Week 21 recap: Back to square one

Gotham FC closed out a 2-week road trip on Sunday night as the Bats drew 1-1 with Bay FC. Rose Lavelle scored Gotham’s lone goal that came from some incredible teamwork, but overall, this game was not the team’s best.

In the 2 weeks since Gotham’s last home game against Angel City on September 7th, Gotham has played 3 matches in 2 different countries without having the chance to come home, and that has obviously taken a toll on the players. And it’s not just physically tiring—defender Lilly Reale mentioned that, “mentally we've been on the road for just about two weeks now, so that definitely takes a toll.” Team captain Mandy Freeman chronicled the team’s adventures in an Instagram post that highlights both the fun and the exhaustion of this long stretch away from home.

That fatigue was well on display in this match against Bay. Let’s talk about it.

Lineup and stats

The big story of this lineup is that Lilly Reale continued to get no rest as she started her third game in 9 days. Other than that, it was a pretty typical NWSL starting XI for the Amorós-led side. Esther González started as the striker with Geyse and Midge Purce playing on either wing. Jaedyn Shaw got her first NWSL start for the Bats, with Rose Lavelle joining her as the other attacking midfielder and Jaelin Howell continuing her streak at defensive midfield. Finally, in the backline we saw Bruninha and Lilly Reale as fullbacks and Emily Sonnett and Jess Carter in the center, with Ann-Katrin Berger in goal.

The team’s first change came at the start of the second half, with Geyse making way for Gabi Portilho in a like-for-like substitution. In the 63rd, Jaedyn Shaw got taken out for Sarah Schupansky, after the former had played 153 minutes across 9 days and had started 2 matches in 5 days. And then finally, 10 minutes after Bay had drawn level (and 15 minutes after they put on the very dangerous and talented Racheal Kundananji from their own bench), all Gotham had to answer with was Katie Stengel and Mandy Freeman, who came on for Rose Lavelle and Lilly Reale. 

Gotham’s starters did not have the capacity to be the threatening force they usually are (or to even string together passes, but more on that later), and Gotham’s bench certainly wasn’t going to deliver on that promise either. Instead of a dominant performance, we were left with one in which Gotham was frankly lucky to come away with a point. The Bats started out the game as the better side, having scored a goal, won the xG battle, and produced more shots than Bay in the first half, limiting their opponents to only 1 shot in the first 45. However, Gotham still lost the possession battle 46% to 54%, and it got much worse in the second half. In the second half, Bay had more:

• Possession (58% vs. 42%)

• xG (0.87 vs. 0.36)

• Passing accuracy (79% vs. 73%)

• Tackles and interceptions (17 vs. 4)

And in the match overall, Bay had more:

• Touches in the attacking third (142 vs. 126)

• Touches in the attacking penalty area (28 vs. 16)

• Carries into the attacking third (6 vs. 4)

• Carries into the attacking penalty area (14 vs. 6)

• Loose ball recoveries (50 vs. 37)

• Interceptions (18 vs. 7)

And fewer:

• Miscontrols (14 vs. 21)

• Times dispossessed (6 vs. 10)

Despite all this, Gotham led in shots (12 vs. 8) and shots on target (4 vs. 2). But the Bats lost the xG battle, and it’s a much more depressing story when you look at the xG per shot (0.055 vs. 0.113). Gotham was lucky that Bay FC did not have its finishing boots on (0.34 total PSxG to Gotham’s 1.22), because the team’s chance creation was abysmal (4th worst xG per shot of the season).

What made it so hard for the team to create meaningful chances, and what made it feel like Gotham went back in time to a few months ago?

Losing possession

Gotham usually plays in a high press, and this means that they’re used to being the ones doing the dispossessing as they put their opponent under pressure. But a high press takes a lot of energy, and in this game, Bay FC intercepted more passes and dispossessed their opponent more than Gotham could muster. Let’s take a look at some of the key moments where Gotham lost possession more easily than they should have.

First, in the goal that they conceded. It’s a little harsh to call this losing possession, since they didn’t really have possession,

Gotham has a chance to clear here as Jaelin Howell heads the ball towards Rose Lavelle, but Bay FC has faster reaction speeds and is able to retain possession in a dangerous area.

And Gotham spends this entire defensive sequence chasing the ball rather than anticipating it. Suddenly, it’s at the feet of Racheal Kundananji who has space to deliver an unsaveable shot.

Throughout the match, Gotham lost possession in all areas of the pitch, and although none of the other instances resulted in the goal, they still at best disrupted meaningful movement for Gotham and at worst created a good chance for Bay.

Here, Gotham loses possession in the attacking third of the pitch, squandering an offensive opportunity. The Bats’ forward passes are easily broken up by Bay here as they are able to easily slice through any remaining pressure and send the ball forward. Gotham’s fatigue is evident.

Gotham also lost possession in the middle third of the pitch, like here where Jess Carter has a long ball to no one that Esther tries to turn into a header to someone. No one has the energy to deliver accurate balls or get on the end of inaccurate ones, so Bay wins possession yet again.

And finally, Gotham here loses possession in the defensive third of the pitch with yet another instance of a ball forward to no one, and Bay now has an opportunity to strike on the counter with the ball at their feet. The Bats didn’t seem to be aware of where their teammates were, and everyone was too tired to hustle to make up for that lack of connection.

Gotham did still have 44% of the possession in this ball game, so they had opportunities to create something. But what about their possession made this game so hard to watch?

Poor decision-making in possession

Gotham created exactly one (1) good chance this game, and that turned into a goal.

Gotham does what it does best, as Geyse steals the ball in a dangerous area and sends it to Midge Purce who has space. Purce has a long ball forward that Geyse leaves for Esther, who is able to deliver a perfect ball into Rose Lavelle’s run, and from there Lavelle knows exactly what to do.

But besides that, in the moments where Gotham were able to hold onto the ball (few and far between compared to their usual selves), they just weren’t connecting. A combination of having an off-day and making poor decisions really stunted the Bats’ chance creation abilities in this game.

In this play, Rose Lavelle and Geyse do a great job to win back possession and start a counterattack. And then Geyse and Esther work together to undo all of that hard work and lose the ball before they could get anything meaningful going.

Here, Gotham is able to cleanly break through some lines, and after it all Lilly Reale either decides to take a shot from way outside the box or deliver a cross that’s way too close to the goalkeeper. Hard to knock the team either way for this, but it just felt so so close to being a real scoring opportunity.

God bless Midge Purce. She does the hard work here to get the ball into the box at the feet of Esther, and Esther takes too many settling touches. By the time she gets a shot off, it’s easily blocked by Bay’s defense.

Gotham regains possession though, and it’s once again Midge on the wing. She gets past her defender, but fails to pass the ball in time before Jordan Silkowitz is able to get a hand on it.

And finally, we saw the ultimate bad possession.

Lol.

In all seriousness though, we don’t necessarily see this performance as a knock on this team. Reflecting on the match, head coach Juan Carlos Amorós said, “we knew that it was going to be a difficult challenge, this run of games.” But, at the end of the day, ending the road trip with 7 out of 9 possible points in a 3 game week and climbing to (and hanging onto) the 3rd place spot in league standings is not too shabby.

Looking ahead to next match

Gotham’s next game is at home again against the Portland Thorns this Friday, September 26th at 8 PM ET, streaming on NWSL+. The Thorns currently sit just below Gotham in standings, level on points, wins, draws, and losses, but 4 goals behind on goal differential, so they will be a tough team to face. The Thorns’ last 5 matches have seen them win once, draw twice, and lose twice, but they have recently added some attacking firepower in the form of French international Julie Dufour who scored in 2 of her first 3 matches with Portland. The Thorns already had very strong players on all 3 lines, so they will be a difficult team to break down, especially for this tired Gotham side. Hopefully home field support for the first time in weeks will help the Bats power through and hold onto their spot in league standings.

Thumbnail courtesy of Gotham FC.