Week 4 recap: One step at a time

Gotham FC still only has one goal to its name in the 2026 season as the Bats and the Orlando Pride split the points in a scoreless draw on Sunday. A single point was a relief after Gotham fell 2-0 to the Denver Summit in their midweek fixture. At the same time, a third straight game without goals is definitely worrying. Let’s get into the good, the bad, and the medium.

The medium: The lineup

Compared to large swaths of last season, Gotham is far from plagued with injuries right now. However, absences in two key spots on the field have led them to rely on less-than-ideal options at right back and in the forward line as well as pay the price of a lack of consistency. Gotham more or less started its best available XI in this game, especially as Tierna Davidson, Midge Purce, and Jordynn Dudley are all still working their way up to full strength. What this translated to was a 4-2-1-3 with a center back at right back, an attacking midfielder at right wing, and a striker at left wing. 

Still, the team did a pretty good job of staying stable. This was Kayla Duran’s third straight game this season playing at right back so she’s got some solid minutes under her belt. Sarah Schupansky played on the wing in college, so it wasn’t a completely new role for her. And Katie Stengel spent much of the 2024 season with Gotham on the left wing. So while these positions were relatively foreign, the players were still more than up to the task. Yet the absence of more seasoned players at those positions was definitely felt. We’ll get into that in a bit.

The good: The defense

Orlando’s Barbra Banda came into this match with a goal in each of the Pride’s first three games and looking to tie a league record with four in the first four. Jacquie Ovalle, who they paid a world record-breaking transfer fee for, had also just begun to heat up with a goal and two assists to her name after a slow start to her NWSL career. Gotham’s defense had their work cut out for them, and they delivered in this game. The Bats held the Pride to their lowest xG total this season (0.72), with an average of 0.065 xG per shot. Barbra Banda was limited to only 4 touches in the first half, and no other player on the pitch had fewer than 13. Orlando was also held to a pass network that looked like this.

Gotham’s opponents only had two starters with an average position past the halfway line (Banda and Ovalle, to no one’s surprise), and the third member of their forward line, left winger Solai Washington (#29), somehow ended up further back than the team’s fullbacks and defensive midfielders. 

The Bats had a lot more control over this match than they had against the Denver Summit, or really against any opponent so far this season. The defensive got to be proactive rather than reactive and that made a world of a difference. Banda and Ovalle both finished the game with zero goal contributions, and part of that was because of Emily Sonnett, Jess Carter, and Jaelin Howell triple teaming the former to take her out of the game.

But overall, this was exactly the kind of defensive performance we’d like to see after that rough game on Wednesday that saw Gotham conceding their first two. The Bats had enough defensive structure to allow the rest of the team to push forward in a way that they hadn’t been able to do against the Summit. If Gotham can keep this up, they’ll be hard to beat. Center back and team captain Tierna Davidson said on the Bats’ performance, “Looking at our last game to this game, we’ve seen a lot of improvements in our control of the ball, decision making and defensive structure. Those were things we wanted to improve.”

The bad: The offense

Zero goals in three straight games is not great, and is also something that no other team in the league can say about themselves at this point in the season. What exactly is making it so hard for the Bats to score?

As we mentioned earlier, Gotham has been dealing with limited personnel on the front line, resulting in many players playing out of position. In particular, striker Katie Lampson has started every game this season, often at striker but occasionally on the wing. While it has been a boon to have such an experienced player ready to step in for the Bats, her incompatibility with Gotham’s playing style has really held the Bats back.

With virtually no natural wingers available to play for Gotham, the Bats have taken a more direct and vertical approach to their attacking this season. This means that they need a faster player up top who can receive balls and quickly turn them into shots. Lampson is brilliant as a holdup player, but that is the last thing this Gotham team needs right now as not a single player has stepped up and actually scored goals. When a team is struggling to create, having a player who can hold the ball long enough to allow teammates and opponents alike to get to the final third is absolutely no help.

Like there was this moment where Esther won possession of the ball in an extremely dangerous position, and yet Gotham was just not at the place where they could break down a defense that had that many numbers in defense. This opportunity did not even turn into a shot, when in the past it could have easily turned into a goal.

Rose Lavelle played higher up the pitch than any other starter this game, despite playing as an attacking midfielder. Lavelle is the type of speedy and clinical attacker that Gotham needed up top, and that resulted in a pretty good chance for the team here.

If Lavelle hadn’t taken too heavy of a first touch here, there’s a pretty good chance that this would’ve found the back of the net. 

Everyone had their own explanations for Gotham’s scoring drought.

“That's what we're trying to resolve or come to is what are those high percentage chances that we want to make, those tap-and-go goals that are team goals.” - Midge Purce

Gotham kind of had one of these.

Very clever ball movement on the right side and an excellent cross from Midge Purce created an opportunity that was honestly the closest the Bats got to a goal. If Hailie Mace didn’t get there a split second before Esther could, that’s a goal 9 times out of 10. Gotham needs to work on creating more of these chances, but it’ll be hard as long as wingers are still unhealthy.

“I think we were a lot more recognizable on and off the ball in terms of who we are… We’re not scoring enough goals. We have the talent and the players to do it… We dominated the game, had a lot of passes in the final third, but it’s about how we break down those moments. It’s another step forward.” - Juan Carlos Amorós

Head coach Juan Carlos Amorós is critical but optimistic here. Gotham certainly has the pieces to be scoring more on paper, and hopefully we’ll see that translated to the field soon.

Finally, team captain Tierna Davidson noted that “often the last thing to come is the connections in the final third to be able to score. I’m happy with our progression from Wednesday to today.” Let’s hope she’s right on this one.

Looking ahead to next match

Gotham next travels to the midwest to play the Kansas City Current for the first time since beating them in last year’s quarterfinals. The match will take place on Saturday, April 4th at 4 PM ET on CBS. Like Gotham, the Current have had a slow start to their 2026 campaign, with one win and three losses to their name. However, the team just announced that back-to-back NWSL MVP and Golden Boot winner Temwa Chawinga has been removed from the season-ending injury list and will be available for selection against the Bats on Saturday. So Gotham needs to keep up this lock-down defense in order to scrounge a point from this matchup. We’re realllllly hoping they can pull it together and get the full three.

Thumbnail courtesy of Gotham FC.