Week 26 recap: The end is near

Gotham FC ended its 2025 regular season with a 2-3 loss to the North Carolina Courage on Sunday, with 2 early goals from the Courage and a second-half own goal from the Bats leading the team to its fifth straight match without a win in all competitions. Goals in the 88th and 90+3rd minutes from Rose Lavelle and Gabi Portilho, respectively, were not enough against a team that was fighting for a spot in the playoffs, and the Bats ultimately tumbled to 8th place in league standings right before the playoffs.

This was not exactly the result that the Bats wanted going into the playoffs, with both defensive struggles and finishing issues. Let’s talk through what went wrong and what felt good as the team prepares for knockout football.

A slow start

Before we get into this, it’s important to acknowledge that Gotham was dealing with a unique lineup here. With this match happening just days out of international break, head coach Juan Carlos Amorós decided to give fullbacks Lilly Reale and Bruninha a rest, instead starting Mandy Freeman at left back and rookie Kayla Duran at right back. Duran had primarily played center back for the team prior to this game, although she notably came off the bench as a striker in the previous match week. In addition, as Esther continues to find herself out with an injury, Katie Stengel got yet another start at striker. This lineup meant the team was starting with a shaky backline that had never played together and a striker who is allergic to goals, so the odds were stacked against them. Still, it shouldn’t have been quite this bad.

In the first half, Gotham trailed in:

• Possession (44% vs. 56%)

• xG (0.26 vs. 1.76)

• Shots/shots on target (5/1 vs. 9/4)

• Big chances created (0 vs. 2)

• Goals (0 vs. 2)

Despite pulling off a few come-from-behind victories this season, Gotham still struggles when conceding first, having an overall 2W-1D-7L record when conceding first in 2025. So in theory the M.O. should be to simply not concede early, and Gotham’s defense is usually rock solid enough to pull that off—in the past 2 seasons, Gotham has conceded first in only 16 of their 54 total NWSL matches. But injuries, rotation, and off-days have led to an inconsistent back line that has let in 7 goals in the past three matches. Let’s take a look at what went wrong in each of the two early goals that we saw Gotham give up in this game.

Goal 1: 14’

This goal felt like a direct result of the lineup shakeup, particularly by the fullbacks. Mandy Freeman, who is playing in a relatively new position at left-back, lets the very talented Manaka Matsukubo slip through on North Carolina’s right side, and Kayla Duran does a less than ideal job of tracking the runner on the left side—in fact, in the second half of this clip, you can see Jess Carter signaling to her to keep an eye on that attacker. Duran has neither the positioning nor the pace to keep this from turning into a 1v1 situation with Ann-Katrin Berger, which is unfortunate because the rookie has been so impressive in her limited stints at center back thus far. Perhaps staying at right back is not in the cards for her, and perhaps she was pushed into a start a little too early in her career.

Goal 2: 16’

Jess Carter and Jaelin Howell have a miscommunication here, but we (and Opta) are ultimately going to assign Carter the blame for this one, as a loose pass finds its way to the player who finished third in golden boot standings this season. With AKB off her line, it’s a wide open chip for North Carolina into Gotham’s net. Incredibly unfortunate and also quite preventable.

As you’ll see in the next section, Gotham did a fairly decent job of turning it around after this, but it’s important to acknowledge that 1) with a 2-goal cushion, North Carolina was more than happy to let them and 2) it was a little too late. So our advice for Gotham on this front as they head into playoffs is don’t concede early. Lol.

Creating chances (but not finishing them)

After 7 out of the 8 shots (including 2 goals) in the first 30 minutes of the match came from the North Carolina Courage, Gotham remembered they were playing a soccer game and took 19 of the 24 that came in the final 60 minutes. In the second half specifically, Gotham had more:

• Possession (59% vs. 41%)

• xG (1.94 vs. 0.61)

• Shots/shots on target (15/6 vs. 3/2)

• Pass accuracy (83% vs. 73%)

• Goals (2 vs. 1 or 3 vs. 0, depending on how you characterize the own goal)

So the Bats seemingly turned things around. Let’s take a look at some of their best moments from this phase of the game. 

Moment 1: 47’

What we really appreciated from the Bats here was their tenacity to both win back and retain possession of the ball. This play starts with an interception and good opposite movements from Jaedyn Shaw and Josie Hasbo. The latter gets the ball to Rose Lavelle in the box, who doesn’t see a clear opportunity to shoot so she instead holds onto the ball and takes it out wide. She delivers a cross that Katie Stengel is unable to get on the end of, and after an initial clearance Jaelin Howell decides to take matters into her own hands and spins through the North Carolina defense before getting dispossessed. Although this play wasn’t successful by any means, we still enjoyed the intent that underscored each of Gotham’s moves.

Moment 2: 50’

Dude. She cannot be our starting 9 at the playoffs. Everyone did an excellent job here and 9 times out of 10 at least one of these chances would’ve turned into a goal, so this is some excellent creation from Gotham.

Moment 3: 66’

Great ball movement in the box. Who knows what would have happened if it weren’t for the deflection on the shot before it reaches Casey Murphy.

Moment 4: 87’

Slay. Also shoutout to Gabi Portilho for drawing the foul that led to this penalty. In her mere 21 minutes in this match, she registered the highest positionally-adjusted g+ and earned herself Sofascore player of the match honors. Hopefully we’ll get to see more of her impact in the playoffs as she returns from injury.

Moment 5: 90+5’

Another slay. Excellent positioning from Gabi Portilho and great vision and execution to get the ball both around Casey Murphy and through the defenders.

So what’s our takeaway here? Honestly, it’s to not start Katie Stengel at the 9. But we’ll see if that’s even an option for Gotham for the rest of the season.

We need to talk about Jess

After two matches in a row where Jess Carter had a defensive error leading to a goal, we hoped that the international break would give her some much needed rest and perhaps a confidence boost to get her mojo back. Instead, we got yet another error leading to a goal and an own goal. 

We know that Jess Carter is an excellent defender at the end of the day, and it sucks that when you’re a defender, a single mistake can be so consequential. But as long as she keeps making these mistakes, it feels like something has to change. Going forward, Gotham has a few options:

1. Keep the back line as is

2. Move Jess to fullback

3. Bench Jess

And honestly none of these options feel feasible. Keeping the back line as is means risking more defensive errors from a player that really needs a break, and moving her out of center back means needing to find a replacement there. The only real options to replace her at center back are Mandy Freeman and Kayla Duran, and neither of them is quite as skilled as her at this position. So we’re not really sure what to say here. I guess all we can do is hope that she finds her way out of this funk, both for her sake and the team’s sake.

Looking ahead to next match

Gotham’s next match might as well be their last, as the Bats take on the number one seed Kansas City Current in the quarterfinals of the NWSL playoffs on Sunday, November 9th at 12:30 PM ET on ABC. Despite injuries, the Current came back to defeat the San Diego Wave in their final league match of the season, so they don’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. If the Gotham we’ve been seeing had been the Gotham of September, we’d say they’d have a chance. But with an Esther-less front line that can’t score, a backline with a Jess Carter that needed a break starting a month ago, and no obvious solution to either of those problems, we fear that our Batties might be doomed. We’ll still be following along to wish them luck, and we hope you all do too. Regardless of what happens, we’ll always have September 2025 and the time we beat the Spirit. 

Thumbnail courtesy of Gotham FC.