Week 19 recap: Return of the press

Gotham FC’s reign at the top of the table continues after a prudent 1-0 win over the San Diego Wave late Friday night. Jaedyn Shaw’s goal at the end of the first half against her former team ended up being the difference, and the Bats held on during the second half to secure all three points. What set the Bats apart from their opponents in this match?

A creative attack

When it comes to field tilt, this was far from Gotham’s most dominant performance of the season. The field was only tilted 53-47 in the Bats’ favor — what made the difference was what each team did with their possession, and particularly their possession in the final third.

“One of the biggest things we spoke about was getting in their faces and making it really difficult for them to play their game,” mentioned acting head coach Shaun Harris after the game. One of the ways that the Bats accomplished this was with their attack.

This attack started all the way in the back, as goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger reminded us what she adds to this team after being rested for the previous two games. Her ability on the ball allowed Gotham to draw San Diego forward to open up space for Gotham to attack the other way.

Her ability to dribble through pressure pulled double duty here: she drew San Diego’s attackers forward to open up space for Gotham’s field players to play into and she killed San Diego’s attack instantly. Sometimes she showed off a little too much.

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It wasn’t just AKB dribbling and passing out of San Diego’s pressure.

Tierna Davidson and Savannah McCaskill work together here with some quick passes through pressure to get the ball to Rose Lavelle and allow her to work her magic. 

And when you have a player who can do this, why wouldn’t you give them the ball?

The first big example of Gotham exploiting these sort of manufactured transition moments came in the 16th minute.

Jaedyn Shaw saw the space that Guro Reiten was sitting in at the far post and sent a precise cross over everyone’s heads straight to the feet of the left back. Reiten was able to get a shot off before San Diego realized what was happening and the keeper had no chance of saving it. The shot was unfortunately just barely wide, hitting the post and giving San Diego a huge break. 

Gotham went right back to work on the rebound, however.

Jordynn Dudley and Tierna Davidson worked together to force the turnover and then Sam Kerr had a brilliant lay off to Rose Lavelle. Lavelle was suddenly through on goal in a chance created from nearly nothing and her 0.46 PSxG shot was just barely saved by the keeper.

Gotham made good use of their trusty high press in this game. We saw it in the chance above, but that wasn’t the only contributor to the Bats’ highest average height of defensive actions in four games.

Nothing ended up coming of this poach in the box by Rose Lavelle, but it was a good reminder that this team has still got it, even with the absence of box shark Esther González.

Gotham finally got their goal at the end of the first half with a brilliant individual effort from Jaedyn Shaw.

Jordynn Dudley was being triple teamed on the right side but that didn’t stop her from exploiting the space that the focus on her created for Jaedyn Shaw on the left. Shaw creates a shooting window for herself and goes for the 0.04 xG shot that she knows she’s capable of converting.

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A stifling defense

After going up a goal at the end of the first half, the Bats had a whole 15 minutes to figure out how to preserve this lead in the last 45. Whatever plan they had worked spectacularly — the Wave only managed two shots while chasing a goal, the first of which didn’t come until the 84th minute of the game.

“When you're 1-0 up, the other team is always going to come out with that extra push,” acknowledged acting head coach Shaun Harris. “We were ready for that.”

Part of the readiness that Harris described was the confidence in playing through pressure that was discussed earlier. Still, the defense wasn’t infallible, still falling victim to the Bats’ biggest defensive enemy: getting caught in transition.

Gotham almost blew their lead a few minutes after earning it. The Bats were saved only by the fact that the Wave’s final pass was just a tinge too far ahead for striker Trinity Byars, keeping the second-year player from netting a second against Gotham this season.

Gotham also almost went down first thanks to this through ball from the Wave that caught the Bats completely off-guard. AKB bails the team out this time, making a difficult save look easy. Of course, she did benefit from the fact that Byars shot right at her.

Defensive stability for the Bats meant limiting transition moments, and in the second half they did a brilliant job of that. Preventing fast-break moments resulted in only two shots in the second 45 for opponents that were chasing a game, and Harris credited that to the team making effort to impose their own style of play. 

“Once we regained [possession], the first, second and third pass became really important to slow the game down, reconnect, reposition and establish ourselves again,” he noted after the game.

Gotham’s average pass chain length was 5.96 in the second half, over a whole pass longer than San Diego’s 4.83. And most importantly, the Bats made sure the Wave weren’t able to make much of the possession that they did have, leading them to walk away with the full three points.

Looking ahead to next match

Gotham FC is at home again as they take on the Kansas City Current for the third time this season on Friday August 14th at 8 PM at Sports Illustrated Stadium, streaming live on Prime Video. The Kansas City Current sit in seventh place in a tight NWSL table, with nine wins, three draws, and seven losses to their name. The Current are unbeaten in three games starting with a monster 5-1 win over Racing Louisville two weeks ago. Although Gotham beat the Current to clinch the Challenge Cup in June, it’s Kansas City who won the first regular-season matchup between these teams in April in a 2-1 come-from-behind victory over the Bats.

Players to watch out for on the Current include attacking midfielder Croix Bethune, who has a whopping 11 goal contributions to her name so far this season; midfielder/forward Debinha, who scored the opener in Kansas City’s most recent game against Houston; and reigning Goalkeeper of the Year Lorena, who just returned from an injury. Kansas City is a team that thrives in transition. Gotham will need to continue with the composure they found in this game because the Current has players who will punish them for any and all mistakes.

Thumbnail courtesy of Gotham FC.