Week 9 recap: Is this the end?

Gotham fell to the San Diego Wave 1-0 Friday night at Sports Illustrated Stadium as the team saw its third straight game without scoring a goal and second straight loss. We now have the privilege of playing the age old game of “how much should we be reading into this?”. 

There was a lot of pressure on the team going into this match, having drawn and lost to two bottom-table sides in the two matches leading up to this one—it almost felt like the result of this match would either reassure fans that the team was ok or serve as a harbinger of a poor 2025 season. However, this was an unfair match to put this much stock in—Gotham played a team that has been unexpectedly very high performing this season—and therefore harder to scout—in a match that at this point the Bats were favored to lose. Almost two months ago, we assured you not to panic after Gotham found itself winless and with only one goal through its first three games, and we are still tentatively standing by that—as we saw in the month of April, this is a very high potential team that has so so much talent and a very high ceiling. However, this loss did break some long standing records for the Bats.

• The last time Gotham lost two matches in a row: October 2023

• The last time Gotham had under 40% possession: August 5, 2023

• The last time Gotham went three straight matches without scoring: September 2022

• The last time Gotham had more losses than wins through 10 matches in a season: 2022 (3W-3D-4L, the same record they have right now)

In Gotham’s defense, the club has had a rough go of things. An already injured squad had to play three road games in one week, which seems to have injured more players, and the resulting rotation has hindered the team from developing the chemistry that comes from continuity (which is especially needed in a team with as many new pieces as this 2025 side). This rotation has undoubtedly had an impact on results and in past weeks one could reasonably point to them as the primary cause of Gotham’s poor performance. 

This week, however, the team had no new injuries (save for Sofia Cook, who has only played 30 minutes total across 2 games and was far from an integral part of the system) and in fact was able to field players returning from injury for more minutes than before. Theoretically Gotham should’ve been better-equipped, and although they were facing a tougher opponent than they had the past 2 weeks, there were still some things that we felt made this match more difficult for the team than it had to be. 

Geyse in the 9

A few weeks ago, Reddit user reagan92 was exploring how different head coaches in the NWSL made decisions, and made this keen observation about Gotham head coach Juan Carlos Amorós.

As we mentioned before, Gotham wasn’t facing more injury restrictions in this match than it had been in recent weeks. Instead, the wonky decision making can pretty much entirely be attributed to the little man that lives in Amorós’ head telling him to do weird things, and there was one really weird thing that he told him to do in this match that pushed it further out of Gotham’s grasp.

Imagine this: you are Gotham FC and you have two of the best strikers in the league on your team (and both of them are healthy). Every match is a struggle when you’re trying to get the best out of both of these players while still playing your preferred style with one center forward. You know you are so lucky to have this problem, and you are especially lucky when one of your center forwards has a game-changing stint at attacking midfield and you want to keep her there for a little longer. Now, you only have one very talented striker to put in that role—seems like it should be a pretty easy decision, right?

Apparently not. Amorós opted to put Geyse up top and instead kept Ella Stevens out wide. Of the 6 goals that Stevens scored in open play last season, 3 came in the 8 games where she started as striker, the position she primarily played at the Chicago Red Stars before joining Gotham. 

Let’s look at some numbers to see if a statistical case could’ve been made for playing Geyse centrally instead of Ella Stevens or Esther. A striker’s main role is to be well-positioned to receive the ball in promising areas of the pitch and to shoot the ball on frame. If we look at the three players’ receiving and shooting g+ values this season, here’s what we see.

Although Esther’s g+ score slightly benefits from her having far more minutes at striker and opportunities to receive and shoot than the other two players here, we (and Juan Carlos Amorós) know that she is the best option at striker for this team. However, Ella Stevens is a significantly better option than Geyse just based on this metric alone. Even if we normalize by looking at the g+ per 96 minutes, Stevens is still the better option, with a slightly lower shooting g+ but a much higher receiving g+.

Finally, if we look at g+ that is adjusted to a positional average, and look at this value per 96 minutes played, we see perhaps the starkest difference of all.

Esther is still the best option, Ella Stevens is slightly above average for a forward with about average shooting g+ and above average receiving g+, and Geyse has a receiving g+ that is more below average than Esther is above average, by a lot.

In Amorós’ defense, it’s not like Geyse hasn’t played the striker before. But she had never played the striker for Gotham, and there were some moments that made us hope she would never play in this role for Gotham again.

In this play, Jaelin Howell recovers the ball in the attacking third and gets it to Geyse. Geyse is in a ton of space and Wave goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan is caught way off her line—this would’ve been the perfect opportunity to shoot. Instead, Geyse takes a few touches too many and the Wave defense is able to get into shape and deflect her shot away from goal, and Sheridan is now well-positioned to collect.

Here, we see Geyse muscle the ball away and run in space, splitting Wave defenders. We will concede that by the time she gets to the top of the box the defenders are closing in on her, but her slow pass to Midge Purce on the right essentially kills the play as the Wave now has numbers committed to defense and is able to close down any forward passing or shooting lane for Gotham.

Geyse wasn’t the only one on the forward line who had bad moments, however.

In this clip, Ella Stevens intercepts a pass from a San Diego player and finds herself in a ton of space. However, instead of taking advantage of this space to shoot, she instead passes left to Esther, who has to pump the brakes on a run forward and is unfortunately unable to do so in time. Esther seemed to have been either expecting the pass to be closer to goal, or honestly just expecting Stevens to shoot and therefore getting in position for a potential rebound. Regardless, it’s San Diego who ultimately end up with the ball on this play.

In an ideal world we would have Esther play the striker in every match. We understand why Amorós chose to keep her at attacking midfield this match after how much moving her there stabilized the midfield last week against Louisville. However (keeping in mind that hindsight is 20/20), we think that Schupansky in the attacking midfielder role wouldn’t have been the worst thing in the world in this particular matchup—Taylor Flint (Louisville) is statistically a much more menacing defensive midfielder to go up against than Savannah McCaskill (Wave)—and if Esther absolutely had to play attacking midfielder then we would’ve opted to put Ella Stevens at the 9 over Geyse. 

There’s a reason that Juan Carlos Amorós is the head coach and not us, however, so he probably did this for a reason. Whatever it was, it didn’t pay off this time but we’ll see what happens going forward.

Poor team chemistry

Another consequence of constant rotation—whether it is injury-induced or little-man-in-head-induced—is that the team is unable to develop chemistry that is replicable week over week. Gotham really failed to connect this match, managing only 39% possession after completing only 75.7% of their passes. For context, San Diego completed 84.2% of their passes this match, and before this match Gotham had an average pass completion rate of 77.5% and, with their press, held their opponents to an average pass completion rate of 71.7%. So this performance was an uncharacteristically bad one from the Bats. Let’s take a look at a few moments that stood out.

In this clip, Lilly Reale intercepts a San Diego pass and suddenly finds a ton of space to pass into centrally. We can’t be the arbiters of whether this was on Reale for not recognizing Geyse’s forward run or on Geyse for running towards a wall of defenders, but either way it was poor team chemistry that results in this ball going right back to the San Diego Wave.

This is another situation where we’re not equipped to assign blame, but what we do see is Sarah Schupansky recognizing a lot of space in an attacking area for Gotham and sending a ball into that space. No one has the correct positioning or the initiative to make a run for it except for Esther, who sprints from her central position to keep the ball from running past the endline for a goal kick. It was all for naught though, as a Wave defender is the one who ultimately comes away with the ball. 

Juan Carlos Amorós’ system requires creativity in the midfield. While newcomers like Jaelin Howell and Sarah Schupansky are still learning the ropes and learning how to connect with each other, while Gotham’s forward line is constantly rotating, and while perhaps the most creative midfielder in the world, Rose Lavelle, is still out on injury, Gotham’s attack is perhaps getting a bit predictable and easy for opponents to counter. Forward Midge Purce observed that, “I don't think we had the type of possession that makes other teams fearful.”

The story of this match (and of Gotham as a team) is illustrated really well in this attack momentum chart below. Gotham controlled the game pretty well until San Diego scored (although the Bats had only generated 0.13 xG on four shots during this time, so it wasn’t the most inspired offensive performance). Then, the team kind of fell apart (as it often does when conceding first) and allowed the Wave to take over, up until around the time that Geyse was subbed out, Schupansky was subbed in, and Esther was able to return to the striker position. Gotham had zero shots between the 48th and the 85th minute of the match, and it is a little concerning that a team with this much talent couldn’t string together some offense in that 37 minute stretch.  

Midfielder Jaelin Howell noted that, “the first 30 minutes we controlled the game… after the goal, I think we kind of took a step back, and we needed to keep our foot on the pedal. I thought we had the momentum up until that point—they didn’t have any opportunities up until that point. They had one shot on goal and they scored. I think after that, they gained confidence and got back on the ball. I think that’s the time when we needed to continue doing what we were doing the first 30 minutes to make it difficult for them.”

The players all seem to be putting a lot of pressure on themselves, and with each additional week where they don’t score, this pressure increases and their confidence decreases, and the team descends further into this spiral. Thankfully, Gotham is made up of professional athletes who have been dealing with and overcoming situations like these their whole lives—hopefully we will see the team get its mojo back soon.

The refereeing

Players and coaches get fined when they express their opinions about refereeing to the media. Thankfully, we are not players or coaches so we are going to indulge a bit without the risk of financial harm. We want to note here that Gotham did not lose this game because of the referees—Gotham lost this game because they were outplayed by San Diego. However, there were some moments from the referees that had us raising our eyebrows.

The potential handball

This is the best look we could get at the potential handball situation early in the first half, as the broadcast did not have a close-up replay of this moment. Here, we see the ball seem to hit the hand of a San Diego player—we can’t confirm that it does since her arm is out of our view, but the ball does change directions after the impact and multiple Gotham players started to appeal for a handball. After that, the ball is picked up by another Wave defender who seems to kick the ball straight into the arm of her teammate. We can’t say for certain that this is what’s happening since this is a very grainy video of only one angle of the whole affair, but this is something that would usually get looked at by the center referee. If Gotham had been awarded and had converted a penalty here, this game could have looked very different. But again, we need to underscore that 1) we don’t know for a fact that a handball (or two) happened here with the information we have available and 2) the refereeing did not force Gotham to concede a goal and then not score any.

Uncalled fouls

The resulting call from this clip was a goal kick for San Diego. This means that the referee came away from this moment with the conclusion that the Wave defender got ahold of the ball and so it was therefore not a foul, but also that the last touch was by a Gotham player so it should be a goal kick. Doesn’t make sense.

Gotham had a breakaway moment in the final moments of the match until this clear foul against Stella Nyamekye was not called.

Finally, this looked like a pretty clear foul on Mandy Freeman that wasn’t called. 

Again, we want to reiterate that the refereeing was not the ultimate decision-maker for this match. But inconsistencies like this did make the game less fun to watch and more importantly, put the players at more risk. 

Amorós risked punishment by commenting on the refereeing, remarking that, “we need to try to increase the standards in general and have the best possible referees with the best conditions for themselves. I will always say that.”

The positives

Gotham did have some positive moments this match, as they always do. Let’s take a look at some of them.

Esther and Ella Stevens manage to connect in the box, and it almost results in a goal (0.12 xG./0.38 PSxG chance).

Jaelin Howell plays a really good line-breaking ball forward to Midge Purce.

Taryn Torres plays a great ball forward to Geyse.

Jess Carter masterfully defends against early MVP contender Delphine Cascarino in the box.

At the end of the day, this is a team with a ton of talent that has set a high expectation for themselves over the past couple of years, and these recent performances shouldn’t necessarily be treated as an indictment of this 2025 squad. As we saw in April, Gotham is a very high potential team. Amorós recognized the up-and-down nature of the club this season when he observed that, “at this point, it's similar to the start of the year when we didn’t score many goals. Then we came onto that run where we were scoring for fun, as they normally say. Now we’re again on this run. So we look internally and make sure that we are ready to score.”

Hopefully we will start seeing that from them again, and equally as importantly, hopefully we will see every member of the squad have fun on the pitch again.

So how much should we be reading into this result? Probably a little. Gotham is now 10 games into a 26 game season and really should be connecting better at this point. But there have been a lot of things going against this team, particularly injuries, and at the end of the day Gotham is a team made up of human beings just like any other club in this league—people and teams are going to have good days and bad days. What’s important here is that Gotham as an organization has demonstrated a high level of investment in this team and its players, and that it cares about its players as people. As we saw last season, when ownership properly invests in its players, good things happen. Hopefully we will see some more of that soon from this side.

Looking ahead to next match

The Bats have traveled to Nuevo León, Mexico to face Club América in the semi-finals of the CONCACAF W Champions Cup on Wednesday, May 21st at 7:30 PM ET. Like Gotham, América is dealing with some significant injuries right now—they recently lost all-time scoring leader Daniela Espinosa to an ACL tear, and have several other significant players on the injury list. However, the club still managed to finish at the top of the table in the 2024-25 Clausura, and lost by one goal in the two-legged tournament final to CF Pachuca. Club América has consistently been one of the top teams in the Liga MX Femenil and will certainly be a challenge for Gotham.

The Bats are remaining optimistic—midfielder Sarah Schupansky noted that, “we want to get back in the win column, whether that’s in this league or in a tournament. I’m really excited. I know the team worked really hard to get there, so if there’s anything I can do to help finish the job, I’m going to try my best.”

Regardless of the result of Wednesday’s match, Gotham will be playing another on Saturday May 24, competing for either 1st or 3rd place in the tournament. In this match, Gotham will be playing either the Portland Thorns of the NWSL or the Tigres of the Liga MX. We will be recapping both matches in one article, so keep an eye out for that next week!

Thumbnail courtesy of Gotham FC.