Week 20 recap: Fireworks

Gotham FC are now six points clear at the top of the table after their third come-from-behind victory of the season. The Bats defeated the Kansas City Current 2-1 after going down within the first 30 seconds of the game thanks to goals from Midge Purce and Sam Kerr. There was a lot more to this game than the scoreline indicates — let’s get into it.

A rough start

The game didn’t exactly start out Gotham’s way, as they conceded a goal that tied for the quickest in league history. 

Kansas City midfielder Croix Bethune plays a through ball to forward Amelia White and Ann-Katrin Berger decides to come out after White beats all of Gotham’s defenders. Unfortunately, White gets the ball past Berger and into the back of the net and the Bats are down 1-0 a mere 22 seconds into the game.

Before this season, Gotham had conceded first in 28 games since head coach Juan Carlos Amorós took over in 2023. Of those 28 games, the Bats had come back to win three (3) times. With this win, Gotham has doubled that number, coming back to win the last three games where they had conceded first. Gotham may have had a nightmare start to this game, but they immediately shook it off. They went on to score two goals to win the game all while limiting Kansas City to just four more shots, only one of which made it on target. How did they turn it around to pull off such a commanding win?

Sticking to the game plan

As mentioned before, Gotham is a team that has allowed themselves to get rattled after conceding first in recent years. When asked what made this season so different, acting head coach Shaun Harris claimed that, “it's just the belief and the confidence.”

Center back Tierna Davidson had an alternate but equally legitimate explanation. “I’m proud of the team for sticking to the game plan that we wanted to execute,” she opened. “We closed out this game under more control than we have in the past with a one-goal lead.”

Part of the game plan was the usual: dominating possession and not allowing the opponent to get into the attack. After Gotham scored their second goal of the game to pull ahead of the Kansas City Current, they kept control of the ball 60% of the time. In addition, the Bats managed twice as many touches in the attacking third as the Current in that same time period despite being a goal up. 

Kansas City is a team that scored the second-most goals in a single season just last year, so limiting their attack to this extent was a huge feat for the Bats. When asked what made it possible, Davidson responded that the team focused on “doing our best to force [the Current] into spaces that they didn't prefer.” 

“We know that they like to transition centrally, and they're very dangerous when they get into those positions running at the back line,” she elaborated. “[We were] trying to make sure that if we're going to give up something, it's wide space.”

This idea can be seen in each team’s passing network — Gotham dominated the middle of the pitch with lots of connections between all players, whereas Kansas City was forced to go around the perimeter.

The other idea that Davidson mentioned was “transitionally being really turned on to what they want to do and trying to shut it down before it happens.” Specifically, she mentioned that as a defender, “that means working with our midfield to make sure they're positioned in the right place so that we're stopping transitions before they get going. We know that they're a very potent team when the wheels are turning there.”

Before this game, Kansas City averaged 9 chances created a game this season. Against Gotham, they only managed to create one chance (when they scored). Despite the first minute not going according to the game plan, Gotham made sure that the remaining 89 went their way and have a full three points to show for it.

Creativity and chemistry in the attack

What ended up being the game-winning goal in Gotham’s turnaround consisted of Jaedyn Shaw combining with relatively new teammate Sam Kerr. When asked about their connection after the game, Shaw mentioned that, “It's always great to have a world-class player on your team.”

“It's been really fun to just build chemistry with her,” she continued. “I feel like she's just always in the right spot, so I don't even have to look most times. I feel like the chemistry is just growing between really all of us, and especially me and her as well this game. We're just going to continue to build off of it and just go over things with each other and keep growing in that aspect.”

After three straight 1-0 wins (and seven 1-0 wins overall this season), it was nice to see more displays of that budding chemistry this game — even if it was forced by less than ideal circumstances. Let’s take a look at some of Gotham’s best attacking moments this game and what they might mean going forward. 

Gotham’s first big chance of the night turned into a goal for the home team.

Midge Purce is able to take advantage of a botched clearance on Kansas City’s part and erase the Bats’ deficit early on in the game.

The Bats almost went up a little over 20 minutes later. 

Jordynn Dudley has a brilliant ball forward to Sam Kerr, who is suddenly off to the races. Although Kerr doesn’t have passing options initially, she’s able to hold onto the ball until teammates arrive and deliver a cross to Rose Lavelle that culminates in a big chance for the Bats. 

They actually did go up a goal not long after that.

Jaedyn Shaw dribbles through traffic on the left wing and has a perfect cut across to an open Kerr who just has to tap it home. 

This goal was also special because every single player on the pitch in sky blue had a touch on the ball in its buildup. 

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The Bats now had a lead, but they didn’t stop there and continued to push for more.

One of the things that made Gotham’s attack so remarkable in this game was players’ ability to always find each other, and that is on full display in this clip. The Bats are able to see the spaces they can play into long before the Current can and it results in a 0.28 xG header for Sam Kerr. 

When Kerr first signed with Gotham in June, she expressed her excitement for playing and combining with Rose Lavelle. Now that it’s been a month since she made her season debut at the Queens Classic, the lethal pair are starting to develop some of that much-anticipated chemistry.

This was a play of absolutely gorgeous vertical passes. Lavelle finds Kerr, Kerr finds Shaw, and Shaw turns it into a shot on target.

Shaw, Kerr, and Lavelle connected once again in the 63rd minute. Gotham won possession through a continued good habit of going for first, second, and third balls, and then Shaw slipped the ball through to Kerr. Kerr draws so many defenders that somehow Rose Lavelle is wide open to her right, so she lays it off to create the Bats’ highest xG chance of the night.

Gotham’s final big chance of the night was yet another combination between these three, culminating in a high-quality chance for Kerr with a wide open shooting window.

These three weren’t the only ones with chemistry and skill in the attack. For example, this whole play started with Mandy Freeman winning the ball in a dangerous spot on the pitch.

On Freeman’s fancy spin move, acting head coach Shaun Harris mentioned that, “Mandy will tell you she used to be a forward and all that stuff, so she's got that in her locker from time to time.”

In this clip in stoppage time it’s Midge Purce who combines with Sam Kerr to create a solid opportunity.

And in this goal, Jordynn Dudley lays it off for Jaelin Howell.

Ultimately, the goal got called back because the referee decided that Sam Kerr (who is in an offside position) had too much of an impact on the play.

So unfortunately, Jaelin Howell will have to wait another day to score her first of the season.

Bonus: A budding rivalry?

Gotham’s theme for this home game was “Broadway Night” and both teams made sure to bring the drama. Before this game, Gotham had never beaten Kansas City in the regular season and had lost to the club in the 2024 NWSL x Liga MX Femenil Summer Cup final. On the other side, the Bats knocked out the Current in the quarterfinals last season when the latter were the favorites for the trophy and beat them once again in this year’s Challenge Cup. 

These two clubs certainly played like they had something to avenge, getting into two big fights in a league that hardly ever sees one.

The first came during a Kansas City corner. 

Defender Kayla Sharples pushed Jordynn Dudley down and Dudley sought revenge by unwisely hooking her legs around those of the defender. Sharples’ teammate Elizabeth Ball noticed this and ran over to shove Dudley to the ground once again and initially received a red card for her actions. Ultimately, VAR recommended a review of this card and after taking a trip to the monitor, the center referee agreed that Ball’s conduct did not fall to the level of excessive force and downgraded it to a yellow.

Some more scuffling came after this foul by Current forward Penelope Hocking.

Hocking shoved Howell to the ground off the ball for no apparent reason which sparked a reaction from the midfielder and her teammates.

Will this be a rivalry going forward? These two teams certainly have reason enough to hate each other, but only time will tell if this was a one-off instance or if we’ll see similar animosity in future matchups between these two clubs.

Looking ahead to next match

Gotham FC is hitting the road after a two-week home stint as the Bats take on Angel City FC on Sunday, August 23rd at 8 PM ET, broadcast nationally on ION. Angel City currently sit in 10th in league standings, two points shy of a playoff spot, with seven wins, four draws, and seven losses to their name. Angel City rallied late in their last game and found an equalizer to steal a point off of the second-place Washington Spirit; their recent performances suggest a stronger team than what the standings portray. 

Players to look out for on Angel City include forwards Sveindís Jónsdóttir and Maiara Niehues, who top their club with six goals apiece on the season, as well as talented young fullback Gisele Thompson who has more than earned her call ups to the USWNT. Angel City is a team that is tenacious in its attack, so Gotham will have to exercise that same control over the game to be able to walk away from this match with any points.

Thumbnail courtesy of Gotham FC.