Gotham is BACK! Breaking down the big debuts, returning stars, and why Gotham doesn’t score more goals

Gotham’s first game of the season was an exciting one, and ended in a 1-1 tie with the Seattle Reign at a rainy Lumen Field. Notable moments include an excellent goal by Brazilian Gabi Portilho in her first game with Gotham, a standout performance by rookie Sarah Schupansky in her professional debut, and a controversial red card issued to defender Mandy Freeman. 

Overall, Gotham outplayed Reign, and supporters should feel good about the team’s performance, especially with new players integrating into the team—chemistry might take time, but the talent is clearly there. Jaelin Howell, Schupansky, and Portilho all put in strong performances and seem to be integrating into the team well.

Negatives? Outside back depth could be worrying, especially with Freeman out for next week’s game. Bruninha will be back from her suspension, but generally it’s an area that Gotham needs to focus on after the loss of Jenna Nighswonger.

There were no updates on Midge Purce and Rose Lavelle’s injuries, although Purce was recently removed from the season-ending injury list so she will hopefully see minutes soon.

Next up… the home opener and a big test against the Orlando Pride, who put away a whopping 6 goals past Chicago this weekend.

Stellar debut for rookie Sarah Schupansky

21-year-old rookie Sarah Schupansky was the standout Gotham player on Saturday, and from her excellent play you might never have guessed it was her professional debut. She played as attacking midfielder, with regular starter Rose Lavelle still recovering from injury.

Schupansky signed with Gotham this offseason out of University of Pittsburgh, where she played for three seasons and achieved a number of accolades including All-ACC first team. Impressively, she led the entire NCAA in assists with 15 assists in 2024. A versatile attacker, Schupansky can play as a midfielder or on the wing.

The fact that Schupansky had such a high value in both expected assists and expected assisted goals tells us that she was both delivering great passes and delivering them into high-value positions on the field, significantly increasing Gotham’s chances of scoring. 

When asked why he decided to start Schupansky, Coach Juan Carlos Amorós said: “I think everyone could see tonight why we started Sarah Schupansky. She was absolutely brilliant in everything she did.”

Midfielder Nealy Martin had high praise for Schupansky: “She's able to play multiple positions for us, and she can hit it right and left footed. So she's really impressive for a rookie.”

If Lavelle returns to full health, Schupansky could struggle to see minutes while playing behind stars like Lavelle, Purce, and Portilho. But overall, she’s an incredibly exciting player that fans should be paying attention to.

Esther continued to prove why she’s Gotham’s go-to striker

Spanish forward Esther González signed with Gotham in the summer of 2023, and has made a huge impact during her time with the club. Although she was sidelined with a foot injury in the middle of 2024, she led the team in goals scored last year with 10 goals, and was also the leader in overall goal contributions with 14.

Playing as a striker, Esther had a strong game against the Reign. Through one on-target shot and two off-target shots, she generated 0.6 xG, the highest of any player on either team.

If we’re looking at goals added as our metric, Esther González was the best player on the pitch this match. Let’s break down what she specifically did well.

Esther registered by far the highest shooting and receiving g+ values this match. What this means is she was very proficient at positioning herself in dangerous places to receive the ball and also registered quality shots. A prime example of her positioning can be seen here:

Ella Stevens deserves a ton of credit for this beautiful pass to Esther, but the pass wouldn’t have been possible without Esther’s intelligent positioning. Although this particular shot wasn’t the greatest, Esther still was a proficient shooter in this match overall.

Despite not scoring herself, Esther continued to prove why she’s Gotham’s go-to striker. However, she is 32 years old this season, and while we will hopefully not see a decline from her just yet, that is definitely within the realm of possibility.

Gotham still struggles to score

Gotham has never been a high-scoring team; although they had the club’s most successful year ever last year, they did so with many low-scoring wins, and ended up with a total record of 41 goals for and 20 against. In the latter half of the season, though, they started to hone in on their scoring ability, including a notable 5-1 win over Bay FC.

Is Gotham back to struggling to convert, or is this just a fluke? Saturday’s game continued the low-scoring pattern with a 1-1 draw.

Gotham outshot Reign 11 to 7, and generated more xG (1.3 vs. 0.6). However, the quality of Gotham’s shots leaves a little to be desired. Expected goals (xG) is a measure that considers shooter position, defenders’ positions, and goalkeeper position to calculate how likely a shot is to turn into a goal. Post-shot expected goals (PSxG) is that same measure, but also taking into account actual shot quality. When looking at PSxG - xG to isolate shot quality alone, Reign added a lot more value to their shots than Gotham did, and that showed in the scoreline: despite creating far more chances, creating higher-quality chances, and taking more shots, Gotham still only managed one goal and ultimately had to settle for a point on the road where there could have easily been three.

JCA commented on Gotham’s lack of high quality shots: “We controlled the possession of the game. Sometimes we could have been a little bit better in our penetration moments. When we did, we weren't critical enough or clinical enough.” However, he was happy with the game overall.

Let's talk about that red card…

In the 87th minute, Mandy Freeman was issued a straight red card for stepping on the ankle of Reign forward Nérilia Mondésir. This happened shortly after a previous red card check for a kick to the face by Jaelin Howell, which only resulted in a yellow. 

JCA commented on the card: “Mandy is an extremely fair play player, and she definitely didn't mean to hurt anyone. The red card, it was the decision from the referees; we need to respect it.”

Amorós said that after the card was awarded, the team went on the offensive to still try and win, rather than playing for a tie: “We were actually trying to go very offensive, to try to go and win the game.”

Following the red card, Lily Reale was subbed in for Sarah Schupansky and seemed to be playing as outside back (despite playing as a center back in college). She did so quite well, registering the second-highest dribbling g+ of the match despite only playing for 10 or so minutes. However, it is unclear if this was just her subbing in for Mandy Freeman who had just been sent off with a red card, or if this is an indicator of where she will play on Gotham more permanently. Regardless of what JCA’s intentions were with this move, playing Reale as a fullback would be a promising move going forward, especially given the team’s lack of fullback depth. And, if we’re looking at the immediate future, this would help alleviate the problem of Freeman’s red card suspension that she will be serving at next week’s home opener against the Orlando Pride.

Next week, Gotham takes on the Pride at home opener

Next week, Gotham has their work cut out for them as they take on last year’s Shield and Championship winners, the Orlando Pride. The Pride are already off to a huge start, with a 6-0 blowout against a weak Chicago Stars. But they’re not invincible—the last time Gotham played the Pride in October, they won 3-1, the Pride’s most recent loss.

If Gotham is to hold up against attackers like Barbra Banda, they’ll need to maintain a strong defensive structure even without Freeman, who will be out on suspension. Against the Reign this weekend, Gotham held its defensive structure for most of the match, but fell apart towards the end, which cost the team the win.

For most of the match, Gotham maintained its defensive structure and was able to limit the Reign to very few and very low quality shots. However, if we zoom in and look at the last 30 minutes of the game, there is a very different story.

Gotham struggled to create chances, not registering a single shot after the 81st minute, and allowed Seattle to create several chances including a goal. 

Martin explained Gotham’s game plan and where it went wrong against the Reign: “Offensively, we were trying to exploit the wide channels, because they're pressing out to in, so we continue to do that. I think we're good in the build, and we kind of just stuck to our game plan that we had the whole game. We just executed it better and got a goal, and then I think we let off the gas a little bit in the middle part of the second half, but that's just a place that we can build.” 

For the most part, Reign didn’t punish Gotham for this lapse in defensive structure—sure, the team conceded a goal, but it was a pretty flukey one that was more so a result of Gotham’s defensive errors than capitalization on the part of the Reign.

However, Orlando Pride definitely will punish Gotham for defensive errors. The Pride scored 6 goals on 2.1 total xG in their opening match, so they don’t need many chances to be able to score. Gotham needs to maintain its defensive structure throughout the entire match in order to have a shot at even getting a point out of this match.