Week 10 recap: Control

Gotham FC cruised to a 2-0 victory over the Seattle Reign Friday night, with goals from Jaedyn Shaw and Tierna Davidson being the difference-makers in the game. This result marked the club’s 7th clean sheet in their first 10 matches—the first time this has been done in league history—as the Bats continue to break records defensively. Gotham’s five goals allowed ties the 2016 Portland Thorns for the fewest goals conceded through the first 10 games of a season. 

Gotham made one change in the starting XI from the previous week’s 1-1 draw against Boston Legacy FC as Sofia Cook took Sarah Schupansky’s spot at attacking midfielder while Rose Lavelle continues to be sidelined with a hamstring injury. This performance was a much more complete one than what we saw the week before, as the Bats had pretty much full control of the pitch and limited the Reign to 0.74 xG off of nine shots, only two of which were on target (fewest attempted by Seattle this season). What contributed to such a dominant performance?

Exploiting weaknesses

One of the more eyebrow-raising choices made in this match was Seattle Reign head coach Laura Harvey’s decision to start Shae Holmes, who had yet to play a minute this season, at left back. Perhaps she was banking on Gotham’s attack flowing through its left side as it usually does, giving Holmes an opportunity to ease back into league play. The Bats smartly recognized this weakness, and both of their goals ended up coming from the matchup between Jordynn Dudley and Shae Holmes on that side.

We first saw this dynamic in the 5th minute of the game, as Dudley got around Holmes with ease.

And then less than 20 minutes later, it led to a goal

This time, Dudley put her defender on skates as she dribbled along the endline, opening up room to pull the ball back to Savannah McCaskill at the top of the box. McCaskill mishits and it lands at the feet of Jaedyn Shaw, who manages to turn through defensive pressure to face towards goal and shoot it right into the back of the net before the goalkeeper has a chance to react.

Gotham’s second goal of the night came off of a corner kick, but that corner kick was won by Dudley succeeding in the very same matchup.

And then came the goal.

Jaelin Howell does a great job keeping this ball alive with a flick towards the back post.  Savannah McCaskill gets ahold of it and recognizes the space that Sofia Cook has at the top of the box and makes sure it gets to her. Finally, Cook gets her first professional assist with an intelligent low ball through traffic to Tierna Davidson, and the defender only needs to get a touch on it to get it into the back of the net. Speaking on her first regular season goal with the Bats, Davidson was full of praise for Sofia Cook, saying she did “excellent work keeping it low, keeping it on frame. It gives us an opportunity to get ricochets, to get one-touches on it. 

Gotham nearly got a third goal off of this combination, as Dudley earned another corner the same way in the 68th.

The ensuing corner resulted in a 0.29 xG chance for Midge Purce that was just barely off the mark.

Recently, Gotham has preferred to generate attack through its left side, and even did so in this game.

But they chose to take advantage of a favorable matchup on their right side, and it paid off.

Keeping up the press

Despite head coach Juan Carlos Amorós watching this game from home, Gotham’s signature high press made its mark on this match. Early on, we saw dangerous turnovers in moments like this…

… and this.

Even after grabbing a relatively early lead, the Bats didn’t take their foot off the gas.

Just minutes after the first goal was scored, Gotham won the ball back in an extremely dangerous position and created a relatively good look on goal for Jordynn Dudley.

And the press wasn’t just used for offense.

Gotham also forced turnovers to prevent opposing attacks at the source rather than allowing them to develop into real chances.

The Bats’ press was vital to their success in this match on both the attacking and defensive halves and allowed them to exert a high level of control over the pitch.

An all-encompassing defense

The Seattle Reign, who now haven’t scored in five consecutive league matches, certainly didn’t make defense very hard for Gotham in this game. Still, the entire team deserves credit for what they were able to pull off. Before we get into it, we just want to acknowledge that everybody is human and makes mistakes, and Gotham had one big defensive lapse that led to a shot worth 49% of Seattle’s total xG in this match.

Center back Tierna Davidson is not successful in her tackle here, and this leaves a wide open spot for the Reign to play the ball into. What’s important is that goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger read this play perfectly and made sure her team’s efforts in the rest of the game were rewarded with a clean sheet.

Other than that one lapse, what made Gotham’s defense in this game so effective?

They stopped attacks before they could begin

We talked earlier about how Gotham’s press also applied to its defense, and by turning defense into offense, the Bats were able to stop a lot of attacks from forming in the first place.

They maintained control of their defensive half

Even when the ball was in Gotham’s defensive third, the Bats were still cool, calm, and collected and kept possession with ease.

Sometimes they were a little too cool, calm, and collected.

They didn’t allow quality chances

On the rare occasion that Seattle did have the ball in Gotham’s defensive third, the defense still did enough to limit their opponents to only low-quality shots and opportunities.

Bonus: Center back Tierna Davidson showing off what she can do in the attack.

Looking ahead to next match

Gotham is stepping away from league play for a week as the Bats travel to Pachuca, Mexico for the knockout stages of the 2025/26 CONCACAF W Champions Cup. The Bats’ semi-final game will be on Wednesday, May 20th as they take on Club América Femenil at 7:30 PM ET on Paramount+. Gotham last faced Club América in last year’s semifinal, defeating the Mexican side 3-1 to advance to the championship game. This year, however, Club América is fresh off of a Liga MX Clausura championship win and boasts a strong squad that includes former Gotham player Geyse. The Bats will need to keep up this defensive discipline as they face off against a powerhouse Mexican side.

Regardless of the results of the semi-final, Gotham will be playing for either 3rd or 1st place in the tournament on Saturday, May 23rd, facing either C.F. Pachuca Femenil or domestic rivals Washington Spirit. The third place game will be at 6 PM ET on Paramount+ and CBS Sports Golazo Network, and the championship game will be at 9:30 PM ET on Paramount+ and CBS Sports Network. We’ll be back after the conclusion of the tournament to recap both of Gotham’s games.

Thumbnail courtesy of Gotham FC.