Gotham FC looks the part of NWSL contender with convincing road victory over OL Reign

A quarter of the way through a milestone season off the pitch, NJ/NY Gotham FC continues to prove it’s making a breakthrough on it.

Gotham FC further staked its place in the top half of the NWSL table Saturday, shutting down Megan Rapinoe, Jess Fishlock and the dynamic offense of OL Reign in a 3-0 road victory on a steamy day at Cheney Stadium in Tacoma, Washington.

Ifeoma Onumonu and Midge Purce found the net for Gotham, both scoring their team-high second goals of the season, and Domi Richardson added her first for the final tally as temperatures reached the mid-90s on the field.

Six matches into its 24-game schedule, Gotham is 3-2-1 (11 points). Playing as Sky Blue FC a year ago, the club had just three wins all of 2020, going 3-2-5 in 10 competitive matches. After a strong start to the Gotham era at its new home of Red Bull Arena, the win Saturday was its first multi-goal game of the year and gave the club its first road victory in 2021. NJ/NY sits fifth in the NWSL table after Saturday, just two points from second place with a game in hand on all teams above, and Onumonu believes other clubs now should take notice.

"It's gonna make teams respect us a little bit more," Onumonu said. "We've only had one loss in this season so far, but at the same time, there are people out there who say that we have been getting lucky and it's hard to disprove that when you're only winning 1-0, so being that today we got a 3-0 victory, it can speak to our story better."

"No, this isn't luck. This is production of hard work and resilience and being a team."

Goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan, who will represent Canada at the upcoming Tokyo Olympics, made six saves for her third shutout of the campaign behind a strong performance from the Gotham backline. Carli Lloyd, Gotham’s lone Tokyo-bound American, was not included in the team for Saturday’s cross-country trip.

Rapinoe found some space playing mostly on the left in 65 minutes for OL Reign in the final NWSL match for players heading to Tokyo, but never found goal on three shots. Rapinoe had one of Reign’s best chances in the 35th minute with an open shot in the box, but missed left.

Onumonu put Gotham ahead not long after. With the ball in Gotham’s half, Purce placed a pass through the Reign defense to Onumomu as the forward charged into open space. Reign keeper Sarah Bouhaddi tried to shut down the play outside the box, but Onumonu deftly dribbled left around her and softly finished from deep.

Purce got herself on the scoresheet in the 60th minute, running on to a long ball over the top by Nahomi Kawasumi and curling a shot around Bouhaddi to put Gotham ahead 2-0. Richardson, who entered in the 68th minute, scored the dagger in the 85th minute, receiving the ball form Evelyne Viens on a fast break and going most of the way herself to beat Bouhaddi on the far post, sealing all three points.

"One of our objectives is to look to pick up points on the road," said Gotham coach Freya Coombe. "To come away to the West Coast, it's a difficult journey to have in the heat of today, and for us to be able to put in not just a win, but a really good, convincing win with a good style of play and fantastic goals, that's really important for us, especially as we go into our next home game against [Kansas City]."