Week 17 recap: Growing pains

Gotham FC is back in the win column after a 1-0 victory away at Bay FC in the middle of the week. Midge Purce scored a goal in the second minute of the game for the second game in a row, and that ended up being enough to secure the Bats the full three points. 

After the game, acting head coach Shaun Harris emphasized that “[getting] the three points and the clean sheet — that was, first and foremost, the priority.” The Bats did what they needed to do in their second three-game week of the month (as Jaelin Howell put it, “we kind of had to gut that one out.”). But the Bats did not look like themselves in this performance — what’s there to take away from it?

Team news

Before talking through this game, it’s important to contextualize it with some roster movement that we saw in the days leading up to it. 

First, Gotham FC communications staff confirmed that Emily Sonnett would not be continuing on the road trip with the team after suffering a non-contact knee injury in the 7th minute of last Friday’s game against the Portland Thorns. Since then, acting head coach Shaun Harris has mentioned that Sonnett has undergone surgery, but we do not have specifics on what the surgery was addressing. Sonnett’s status on the availability report ahead of the Bay matchup indicated no information other than “knee.” We can expect not to see her on the pitch for a while, or at the very least for Gotham’s Saturday matchup against the Houston Dash.

On Monday, it was announced that forward Esther González and the club had mutually agreed to terminate her contract as the striker temporarily steps away from soccer to attend to personal matters in Spain. González will always be a club legend for Gotham — she currently holds the club record for regular season goals and goals in all competitions, and she has scored three of four game winners in finals for the Bats. She brought so much to this team and will definitely be missed.

On Tuesday, Gotham FC announced that forward Khyah Harper had joined the Houston Dash on a free transfer. Harper, in her second season in the league and with the Bats, has struggled to get minutes this season. This move will hopefully give the young forward a chance to get more game minutes and continue to develop before her contract runs out at the end of the season.

Finally, Gotham also announced on Tuesday that midfielder Taryn Torres had been activated from the season-ending injury list. Torres returned to the active roster after tearing her left ACL in September 2025 and ended up making her season debut against Bay, coming on as a substitute for Jaelin Howell in the 87th minute of the match. Torres’ return is huge for the team, as she is a versatile player who can fill in at defensive midfield or at left back. She offers a different profile of defensive midfielder to the team, as she is known for her line-breaking passes that offer a more direct attacking option for an ordinarily horizontal-passing club. 

A fast start

After the first half, when asked about her goal, forward Midge Purce emphasized the team’s preference for scoring goals early. Her second second-minute goal in two games allowed the Bats to conserve much needed energy during a long week with a depleted roster. The first two minutes of the game were spent pretty much entirely in Gotham’s attacking half, and it didn’t take long for them to get what they were looking for. 

It was a messy one but a goal’s a goal. Gotham got an early corner and capitalized. Jaelin Howell does a great job getting on the end of Jaedyn Shaw’s delivery into the box and she heads the ball right to Purce’s feet. Purce is wide open for a split second and takes advantage of that, sending the ball goalward and getting the job done.

Gotham had their early goal and could now conserve their energy for the rest of the game, suffocating the opponent instead of chasing a goal. But that’s not exactly how it went.

Growing into the defense

After conceding early, Bay FC was well-poised to get themselves back into the game, constantly pressuring Gotham’s midfield and back line.

The game ended dead even on field tilt, with each team managing 169 touches in the attacking third. This was out of the norm for the Bats, who ordinarily spend a lot more time in the attacking third than their opponents. Bay’s pressure on a team who looked out of sorts seemed to pay off pretty immediately.

Shelby Hogan was still growing into the match after starting between the posts for Gotham for only the second time this season (and the first time since May) after the coaching staff decided to give regular starter Ann-Katrin Berger a rest day. A mistake off her line led to this recycled play for Bay, and then another misjudgement led to a wide open net for the opponents to shoot into. Gotham is ultimately bailed out here by an offside infraction at the very beginning of the build up. 

Hogan wasn’t the only one who had to grow into this game — Gotham’s defenders are very used to having Ann-Katrin Berger, who is world-class with her feet, as a passing option behind them, and have developed chemistry with the number one keeper as both parties are able to anticipate the others’ movements. In contrast, Hogan and the backline hadn’t had nearly as much game time to develop that same chemistry, which resulted in some poor giveaways on the part of the Bats. 

In the end, Hogan did her job of saving all three of the shots she faced, and the back line did their job of making sure only three shots even made it to the keeper despite all of the pressure they faced from Bay FC. At the end of the day, despite having a higher press than Gotham and exerting more pressure, Bay was limited to only 0.15 PSxG and that is a huge testament to this back line — and especially the heroics of Jess Carter — that managed to grow into this difficult game to the exact extent they needed.

Growing into the attack

The final scoreline is a bit unflattering to the Bats, as they put up 1.83 xG (and 3.03 PSxG!) from 16 shots. Upon being asked if the early goal changed the game plan at all, acting head coach Shaun Harris said “not really,” elaborating that, “we wanted to try and push for the second one and really establish the control. When it's 1-0, the teams are always still in it.”

So despite scoring early, Gotham was still pushing to score another, especially after that equalizer scare in the seventh minute. For a while, Gotham’s attacking chemistry was lacking, particularly as they adjusted to the absence of Esther González. Team chemistry takes time to develop, particularly in the attack as players’ movements are more unexpected in an attempt to catch defenders off guard. But the Bats did a good job creating quality chances eventually, particularly in the second half where they generated 1.11 of their xG and 1.80 of their PSxG.

Unfortunately for Gotham, Bay keeper Jordan Silkowitz has the best games of her career against this team. She singlehandedly prevented 2.20 PSxG from making it into the back of the net.

Gotham has some beautiful ball movement here that opens up space for its attackers to combine. In the end, Guro Reiten has yet another perfect cross to Sam Kerr (a duo that has been prolific together for six years and counting) and Kerr’s header is worth 0.54 PSxG. 

Gotham almost had another goal off a set piece in the 67th minute of the game.

Set piece specialist Tierna Davidson is at the right place to take advantage of Sam Kerr’s heroics saving the ball from going out of bounds. Her shot is worth a pretty 0.45 PSxG but Silkowitz comes up big with the save once again.

After a game full of shaky giveaways, Gotham does excellent here at winning every single 50/50 ball, and it ultimately pays off in a shot on goal.

Which is of course saved by Silkowitz. Regardless, Gotham’s ability to win possession has them looking like their old selves, and the link-up play between new players shows glimpses of an exciting new version that is only getting better with time.

Silkowitz spoils the party one last time with a huge save against Jordynn Dudley who is through on goal. Also notable in this play is rookie Andrea Kitahata’s ability to play through traffic just enough and then find the perfect pass to Dudley. Kitahata played her first minutes since April in this game and successfully made the case for more. 

There were a lot of factors going against Gotham in this game: they were without their starting keeper, they were without a key defender, they were without a key attacker, and they had to manage the game carefully to maintain the energy needed for a three-game week. Because of this, they didn’t exert nearly the amount of control that they prefer to. Still, they did a good job of growing into the game and pulled off the important part, which was securing the full three points. 

Looking ahead to next match

Gotham is headed to the final stop on their road trip as they take on the Houston Dash on Saturday, August 1st at 8 PM ET, streaming live on NWSL+. The Dash currently sit in 12th in league standings, with five wins, four draws, and seven losses to their name. They’re on a hot streak, however, losing only one game since the break and most recently beating Bay FC 1-0 thanks to a stoppage time goal from rookie Linda Ullmark. 

The last time these two teams faced off in May, Gotham won by a narrow one-goal margin with an 18th minute Jordynn Dudley goal being the difference between the two teams. Since then, the Dash’s rookie-led team has only had more time to develop chemistry with each other and grow into the league. Gotham needs to avoid the careless giveaways that have recently become a habit in order to defend this young, hungry, and opportunistic team. 

Thumbnail courtesy of Gotham FC.