Week 4 recap: Midge is back, and so is the team

Thumbnail courtesy of Gotham FC.

Gotham had its first game after international break this past weekend and earned its first win of the 2025 season! The Bats won 3-1 against the North Carolina Courage, with a first half brace from Esther González and a 46th minute header off a corner from Lilly Reale. Here’s what you should take away from this match.

Esther is back, baby

Esther was by far the best player on the pitch this match, netting 2 goals within minutes of each other. In our season preview, we declared her Gotham’s best option at the striker position, and in previous match recaps, we’ve talked about Esther theoretically being good in this role. Now she finally has some goals to show for it—let’s look at those goals and break them down.

Goal 1: 43’ 

Head coach Juan Carlos Amorós had high praise for Esther in the post-match press conference: “The way she reads the game, the way she understands the work on the ball, the work off the ball, the movement in the box – I think she's amazing.” This clip is the perfect example of that: she’s able to create space for herself to head that ball into the goal by allowing her defender to continue to track forward while she stays where she is. This was reminiscent of the game-winning goal she scored in the 2023 NWSL championship, where she also created space by losing the attention of her defender.

Goal 2: 45+4’

In her second goal, Esther is an absolute menace to Courage goalkeeper Casey Murphy. She created something out of nothing, using her quick thinking to intercept a ball that Murphy intended to roll to a teammate and ultimately sending it into the back of the net. Juan Carlos Amorós attributed part of this thinking to Gotham’s high press mentality, noting that the press extends to opposing goalkeepers, but ultimately gave Esther’s high soccer IQ the bulk of the credit for this move.

Esther was incredibly effective as a striker this match, and with her fourth multi-goal game for Gotham, is proving her place amongst the league’s best strikers. Hopefully, we’ll see more of her goal-scoring ability in the next few weeks.

There are finally signs of life in Gotham’s attack

This week saw the 2025 debuts of three Gotham attackers: Midge Purce, Geyse, and Jéssica Silva. Purce returned to NWSL action after a year away from the pitch following an ACL tear in March 2024. Geyse made her Gotham debut after being signed on loan from Manchester United last month. Silva saw her first minutes this season after an eye injury sustained during training prior to the start of the season. All three attackers came off the bench, and made quite an impression.

Geyse seemed to slot in Gotham’s system seamlessly. While Geyse was a little underwhelming at her previous club (we talk more about that here), Amorós feels more optimistic about her prospects at Gotham. He said that she has had a good transition to Gotham and the NWSL and is feeling comfortable in the environment. He also praised her as a player: “She’s physically strong, she knows how to score goals. She works harder off the ball. She has all the attributes to be good, to adapt to the league.”

Jéssica Silva also had an exceptional game. She was a late sub, coming in at the 78th minute for Jess Carter.

These three players were far from the only contributors to Gotham’s attack—we also saw new life from this season’s regular starters.

Gotham players dominated in attacking g+ this match, and Gotham dominated in g+ in the league as a whole this week.

Gotham still doesn’t have its lineup down

If there’s one thing about a Juan Carlos Amorós-led Gotham side, it’s that it takes them a while to figure out their ideal starting lineup each season, and it takes a while for new players to understand Gotham’s system. In our recap of the match against the Dash, we talked about how Gotham’s slow start to the season isn’t unusual, and although Gotham has shown a high level of game dominance earlier than usual this season with this result, there still is work to be done. 

The team made two major changes to their lineup this week. The first was forced by starting center back and team captain Tierna Davidson’s season ending injury picked up in the March 28th match against the Dash; Jess Carter, who has played primarily as a fullback for Gotham but has lots of experience playing as a center back for Chelsea and the England national team, filled in at center back. The second change was a reshuffling of the forward line—Esther started the game as the attacking midfielder, Ella Stevens moved to the striker position, and Sarah Schupansky took Stevens’ spot on the wing.

The first 30 minutes of this game were dominated by North Carolina, and even Amorós noted this: “In the first 30 minutes, we didn't start really well. They were better in that period of time. We had to do some adjustments, some movements with personnel, but I think that worked really well.” Amorós recognized the need for a tactical adjustment, noting that while Portilho and Schupansky started the game on the wings, it was an interesting experiment but ultimately not successful. He said, “There's still a big process of adaptation for Sarah, for Gabi to start understanding what we do.”

While the game looked more equal in the beginning, Amorós was able to make smart tactical adjustments to give Gotham the upper hand, while North Carolina under coach Sean Nahas failed to do so.

At this point, the team moved Esther back to striker, Schupansky to attacking midfielder, Portilho to her much more natural right wing position, and Stevens out wide to the left wing. Schupansky was more comfortable in the attacking midfielder position she’s gotten used to playing in for the team, and even more significantly, Esther was a much better player in her natural striker position. We saw immediate evidence of this in her 6-minute brace at the end of the first half, almost immediately after this adjustment.

The defense also took a minute to find its bearings—Gotham conceded 8 of the Courage’s 9 total shots this match in the first 28 minutes, and was lucky that nothing came of the 0.35 xG conceded in this time. But when the defense found its bearings, boy did the team hold it down, not conceding another shot until the 94th minute.

While Gotham is still not completely comfortable on the pitch, this game has given us a lot to look forward to. We saw our first glimpses of the Gotham we know and love, saw the 2025 debuts of Midge Purce, Geyse, and Jéssica Silva, and saw our first win of the season.

“I’m looking forward to winning a championship,” said 2023 NWSL Championship MVP Midge Purce on her return to the pitch this season. “I’m excited to be a part of a team that I truly believe from the bottom of my heart can and will win this championship.”

Looking ahead to next match

Gotham plays Angel City this Friday at 10:30 PM ET. Angel City is one of three teams that remain undefeated this season (the other two being Orlando Pride and Kansas City Current), but don’t let that fool you—so far this season, Angel City has faced San Diego Wave, Portland Thorns, Seattle Reign, and Houston Dash—and they’ve tied two of those games—so they haven’t been tested very hard yet. 

However, Gotham still has work to do ahead of this matchup. Angel City’s main strength this season has been its attack, spearheaded by Alyssa Thompson, so Gotham’s defense needs to hold it down for the full 90 minutes.