and forward Gabi Portilho’s former team), Corinthians, on Wednesday, January 28th at 7:30 AM ET. Then, Gotham takes on either European champions Arsenal or African champions AS FAR on Sunday, February 1st, in either the championship or third place game. But before we get into that…

The offseason

The 2025-26 offseason has not been quite as busy as the last, but Gotham has still made some moves. On December 4th, the club announced the departures of forwards Ella Stevens, who declined the player side of a mutual option for the 2026 season, and Geyse, whose loan spell with the Bats had come to an end. Stevens, who only made 10 appearances this season due to injury, had 0 goals and 1 assist to her name this past year, and Geyse finished her season with 2 goals and 2 assists in 17 appearances in NWSL play. Although her 2025 season was cut short, we will always remember Ella Stevens for her breakout performance in 2024.

Gotham’s next piece of business was taking care of the last remaining 2026 free agent, Midge Purce. On December 12th the club announced that the forward had inked yet another one year deal to keep her with the Bats through the 2026 season, which means we’re going to go through this all over again in a year but we get another year of Midge Purce. Yay!

Then the Bats acquired midfielder Savannah McCaskill from the San Diego Wave on January 2nd in exchange for $175,000 in intraleague transfer funds. McCaskill has been in the league since the 2018 season, initially drafted 2nd overall by the soon defunct Boston Breakers before being selected by Sky Blue FC in the subsequent dispersal draft. That year, she was selected as a finalist for Rookie of the Year, ultimately losing out to her teammate Imani Dorsey. 

McCaskill spent most of her NWSL career playing as an attacking midfielder, until the 2025 season when she was converted to a deeper central/defensive midfielder role where she found the most success that she’s had in years. However, her creativity in the attacking midfield role had earned her a few caps on the USWNT, although she hasn’t made an appearance for country since 2018.

Regardless, this acquisition was still a bit of a headscratcher at the time, as the midfield felt like the area where Gotham needed the least reinforcement, especially for a player that’s had a very hot-and-cold career of late. We’re not exactly sure where on the field she’ll be playing, but our best guess is that we’ll see her in the center of the field to serve as that box-to-box replacement for Delanie Sheehan that the team never fully got last year. Head coach Juan Carlos Amorós seemed very happy with Jaelin Howell in defensive midfield last year, Gotham surely has enough attacking midfielders right now (Rose Lavelle, Jaedyn Shaw, Sarah Schupansky, Sofia Cook, Stella Nyamekye, and a new rookie, but more on that later), and $175k is a lot to spend on a benchwarmer. And Gotham’s coaching staff has shown time and time again that they are great at bringing the best out of players, so we’re choosing to be cautiously optimistic about this move for now. 

Gotham has also signed a few new rookies out of college this year. First, on December 9th, the club announced the signing of Talia Sommer out of Butler University on a one-year deal through the 2026 season. 

Sommer plays as an attacking midfielder and is joining the Bats on the heels of a 6-goal, 7-assist senior season at Butler. Her position is definitely not one where Gotham is in need of depth, so it’ll be interesting to see if she gets converted to another role. Although Gotham surely feels very very fortunate to have Esther González, the 33-year-old striker is only signed through the 2027 season, so it’s prudent of the club to look for a viable successor. This short-term contract could see Amorós testing Sommer out at the 9 to see what she’s capable of there.

The team’s next college signing wasn’t until after the new year, when Gotham announced that Stanford University forward Andrea Kitahata would be joining the team on a one-year deal. 

Kitahata seems to primarily play as a winger, a position where Gotham could certainly use more depth. As captain of the Cardinal, she notched a career-high 17 goals and 10 assists in her senior season. Kitahata also has caps for the United States at the youth level, most recently playing in all 3 games in the 2022 U-20 Women’s World Cup and scoring 7 goals at the 2022 CONCACAF Women’s U-20 Championship. She’s known for her finishing, so if she can translate that to the pros she’ll certainly be a great get for the Bats. 

A little over a week later, Gotham announced the signing of fellow USYNT standout Teagan Wy out of UC Berkeley. Unlike the other two college signings, Wy signed a multi-year contract that keeps her with the Bats through the 2028 season. 

Wy has had an illustrious career at the youth national team level, starting in goal for every game of the 2024 U-20 Women’s World Cup and leading the team to a third place finish. Particularly impressive is her performance in the quarterfinals of that tournament, where the United States defeated Germany in a penalty shootout 3-1. She was also invited by the USWNT coach Emma Hayes’ January 2025 Futures Camp as a training player. Besides the promise that she’s shown at the national level, Wy has also had a strong college career, consistently allowing fewer goals than expected. With goalkeeper AKB’s contract running out at the end of the 2026 season, it makes a lot of sense for Gotham to start looking into future options at the highly demanding goalkeeper position. If Wy’s skills translate to the professional level, she seems like an excellent prospect.

In addition to these acquisitions, the club announced that it had recalled midfielder Stella Nyamekye and forward Princess Ademiluyi from their loans at Gainbridge Super League club Fort Lauderdale United FC for the FIFA Women’s Champions Cup. What we don’t know is whether we can expect to see minutes from them (though we imagine we won’t) or if this is more of an opportunity for the pair to participate in preseason training. More significantly, we don’t know whether they will be returning to Fort Lauderdale at the end of the tournament to finish out their loan spell or if they will be joining the Bats for the beginning of the 2025 season.

Finally, forward Katie Stengel and defender Kayla Duran’s contracts are due to expire after this tournament, so unless their deals are extended soon we can expect to see them leave the team in a little over a week. 

Tournament preview

As we mentioned earlier, Gotham’s first match in this tournament will be in the semifinals against Brazilian club Corinthians on Wednesday, January 28th at 7:30 AM ET. Their opponents are the most successful club in the top flight of Brazilian women’s football, having won 6 of their 7 titles in the past 6 years. They are also the most dominant team in the South American Copa Libertadores Femenina, winning 3 of their 6 championships in the past 3 years. They have certainly earned their spot in the FIFA Champions Cup and are sure to give the Bats a hard time. Like Gotham, Corinthians are currently out of season, having played their last league match in September of 2025. 

Gotham’s next match in the tournament will be playing for either the championship or third place on Sunday, February 1st against either Arsenal FC or AS FAR. 

AS FAR is the most successful team in the Moroccan Women’s Championship D1 by a long shot, with their 12 league titles being 8 more than the next best team. The club is also tied for most CAF Women’s Champions League titles with 2. Unlike the other 3 clubs in this competition, AS FAR competed in a playoff to earn their spot; they defeated AFC Women’s Champions League winners Wuhan Jiangda in extra time to qualify. AS FAR are currently in season, having won their most recent match on January 3rd 4-1.

By one metric, Arsenal WFC are the most successful club in England, having won the most titles in English women’s football in all iterations of the top flight. The club most recently won the English Women’s Super League in the 2018-19 season but pulled off a very impressive UEFA Women’s Champions League title in the 2024-25 season to qualify for this tournament. Competing in an attractive league with no salary cap, Arsenal are able to attract and retain top international talent including USWNT right back Emily Fox, Spain’s Mariona Caldentey (who finished 2nd in 2025 Ballon d’Or rankings), and English stars like Leah Williamson and Alessia Russo (who finished 7th and 3rd, respectively, in 2025 Ballon d’Or rankings). If the Bats were to face them, it would definitely be their biggest challenge in this tournament, as the European Champions are both very talented and in-season. Arsenal’s most recent match was on Saturday, January 24th as they took down domestic rivals Chelsea FC 2-0.

Despite not being in-season, however, the Bats are taking this competition very seriously and doing all they can to set themselves up for success, as reported on by Sports Illustrated’s Jenna Tonelli.

Regardless of what happens, it is very cool for Gotham to be the first ever CONCACAF representatives on the world stage and this is a super unique opportunity for the Bats. 

We will be back to recap the two matches after they both occur. Until then, make sure to create a free account on DAZN to watch the games and get ready to wake up bright and early on Wednesday to watch the Bats take on the South American Champions.

Thumbnail courtesy of Gotham FC.