Week 14 recap: A dream debut, and a nightmare everything else

Gotham FC dropped points for the third time this season as the Bats settled for a 1-1 draw against the 13th place Chicago Stars on Friday night. Was it because Gotham players keep picking their gum up off the pitch?

We can’t know for sure. But anyway, before we get into the match, we have a team update for you.

Gotham re-signed Katie Stengel

On Thursday, July 31, Gotham announced that they had re-signed Katie Stengel to a contract running through February 2026. They acquired the forward through an undisclosed transfer fee to Barclay’s WSL2 side Crystal Palace, the club that Stengel left Gotham to play for in September 2024. We will acknowledge that Gotham’s forward pool has found itself very thin at various points this season, and that signing a forward with lots of playing experience is not the worst idea in the world. Signing Katie Stengel specifically (especially for a transfer fee) has not been our favorite decision that Gotham has made. The woman might be cursed!

It’s worth noting that since she signed for Crystal Palace last fall, she scored 4 goals and notched 5 assists in 20 starts. And she scored twice and assisted once in Gotham’s Summer Cup game against Chivas de Guadalajara. So it’s possible that the forcefield that pops up around the goal whenever she’s in the box relaxes sometimes.

Gotham has much more pressing issues on its roster right now—the team is starting the group stage of the CONCACAF W Champions Cup this month, and will have 4 3-game weeks to deal with this fall with a total of 4 active rostered defenders. We are going to defer to the expertise of GM Yael Averbuch West and head coach Juan Carlos Amorós here, and recognize that they know this team and its needs much much better than we do. But with all that said, we are a bit wary about this decision. Katie Stengel, please prove us wrong.

Now back to the game.

The lineup

It wouldn’t be a 2025 Gotham game without a funky lineup. The big surprise here was that both Ann-Katrin Berger and Jess Carter got starts after having just returned from the Euros. The bigger surprise was that Carter returned to outside back after spending a great first half of the season at center back after Tierna Davidson’s season-ending injury. Nealy Martin played at center back instead, which makes us think that Gotham spent the summer break getting her used to the role instead of signing a new defender. Again, in the spirit of deferring to expertise, we’re not going to comment on this choice, and we will say that we don’t entirely hate Nealy Martin in this new position for her.

The midfield was pretty standard and probably what we’re going to see for the rest of the season, barring any injuries. Taryn Torres started at defensive midfielder, Jaelin Howell started at central midfielder, and Rose Lavelle started at attacking midfielder. There’s not much to say here.

The forward line was where it got more interesting. Because Esther was resting from the Euros, Ella Stevens was out injured, Gabi Portilho was out for Copa América, Geyse was on minutes restrictions, and Katie Stengel had just arrived to the team, head coach Juan Carlos Amorós had to get creative. He moved Sarah Schupansky (who at this point had primarily played as attacking midfielder in Rose Lavelle’s absence) to one wing, started Midge Purce on the other, and gave Khyah Harper her first ever NWSL start at striker. Purce left the match in the 17th minute with a hamstring injury and Bruninha took her place on the wing, and speaking on the injury to the press after the match, Amorós said that he did not have an update on her status yet.

But speaking of Khyah Harper… 

Khyah Harper’s debut start

This match saw rookie Khyah Harper earning her first career NWSL start. Head coach Juan Carlos Amorós noted that there were a few factors that led to him giving the 2024 Big Ten goals + assist leader and 2024 Women’s Premier Soccer League golden boot winner the start against Chicago. 

Speaking on the state of the forward line, Amorós enumerated the absences the team was dealing with. “With Esther out of the picture, with Geyse on limited minutes, with Ella Stevens injured, with Gabi Portilho international, with Katie still coming back in...” However, Harper definitely did earn the start on her own merit. “It has been a consequence of the hard work that she’s put in,” mentioned Amorós. “Last week in the game against Dallas in 45 minutes she scored two goals, she earned two penalties, and she had an assist.” 

Amorós’ decision certainly paid off as the rookie was the first on the scoresheet that evening, scoring a diving header off of a cross from fellow rookie Sarah Schupansky.

Speaking on the goal, Harper said, “I probably could’ve used my foot but I’ve never scored a diving header.”

Harper earned the third-highest rating of the team on both Fotmob and Sofascore and led the match in xG + xAG. She had also had the highest positional average adjusted g+ rating of any Gotham player this match.

Khyah Harper had a dream debut and was definitely a bright spot on this team. But unfortunately Gotham’s performance otherwise left a lot to be desired.

This was a stinker

This is a rare instance this season where the scoreline is more flattering to Gotham than the actual underlying numbers. Here’s a list of statistics in which the Stars dominated:

• Possession (54% vs. 46%)

• Passing accuracy (73% vs. 71%)

• Shots (13 vs. 5)

• Shots on target (5 vs. 2)

• Shots between the 39th minute and the 88th minute (9 vs. 0)

• xG (1.57 vs. 1.10)

• PSxG (1.53 vs. 0.92)

• Tackles and interceptions (33 vs. 27)

• Loose balls recovered (54 vs. 41)

• Net positional average-adjusted g+ (-0.02 vs. -0.5)

So this one definitely wasn’t Gotham’s best. They had a lot working against them though—the team had to adjust pretty early on to Purce’s injury and substitution and also had to get used to playing in relatively new positions (in the cases of Carter, Martin, and Schupansky). Let’s get into some of the good and the bad that we saw in this matchup. 

The good: The buildup to this 19’ shot

We love everything about this. Lilly Reale breaking a Chicago player’s ankles. Sarah Schupansky holding up play enough for Khyah Harper to get into a good position. Harper beating her defender against the endline and sending a ball right to the feet of Rose Lavelle. Lavelle staying undetected enough in the box to find herself with mountains of space. It’s such a shame this shot got blocked. But more of this please!

The bad: Conceding this 68’ goal

Gotham’s defense was caught very off guard by Chicago’s decision to take a short corner, not even having the chance to send a defender out to defend the extra attacker by the corner flag before the ball is crossed into the box. In the ensuing confusion, Gotham suddenly sees their lead disappear. Head coach Juan Carlos Amorós claimed that this was the first goal Gotham has conceded from a set piece all season, and there are enough lessons to learn from it to have it hopefully be their last. Chicago was really crafty here, and Gotham paid the price.

The good: The buildup to Rose Lavelle’s called-off goal

This goal was pretty much all Rose Lavelle. She forces a Chicago player into a bad pass that lands right at the feet of Jaelin Howell, who plays the ball forward to Khyah Harper. Harper does a great job getting on the end of that ball and finding space through defenders to get it to Rose Lavelle, and well, Lavelle will always do the rest. We’re excited to see more of Rose Lavelle’s creativity and combinations with other attackers.

The bad: Losing the ball in dangerous places

Gotham is lucky none of these chances turned into goals, but they gave away the ball in their defensive third a little too often for our liking.

The good: This rookie to rookie to rookie goal

Lilly Reale does an excellent job of controlling an erratic clearance and wisely sending it out wide. Chance creation extraordinaire Sarah Schupansky beats her defender with easy and somehow has an off-balance perfectly placed ball to Khyah Harper who dives into it and sends it to the back of the net. Khyah Harper has her first career goal in her first career start and Gotham is suddenly home to both the goal leader and the assist leader.

The neutral: AKB constantly giving us heart attacks

Please enjoy this compilation of AKB coming way out of her goal to defend in this game.

To her credit, she always gets to the ball first. We’re again going to defer to her expertise here, but that doesn’t mean it’s fun to watch.

Looking ahead to next match

Gotham’s next game is on Saturday, August 9th against the Washington Spirit at Sports Illustrated Stadium. The semi-final rematch will be airing at 12 PM ET on ESPN.

The Bats certainly have their work cut out for them in this one. Injuries will likely continue to plague the forward line, Gabi Portilho will probably not be playing so soon after winning Copa América, and the Spirit finally have some of their best players returning from injury (including Trinity Rodman, who scored a stoppage-time game winner this week for her team). We’re not expecting a win in this one, but we are hoping that it’s at least a fun watch. Gotham opened up the upper bowl of Sports Illustrated Stadium for this highly anticipated rivalry matchup, so be sure to snag a ticket if you are in the NJ/NY area.

Thumbnail courtesy of Gotham FC.