FIFA Women's Champions Cup recap: Rusty

Gotham FC came out of the inaugural FIFA Women’s Champions Cup with a shiny bronze medal that probably feels a little lackluster for a team that had championship game aspirations. The Bats fell to São Paulo-based Corinthians 0-1 in the semifinals but bounced back to secure bronze against AS FAR from Rabat. Gotham won the third-place match 4-0, with goals from Khyah Harper, Savannah McCaskill, Jaedyn Shaw, and Midge Purce ensuring that the Bats left London with hardware. What went wrong in the first match and what went right in the second? Let’s get into it.

A finishing disasterclass

It’s a new year but some things never change as Gotham’s finishing woes continue to haunt them. Against Corinthians, Gotham generated 1.4 xG over the course of 90 minutes—twice as much as their opponent—but with only 1 on-target shot (out of 20 total shots), they walked away with 0 goals. By all other accounts the Bats dominated this game, with 69% possession and a field tilt of 79-21. How exactly did their 20 shots turn into 0 goals? And how did Corinthians walk away with the spot in the final?

Poor shot selection

Ordinarily, 1.4 xG is a reasonable tally to put up in a soccer game—in the championship game against the Washington Spirit last season, Gotham won the game off of just 0.87—but when averaged out over 20 shots, this amounts to just 0.07 xG per shot. If we remove the two statistical outliers in terms of xG, the xG per shot goes down to 0.05. That is… less than ideal. Let’s take a look at some of the decision making that led to such poor quality chances.

Chance 1: 14’, 0.07 xG

Okay, so while not the lowest quality chance of the night by xG, this was still a questionable choice by Lavelle. After a quick start in which the Bats generated 0.33 xG within the first five minutes of the game, Gotham started to get a little complicit and lazy in their shot selection, and this was the first we saw of that.

Chance 2: 23’, 0.03 xG

Jaedyn Shaw, what are we doing here? Was the goalkeeper off her line? No. Were you out of passing options? No. So why are we shooting from that distance?

Chance 3: 36’, 0.05 xG

Midge Purce is one of the most talented players in the league in terms of her ability to take defenders on 1v1 on the wing and that’s on full display here. It is a little sad to see all of that hard work squandered on a low-chance shot that doesn’t challenge the goalkeeper at all.

Finishing that… could’ve been better

Despite most of Gotham’s shots being similar to the ones above, they did actually do the work to get some quality looks on goal. But there just weren’t enough to counteract Gotham’s propensity to bottle the best of chances.

Chance 1: 17’, 0.22 xG

Open net and it somehow ends up way east of goal. Welcome to Gotham FC Savannah McCaskill.

Chance 2: 53’, no shot registered

…

A moment of defensive weakness

Corinthians had a plan, and they were sticking to it. With the help of a little luck during some dangerous moments and a lot of defensive discipline, the Brazilian team was able to lock down Gotham’s attack and make the Bats more and more frustrated as the match went on. One moment was all they needed and they won it with their tenacity in the 83rd minute of the game.

The chance starts with Corinthians bringing the ball up the pitch.

Corinthians forward Ivana Fuso is able to beat defender Lilly Reale on two occasions and finally gets near the box, where the only option is striker Jhonson surrounded by four Gotham defenders.

So what does she do? She reads the game well and passes the ball back to Corinthians captain Gabi Zanotti, who decides to take a chance at goal but ultimately has her shot blocked by a Gotham defender. 

But the Brazilian team is tenacious, making sure to win the second ball here and recycle the attack. At every point of this phase, Gotham’s defense is just a step behind, and Corinthians are able to exploit that (and an uncharacteristic blunder from goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger) to take the lead with less than 10 minutes left in regulation time.

At the end of the day, it is still preseason, and what this match really came down to was Corinthians staying disciplined enough to allow their unorthodox playing style to prevail on that night. If we look at the passing networks of this game, Gotham was far and away the better team on paper.

Football can be cruel, and for the most part the poor finishing in this match wasn’t entirely on the Bats. While this was less clinical than we would have hoped, Gotham’s finishing in this match deserves some grace and shouldn’t be considered an indictment of this 2026 team, especially before the season has even had a chance to start. And while we don’t necessarily want Gotham to become the Esther González show, it’s impossible not to acknowledge that the team was missing a player who scored 37% of their regular season goals in 2025.

Rookies, sophomores, and newcomers

Gotham’s lineup against Corinthians was pretty typical for the team, identical to the starting XI against Kansas City in last year’s quarterfinals save for newcomer Savannah McCaskill replacing Sarah Schupansky. However, head coach Juan Carlos Amorós started 6 and subbed in 3 players who started in fewer than half of all regular season games for Gotham last year, including 2 rookies. Because of this shakeup, we got to evaluate the performances of players we don’t see very often, and this is what we found.

Khyah Harper can ball

If it weren’t for Midge Purce’s goal having a 0.90 xG value, Khyah Harper would have led this game with her 0.89 total xG (3 shots, incl. 1 goal). Numbers alone don’t tell the story, so let’s take a look at these shots as well as the other ways in which she was able to create.

Moment 1: 27’ (goal)

Harper created this goal all on her own. She wasn’t exactly facing off against the most determined defense here, but she still deserves tons of credit for the way she effortlessly moved inside from out wide and managed such an excellent finish on this chance. She bags Gotham’s first goal of the calendar year and allows the Bats to finally take a breath.

Moment 2: 48’ (almost assist?)

Khyah Harper also shined in Gotham’s last goal of the game. 

First of all, take a look at this flick onto the path of Jaedyn Shaw on the left wing. Wow. This chance would never have even happened if she hadn’t received the long ball and kept the play alive in such an innovative and foolproof way. 

And then she drifts out to the opposite flank undetected and opens up space for what ends up being a 0.75 PSxG finish on a 0.54 xG chance. It’s a shame she didn’t get the glory of a goal credit here, but we hope she sleeps well at night knowing that her effort created a 0.90 xG chance (and a goal) for her teammate Midge Purce.

Moment 3: 80’

This moment didn’t end up resulting in a goal, but it demonstrates her in-game intelligence. Her clever movement creates heaps of space inside of the box with a clear look on goal and she gestures for the ball. But by the time it gets passed to her, she realizes that she’s attracted the attention of 3 defenders. Instead of settling for a lousy shot or risking losing the ball and squandering the chance, she has the presence of mind to hop over it and allow it to continue into the wide open space behind her.

We’re quite pleased with the creativity and intelligence we saw from Khyah Harper’s center forward this match, and hope to see more of her against NWSL competition this year. She did score a goal in her only start as a striker last season…

Andrea Kitahata is… a left back? And Talia Sommer is… a right back?

Okay, Juan Carlos Amorós might have a problem. The two rookies who got minutes in this game both got deployed at outside back, marking the fifth time the head coach has converted a rookie to outside back since he began his stint with the team in 2023. He hasn’t exactly failed at this endeavor (in fact, he’s produced two rookies of the year who also earned national team call-ups), but it’s still odd every time we see it.

Andrea Kitahata made her Gotham debut as one of four substitutions in the 61st minute, when she, Katie Stengel, Sarah Schupansky, and Bruninha replaced Midge Purce, Jaedyn Shaw, Jaelin Howell, and Lilly Reale. As expected, Katie Stengel took Jaedyn Shaw’s spot on the wing and Sarah Schupansky took over for Jaelin Howell in the midfield. Ordinarily, we would have seen Bruninha replace Lilly Reale as an outside back, and since Kitahata played primarily as a winger in college it would have made sense for her to take over for Midge Purce on the other wing. But instead, Bruninha took Purce’s spot on the right wing and Kitahata took over at left back. 

Talia Sommer, who mostly played as an attacking midfielder in college, came on for Mandy Freeman in the 76th minute and took her spot at right back. 

We’re not sure if these unorthodox positions are a result of the flexibility to experiment afforded by being up 4-0 at the time of these substitutions (for example, attacking midfielder Sarah Schupansky wasn’t exactly a like-for-like swap for defensive midfielder Jaelin Howell) or if this is a sign of how the team plans to deploy these rookies long-term, but let’s take a look at how they did overall.

In Kitahata’s 33 minutes on the pitch, she had:

• 16 successful passes (80% pass completion)

• 2 successful take-ons (50% take-on success rate)

On the more defensive side, she completed:

• 3/3 attempted ball recoveries

• 0/1 attempted challenges

• 1/1 attempted clearances

• 1/2 attempted interceptions

In Sommer’s 18 minutes, she had: 

• 7 successful passes (64% pass completion)

• 1 successful aerial duel (100% aerial duel win rate)

And on the defensive side, she completed:

• 2/2 attempted ball recoveries

• 1/1 attempted tackles

So we didn’t get to see a lot of their defensive abilities. Part of that is because Gotham’s press didn’t allow many of the opponent’s attacks to get that far, and part of that is because of moments like this one, where center backs moved out and took over the responsibility of 1-on-1 battles.

In the attack, we were particularly impressed by this moment from Andrea Kitahata where she was well-positioned to intercept a pass, was able to control the ball while moving forward through traffic, and had a successful meaningful pass forward to Khyah Harper to keep the attack going.

Really, the conclusion here is that we can’t draw one from the very few minutes in an unconventional gamestate that we saw from these two. We’ll just have to wait until the regular season starts to see what they can really bring to the team.

Jaedyn Shaw is not just a two-hit wonder

After having a relatively off game against Corinthians (while playing out of position at the 9), Jaedyn Shaw bounced back to have a crucial role against AS FAR, with her one goal, one assist, and one hockey assist (kind of?) making up three-quarters of Gotham’s victory. 

Jaedyn Shaw didn’t have the last touch on Gotham’s second goal of the night, but her box movement resulted in a great assist in difficult conditions. She did get her name on the scoresheet five minutes later though.

It started with Shaw creating a chance so promising that an AS FAR defender was forced to foul. 

She earned her team a penalty and took it herself. 3-0, Gotham.

She also played a big role in Gotham’s 4th of the night.

Shaw carried the ball down the left wing, cut it across to lose her defender, and then sent a cross perfectly aimed at Khyah Harper’s forehead. Her precision and composure created the chance that ultimately resulted in yet another goal for the Bats.

We knew back when Shaw signed for the club in September that she would be bringing a lot to this team’s attack. But a big part of being a Gotham player is being committed to defending no matter where you play on the pitch. 

We got to see the effects of her spending her first preseason with the team here, as her tenacity to retain the ball was on full display.

Jaedyn Shaw seems to only be building on her already exquisite game, and we are so excited to see what this looks like in the regular season.

Measuring up in the midfield?

There were only 2 field players that played all available minutes for Gotham in this tournament, and one of them was newcomer Savannah McCaskill. McCaskill’s acquisition earlier this year was a mystery for many reasons, one of them being where on the field we could expect her to play—she spent most of her career playing as an attacking midfielder but, after a lackluster 2024 season, had a big comeback season playing in the defensive midfielder role. The 6 and the 10 are both spots that Gotham has fairly nailed on starters in (Jaelin Howell in the 6 and Rose Lavelle/Jaedyn Shaw/Sarah Schupansky in the 10), but given that the front office had spent $175,000 to acquire McCaskill, we hoped that the team had bigger plans for her than a spot on the bench. During these two games, we got a better idea of where she fits in on this team and how effective she is at that role. 

Where she plays

The big question surrounding McCaskill was whether we’d see her as one of two 10s (in her more traditional role), as one of two 6s (in her more recent new and improved role), or average the two and fill Gotham’s gap in the 8. If we look at the pass network of the game against Corinthians, she seems to be playing significantly higher up the pitch than Gotham’s defensive midfielder, Jaelin Howell, and significantly further back than Gotham’s attacking midfielder, Rose Lavelle. However, because AKB took a backseat in build-up play this match as Gotham played a high defensive line, Howell seemed to take her spot in the back-three in buildup, pushing her further back than usual. And Rose Lavelle’s position, both vertically and horizontally, don’t represent where she (or any attacking midfielder) typically plays. Because of that, it’s hard to glean much from this but we will say that Gotham’s deeper-lying attacking midfielder usually finds themselves in line with Lilly Reale. 

The team’s passing network against AS FAR offers us another example of what her role on this team could be. Here, all three midfielders are a lot closer together than in the last match, and McCaskill finds herself pretty much directly in between them, albeit slightly closer to attacking midfielder Sofia Cook if you really want to get technical. 

Based on these two passing networks, it seems like her role will build on Juan Carlos Amorós’ recent affinity for playing two 10s with one sitting deeper than the other. Especially when you look at who she’s passing to, her node is the closest thing to the center of the universe on both networks. This is still a headscratcher for us, as the Bats were already stacked at the 10 before she came in. But perhaps the team thinks her more recent experience in the 6 will lend itself to a better game as the 10-but-not-quite-10 profile that the team is looking to solidify. 

How she did

Across these two games, Savannah McCaskill did pretty well. Against Corinthians, she completed:

• Third most ball recoveries and interceptions 

• Third most successful passes (61; 81.3% success rate)

And against AS FAR, she completed: 

• Most ball recoveries

• Fourth most successful passes (44; 77.2% success rate)

She showed us a bit of what she can bring to the team. For example, she had some pretty threatening set piece deliveries.

And she also displayed some creativity and technical skill in live play. In this moment, she was able to somehow both keep the ball from going out of play and prevent it from ending up with Corinthians. A core part of Gotham’s identity as a team is defending no matter where one is on the pitch, and McCaskill went above and beyond here.

And here, we were able to see what she could contribute with her passing, as she had the vision to perfectly thread the ball through to Jaedyn Shaw, who theoretically had space in front of her to turn towards goal. 

Finally, she even scored for the Bats against AS FAR.

Her keeping the ball alive at the start of this play and managing to get it in the back of the net through multiple defenders are definitely assets to a goal-starved team like Gotham.

Also a big contributor to this goal was Sofia Cook. We got to see a full 90 from her, which is significant for a player who played less than twice as many minutes in regular season play last year. In the clip above, despite initially losing the ball due to a heavy touch, Cook stayed with the play and ended up creating that goal with her hockey assist. 

From Cook, we also liked this moment in the 8th minute. 

In its simplest form, a midfielder’s job is to connect the backline to the attack and Cook did exactly that here with her clever and controlled flick passes that kept the ball alive and resulted in an opportunity so promising that Midge Purce drew a yellow.

We were also impressed by her ball control here in the 75th minute.

Cook and McCaskill’s performances at this tournament definitely showed a lot of promise, and also helped take a bit of the sting out of the last of the team updates we discuss below.

Team updates

Gotham FC has undergone some changes since we last spoke. Most notably, the team signed standout rookie Jordynn Dudley from Florida State University to a 3-year deal on January 26th. Dudley joins as a 2025 Hermann Trophy finalist, two-time First Team All-American, and two-time NCAA tournament champion. She has also represented the United States at the youth level, winning bronze in the 2024 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup, and even earned a call-up to the senior national team’s Futures Camp in January 2025. 

Dudley plays as a center forward and as a winger, both positions where Gotham desperately needs to develop long term plans. While we didn’t get to see any of her this tournament, we’re very excited for what she can bring to the team this season.

Gotham has also seen a few departures. Forward Princess Ademiluyi was sent back on loan, this time going back across the pond to join WSL 2 side Ipswich Town FC through the end of the calendar year. Midfielder Stella Nyamekye was also briefly sent on loan, back to Fort Lauderdale United, but the club announced that the loan agreement was terminated on February 19th. At the moment, it’s unclear whether she will be joining Gotham for the 2026 NWSL season or be sent on loan somewhere else. 

In addition, forward Katie Stengel and defender Kayla Duran’s contracts expired at the end of the FIFA Women’s Champions Cup. Duran in particular stood out during her stint at the club, showing lots of promise in a position where Gotham’s roster is quite thin. We know, we know—don’t get too attached to the national replacement team player. But we’re just saying, we wouldn’t be upset if we saw her play for the club again in the future.

Finally, Gotham FC announced on February 12th that the club had traded midfielder Josefine Hasbo to Boston Legacy FC in exchange for $50,000 in allocation money. We’ve been quite impressed with what Hasbo has been able to bring to the team so this is a bit of a disappointment. But with Gotham’s midfield getting quite crowded, we would understand if she was seeking more minutes elsewhere. 

Looking ahead to next match

Gotham’s next (televised) game will be its 2026 NWSL season opener against expansion team Boston Legacy on Saturday, March 14th at 12:30 PM ET on ABC. After both Gabi Portilho and Rose Lavelle had to be substituted out against the Corinthians due to injury, their status remains unknown, but we will get an update by the time the season starts. We haven’t gotten the chance to see Boston play yet, but they’ve put together an impressive front line that includes Gotham’s own Ella Stevens, so Gotham needs to make sure to stay disciplined defensively. The title defense begins now!

Thumbnail courtesy of Gotham FC.