Week 16.5 recap: B-team chronicles

Gotham FC faced off against C.F. Monterrey Femenil on a cold and rainy Wednesday evening and managed to come away with the full 3 points, thanks to goals from Bruninha and Khyah Harper. Gotham also won the xG battle, generating 1.46 to Monterrey’s 0.25.

With 9 new players in the starting XI, we got to see a lot from players that we haven’t seen a ton of this season, so we’re going to break down the performances of each of the players who started for Gotham on Wednesday. We’ll be grouping them into three categories: bleh, meh, and yeah.

Goalkeepers and defenders

Shelby Hogan

With her start this match, Shelby Hogan is officially the final player to make their debut for Gotham FC this season. In this match, she didn’t have much to deal with, and did enough to keep Gotham above water. She successfully made all necessary clearances and performed about as expected for an NWSL backup keeper. She did let in this goal but it would’ve been a very tough save for any goalkeeper to make. 

Overall, she didn’t have a particularly remarkable performance, but she definitely did not have a bad one by any means. Final verdict: Meh.

Emily Sonnett

Because of Gotham’s lack of defensive depth, Emily Sonnett had to start at center back this match as one of two players who started for the team against Houston on Sunday. Despite this lack of rest, Emily Sonnett did great. She even bagged this awesome assist for Khyah Harper.

Final verdict: Yeah.

Kayla Duran

On Duran, head coach Juan Carlos Amorós said, “It looks like she’s been playing professionally for 5 years instead of 5 minutes” and we could not agree more. In her debut start for the club, Duran led the game in tackles and interceptions, successful passes, and fouls drawn. She made defending look effortless out there, especially in this play where she was up against Spain WNT forward Lucía García.

Final verdict: YEAH!

Bruninha

Our (and CONCACAF’s) MVP of this match. Besides scoring an excellent goal (with a badge tap), Bruninha was second on the team in tackles and interventions, first in assisted shots, and third in successful passes. And throughout the entire match, she did things like this.

And this.

Final verdict: YEAH!!!

Taryn Torres

In this match, Torres was third in the team in tackles and interceptions, fourth in successful passes, and tied for first in fouls drawn. Despite playing outside of her natural defensive midfield position, she had a very strong game. We don’t have much to say here except that she did her job well, especially when you consider that she wasn’t playing in her natural position, and a lot of Gotham’s attacks started with her.

Final verdict: Yeah.

Midfielders

Nealy Martin showed us why she deserves to be put back in the starting XI for Gotham as defensive midfielder. She led the match in ball recoveries, was fourth in the team in tackles and interceptions, and overall just had a very impactful game. She is just such a connector for this team.

Martin’s recent benching has kind of not been her fault—as the team has struggled more with build-up play and has tried more vertical and direct play, head coach Juan Carlos Amorós has cited Taryn Torres’ "penetrative passing” as a reason to play her at the 6 rather than Nealy Martin. This performance made us want to ignore all that and put her back in anyway—she just plays so well for this team in the midfield.

Final verdict: Yeah.

Josefine Hasbo

Josefine Hasbo earned her first start in her second ever match for Gotham FC in this game. The main takeaway from her performance here is that she has an incredible workrate, exemplified in her assist to Bruninha for Gotham’s first goal of the evening.

Hasbo did also have some less than stellar moments though—she wasn’t the best at holding onto the ball. 

But when she did give the ball away, she did everything in her power to get it back for her team.

Here, despite a huge size disadvantage with Spain WNT forward Lucía García, Hasbo is able to slow down Monterrey’s attack.

So while she wasn’t the strongest player on the pitch that night, we were very impressed with her workrate and believe that gives her a good foundation from which to grow. Final verdict: Meh verging on yeah.

Sofia Cook

Numbers-wise, Cook had a pretty decent game as attacking midfielder—she generated 0.22 xG (3rd most in match) off of 2 shots (2nd most in match). But she also pretty invisible for large swaths of the game—if you look at the passing network she was the most disconnected midfielder on the field, and maybe even the most disconnected starter.

She did do this though.

Final verdict: Meh.

Forwards

Geyse

Look, she took some great shots but…

Final verdict: Bleh.

Katie Stengel

We will say, she’s at a bit of a disadvantage here given that we’re judging her with the context that Gotham paid a transfer fee to acquire her from Crystal Palace. The only attacker with less xG than Stengel this match was Mak Whitham, who played for a total of 5 minutes. We’re still waiting for her to prove that this acquisition was worth it.

Final verdict: Bleh.

Khyah Harper

Holy moly. We were already pleasantly surprised by Khyah Harper in her two starts so far in the second half of the NWSL season, but this performance really blew us away. First, let’s take a look at her goal.

In addition to scoring this goal, Harper had the highest average position of any player this match, had the most interceptions in the attacking third, and generated the most xG. We don’t have data on progressive carries but we assume she was pretty high up there. I mean look at this.

11% of Gotham’s possession occurred in the right side of the attacking third (where Harper was playing), compared to 4.4% in the left side of the defensive third. While a lot of this can be attributed to right back Bruninha, it’s safe to say that Gotham’s attack was channeled through Harper. We were very impressed by both her tenacity and creativity in this match, and hope to see a lot more of her this season.

Final verdict: YEAH!!

Looking ahead to next match

Although Gotham pulled off the win, this match was heavily characterized by an inability to finish chances—that is something that the team needs to work on, especially as they prepare for a quick turnaround to face the Utah Royals on Saturday at 7:30 PM ET at Sports Illustrated Stadium. Utah currently sits in last place in standings, with 1 win, 4 draws, and 11 losses on the season, and the last time these two teams faced off Gotham won 3-0 despite going down 2 players and sending a rookie into the goal for the final 10 minutes of the game. This should hopefully be an opportunity for Gotham to make some progress on its goal differential, but honestly we’re just hoping for a win at this point in the season. 

Since these two teams last faced off, forward Cloé Lacasse, who scored 4 goals in 9 matches after joining the Royals late last season, has come off the team’s season-ending injury list and is available for selection, so she will be a challenge for Gotham’s defense to deal with. However, USWNT forward/midfielder and Utah Royals marquee player Ally Sentnor has since departed the team for the Kansas City Current, so that will be one fewer threat for Gotham’s defense. We’re hoping the team gets enough rest in this 3-game week to pull off a much needed win.

Thumbnail courtesy of Gotham FC.