Quarterfinals recap: Discipline

Gotham FC finally got the best of the Kansas City Current Sunday afternoon as the Bats chose a great time to pick up their first win against the side in 12 matches across all competitions. An opener from Jaedyn Shaw and a dramatic last minute game-winner in extra time from Katie Stengel saw Gotham knocking the league leaders out of the playoffs and soaring to the semifinals.

A 2-1 win over the Kansas City Current was not the result most were expecting, especially on the heels of a brutal 3-2 loss to the North Carolina Courage just one week before. How did the Bats pull off the first 8 seed vs. 1 seed upset in league history? Let’s get into it.

Intent and intensity

Gotham usually finds its success when playing with a very particular style, and perhaps the keystone of that strategy is exerting a lot of pressure on the opponent and forcing turnovers high up the field. In fact, Gotham’s average height of defensive actions—i.e. how far away from their defensive goal their average defensive action is—is the highest in the league at 45.73 meters, a little over 9 meters short of the halfway line at Sports Illustrated Stadium. The Bats topped this average at this match, initiating defensive actions an average of 47.37 meters away from their own goal, and it showed. Let’s take a look at how the team kicked off against North Carolina a week ago.

The team starts by going backwards, succumbs to North Carolina’s pressure, and allows their opponent to have stable possession of the ball within 25 seconds. Let’s compare that to the opening moments of this week’s quarterfinal.

Gotham starts by moving the ball forward, and although they quickly give the ball away, they are now in a position to put pressure on the Current in their defensive half and they do exactly that. So right off the bat, we can see a different energy from the Bats coming into this match, and it worked. Gotham had uncontested possession of the ball within 40 seconds of kicking off.

In the first half of the game, Gotham had 68% of ball possession, 6 of 9 shots taken, 85% passing accuracy, 97 passes in the attacking half, and 7 interceptions while limiting Kansas City to 63% passing accuracy, 34 passes in the attacking half, and 2 successful dribbles, and forcing them to commit 6 fouls. And in the game as a whole, the Bats recovered 86 loose balls, dispossessed the Current 20 times, and intercepted 16 passes. So, Gotham executing their usual game plan made them highly successful at both kickstarting their own attacks and preventing any from the Kansas City Current. 

The Bats also had over double Kansas City’s total ball-carrying distance and nearly double their progressive carrying distance despite attempting nearly the same number of progressive ball carries. What this tells us is that Gotham was highly effective at cutting Kansas City off when they attempted to go forward. 

Let’s take a look at some of the most pivotal moments of pressure and intensity that we saw from the team on Sunday.

Moment 1: 13’

This play starts with Jaelin Howell intercepting a goal kick from Kansas City keeper Lorena. From here, the team works incredibly fast with quick passes to progress the ball forward and get it into the box. Although no one is able to get an actual shot off here, we were still very impressed by the way the team was able to effortlessly transition between attacking and defending before Kansas City could make that same switch, and especially by the connection between the players all the way into the middle of the box.

Moment 2: 28’

Here, Jaedyn Shaw and Rose Lavelle work together to pick the pocket of Current midfielder Claire Hutton. Shaw comes away with the ball and recognizes the space that Midge Purce is in, allowing the winger to beat her defender enough to put off a shot with 0.30 PSxG and earn her team a corner kick.

Moment 3: 68’

Excellent intent and awareness sees Gotham finding the back of the net first. Emily Sonnett has great positioning here to intercept Kansas City’s attempted long ball forward and she picks her head up to see the space that Jaedyn Shaw has. Shaw is then able to exploit a defensive error from Kansas City center back Kayla Sharples as she takes advantage of the space she now has in front of her to dribble into the box and get into a good place to shoot. Then comes the $1.25 million shot that catapults Gotham into the lead.

Moment 4: 120’

It was pressure that led to the foul that won the free kick that won Gotham the game. Did we have to include Midge Purce and Jaedyn Shaw flicking the ball to each other 10 seconds before the foul even occurred? Perhaps not, but it also felt too cool to leave out. 

Moment 5: 120+1’

And of course, here’s the goal that sent us to the semifinals.

While it wasn’t necessarily pressure that caused this goal, intent and awareness were definitely a factor. After Jaedyn Shaw flicked the ball into her path, Katie Stengel exploited the fact that the Kansas City defenders were caught ball-watching and worked quickly to get the ball on frame, away from the goalie. The shot itself was kind of a lucky one, but that shouldn’t detract from the awareness that Stengel displayed to even get to a shooting position in the first place.

While Gotham led with pressure, the story of this match is also intent. Every play of the ball indicated that Gotham was not losing sight of their goal for a second, and playing that way for 120 minutes is a feat that the Bats should be very proud of.

A rock-solid defense

Last week, we talked about how Jess Carter had gone 3 game weeks in a row making a defensive error that led to a goal and expressed concern over her being out of form. Now, we’re choosing to look at it as her getting it all out of her system before Gotham started playing its single-elimination matches. The entire backline this game was brilliant, allowing the most dangerous attack in the league to create only 1 goal and 1.1 xG (and that goal arguably wasn’t their fault, but we’ll get into that later). Midfielder Jaedyn Shaw was confident in the defense’s ability in this matchup, noting that, “statistically, we came into this game as a team that has slowed down their attack before, even if we didn’t come away with the three points”—in the last meeting between these two teams, Gotham held Kansas City to their second-lowest xG total of the season.

Although Gotham has been playing with a back 3 in possession for quite a while now, head coach Juan Carlos Amorós made that a stronger feature of the lineup in this match. Jaelin Howell, the defensive midfielder who usually pops back in between the center backs to help build out from the back, had an average position that was closer to the center backs than it had been in the previous 2 matches. 

She sat back more than usual in the defense, and with two natural attackers (Rose Lavelle and Sarah Schupansky) in front of her in the midfield, she was freed up to focus more on defending. Emily Sonnett, Jess Carter, and Jaelin Howell moved as one in this defense, and as Amorós noted, “the way we play leaves them very exposed at times, but they handled it so well.” We got to see the first instance of this in only the 4th minute of play.

The drawbacks of Gotham’s high line are exposed here, as Kansas City’s front line is able to steal the ball in what seems like a very favorable position. But the backline recovers well, as Sonnett covers left-winger Debinha and gets between her and the goal, while Jaelin Howell and Jess Carter cover the space that striker Bia Zaneratto and attacking midfielder Ally Sentnor have to run into (Lilly Reale also keeps an eye on right-winger Nichelle Prince, but that doesn’t really come into play). Jaelin Howell’s positioning pays off, as she is able to intercept Debinha’s pass to Bia, and she keeps control of the ball before she is shoved to the ground in a foul on Bia’s part. Gotham faced their first real test of the game and passed with flying colors on their response.

Also brilliant in this match were fullbacks Lilly Reale and Bruninha, both in the attack and the defense. Reale earned herself the 4th highest Fotmob rating on the team with an 8.0, and in addition to that she led the match in clearances, carries, and successful take-on rate (100%). She also ranked second in the match in progressive carrying distance. Meanwhile, Bruninha led the game in passes and crosses into the penalty area, was second in passes into the final third and progressive passes, and had 0 miscontrols. Both of them played lights out, both in defense…

… and in offense.

Kansas City has found much success this year using their speedy attackers to beat defenses in transition. Gotham’s first defensive slip up this match came when the Current were attacking in transition following a Gotham corner.

Despite her best efforts, Schupansky shows us why she does not play in the defense and gives the ball away to NWSL Midfielder of the Year candidate Debinha. Schupansky and Carter work together to prevent Debinha from getting a shot off as Berger scrambles back to goal, but are unable to stop her pass to a wide open Nichelle Prince on the right with acres of space ahead of her. AKB is the real hero here at the end of the day, as she gets back just in time to stop Kansas City’s 2nd and 3rd highest xG chances of the match in quick succession. Honorable mention to Temwa Chawinga for being out injured, as she would almost certainly have put those chances away.

Another moment of defensive weakness came in the form of Kansas City’s equalizing goal. At this point, with less than 3 minutes of stoppage time remaining in regulation, Kansas City was throwing everything forward and Gotham was focused on defending with all the bodies they had. 

With all players sitting back, Gotham had no one to clear the ball to, which meant that Kansas City was able to continuously possess the ball. This also meant that some defensive responsibility fell to striker Katie Stengel, who was easily beaten by Kansas City fullback Ellie Wheeler. With none of Gotham’s actual defenders coming in to reoccupy that space, Wheeler has room to shoot right at the near post, and a rare bobble from Berger sees the Kansas City Current sending the game to extra time. Luckily, we know the rest.

Despite these two lapses, Gotham’s defense remained pretty much airtight this match, with defenders both protecting the goal and kickstarting attacks with immense discipline and awareness. We could not be prouder of this backline, especially for the way they bounced back just in time after conceding 7 goals in the last 3 matches of league play. 

Intelligence

An important part of soccer is game management, and in the freezing cold with a full 90 minutes to play—that later turned into 120—it was important for Gotham to figure out how to best play this game to their advantage. As midfielder Jaedyn Shaw put it, “executing the game plan, but also understanding the flows of momentum – knowing when to drop back into a block, reset and then build pressure again – was really important for us.” Let’s take a look at how Gotham managed to read the game well as a team and respond accordingly.

Phase 1: High pressure

Last week we talked about how important it was for Gotham not to concede first, and especially for them to not concede early. We talked earlier about the high pressure exerted by Gotham in this game, and even if this pressure didn’t necessarily result in many goals, it kept the Current at bay. The more that Gotham was able to keep the ball in their attacking half, the less opportunity there was for the most dangerous attack in the league to score. And this strategy worked—in the first 20 or so minutes of the match, the field tilt was 80-20 in favor of Gotham. 

We discussed some of Gotham’s best high pressure moments earlier, but Gotham was also able to create moments of lower pressure where momentum was still on their side. For example, there was this moment towards the end of the first half, when things were pretty settled on both sides but the game was still wide open.

Despite multiple turnovers and not initially giving Kansas City much to panic about, the Bats are able to come away with the ball in the end in this instance. With their tenacity, they are able to create an attacking play out of pretty much nothing by being the side that was more willing and able to win this ball.

Phase 2: Dropping into a block

Of course, it would be unrealistic to expect maybe the best team in league history to sit back and allow Gotham to throw bodies forward for 90 minutes. The Current also had scoring aspirations of their own, and despite their best efforts, Gotham’s offense wasn’t going to be able to serve as defense for the entire game. In the moments where Kansas City had their foot on the gas, it was important for Gotham to defend with discipline and numbers to stave off the strongest attack in the league. 

For example, in the first attacking chance Kansas City got after conceding, Gotham was prudent and sat far back. They knew that the Current would be hungry to equalize, and so they prioritized throwing numbers back.

Gotham’s overwhelming defense and their positioning here made it so that Kansas City’s best option was a 0.02 xG shot from 32 yards out by Ally Sentnor that ended up way off target.

Overall: Prioritizing connection and control

As the team vacillated between these two phases, one thing stood out—Gotham seemed to prioritize making sure that regardless of where the game was at, they retained control of the ball. Gotham has had some of its worst games this season when they were easily dispossessed (all but 1 loss came when the team was dispossessed more than 10 times, and all but 3 wins came when the team was dispossessed 10 times or fewer), so the Bats do better when they’re able to find their teammates, whether that be in low pressure or high pressure moments, or when the momentum is on their side or not. 

Here, in a moment of attacking pressure, Gotham prioritized maintaining control over the ball to maximize the longevity of their attack.

In a moment of defense Gotham blocks a cross here, and instead of just clearing the ball they see the opportunity to retain more stable control over it. Through some quick and accurate passes they are able to get out of pressure. And they even manage to create something going the other way, generating one of the best attacking chances of the game from either side.

When Gotham wasn’t attacking or defending, they spent several of the 90 minutes slowing things down and resetting before going forward again, again making sure to retain control of the ball and of the play.

So overall, this game was a great one in terms of game management, as both the coaching staff and the players were able to read what they needed to do in each phase of the game in order to increase their chances of scoring, decrease their chances of conceding, and maintain control of the match.

Looking ahead to next match

Gotham next travels to Orlando to take on the Orlando Pride in the second semifinal of the weekend on Sunday, November 16th at 3 PM ET on ESPN. The Pride are coming off of a 2-0 win against the Seattle Reign in the only match this weekend that didn’t require extra time, and are extra fired up after some comments from a sports commentator, so the Bats have their work cut out for them against the defending champions. The Orlando Pride are a very tough team that has had more rest, less playing time, and more home field advantage than Gotham, so this will definitely be an uphill battle. Regardless of what happens, Gotham has had a historic few years, making the semifinals in each of the past 3 seasons. No other team in the NWSL can say they’ve done the same.

Thumbnail courtesy of Gotham FC.