Gotham FC Heads to NWSL Final

The Portland Thorns 2023 season run came to an end on Sunday November 5 with a 0-1 defeat against Gotham FC, at Providence Park, Portland, Oregon.

Fans proved the motto “rain or shine”, supporting the Thorns though out the whole game, demonstrating why Portland is still one of the most special places to play football in the USA on an otherwise classic rainy fall day, turned into heavy rain by match time with flooding incidents and road hazards developing all around the Portland Metro Area. The thought of watching the game cozying up at home or at the pub seemed like the right choice, except that Providence Park recorded a sold out crowd of over 25,000, and as loud as ever.

This was the first NWSL semifinal and it squared two teams with vastly different football philosophies. Their roads to the finals also differed greatly. Portland challenged to win the shield, conceding the top spot on the last week of regular season to San Diego Wave. Their runner up status sent them directly to the semifinals. Gotham FC on the other hand, they tried to stay in the fight, but ended up snatching the last slot the playoffs, and then beat North Carolina Courage 2-0 to get to the final four.

The Portland Thorns had shown a dominant, aggressive attacking game and has put some of the most luscious brushes to this football year, especially from the magic of their striker star Sophia Smith, the Golden Boot with 11 goals. They were the league’s top scorer with 42 goals. Its defense, however, has shown weaknesses, and had had 32 goals scored against, only surpassed by the two worse teams, KC Current with 36 and Chicago Red Stars who completed one of its worst runs in NWSL with 50 goals against.

Gotham FC has shown to be quite a balanced team this year. Sitting in opposite stats to the Thorns, they had only let in 24 goals, only a few teams have been scored upon less than them—San Diego Wave and North Carolina with 22, and Houston Dash with 18. On the other end of the pitch, they haven’t been very prolific with just 25 goals to their favor, leaving them sitting with the three least scoring teams.

Not to be mislead by their low scoring numbers, Gotham have a lot of talent in their ranks, an extraordinary number ten, Lynn Williams, the Spanish world champion, Esther Gonzalez, Midge Purce on the wing, and the defensive stalwart Alie Krieger, just to mention a few. The low scoring might be just a fruit of their playing style. They are a team that is happy playing the defensive role, pressing hard, cautious not to concede goals, patient, waiting for an error in the rivals defense, and picking their moments with fast transitions into the attack.

During the run of the play of Sunday’s semi final, not only they did well holding the Thorns’ charges, they were patient and showed they could hurt the Thorns anytime, aiming to surprise the rival with a goal advantage they could then defend to the teeth.

It was tempting to put the Thorns as the favorite, the record between these two teams during the regular season match ups showed a different story, two teams in fairly equal terms. They had one win each, two goals in favor and two against for both. Their first encounter this season was on July 9th at the Red Bull Arena in New Jersey, with Gotham edging the Thorns 2-1. Then, fast forward to October 7th to Portland, Oregon, where the Thorns got the upper hand with a 1-0 win. Both teams knew each other very well.

The weather didn’t favor control and technique. A wet artificial turf field tends to accelerate the ball, making it harder to play the wide game both teams enjoy. It also make regulation balls very slippery and difficult to control. Passing looked sloppy at times, even with players in the field with a silk touch like Sophia Smith, Lynn Williams, or Olivia Moultrie, still under those conditions, their individual talent showed in flashes of pure class.

It wasn’t a pretty affair, but it was high competition at its best. The resulting match was a more physical game that favored the strengths of the visiting side, and even as Portland was pushing the hardest, it was falling short in the last third, imprecise and having difficulty to connect, even when they found the spaces in the Gotham defense, things weren’t clicking.

Both teams had their chances to open the score, especially Morgan Weaver whose shot in the 89th minute from the center of the box after a lovely square pass from Smith was easily saved by a well positioned Mandy Haught. A play immediately countered by a run in the opposite area with Lynn Williams neutralized by the Thorns last ditch defense when she would have been one-on-one with Thorns keeper Shelby Hogan. Either chance if converted could have ended the game right there.

The lone goal of the match had to wait to the second half of the extra time. It looked like the winner was about to be decided the way of the penalties, when forward Katie Stengel in minute 107, produced the moment of magic this sober match needed so much. Stengel, slotted a wonderful strike with her left foot from the right top of the box, to the opposite post high side netting, a curled shot that favored precision over velocity. Thorns goalie Shelby Hogan couldn’t do anything to stop it, but embellish the goal.

The 1-0 was a near fatal blow to the locals, 13 minutes left in extra time and not much time to shake off the punch. New York dug in while an increasingly desperate Thorns kept pushing out of pure pride, they weren’t able to change the story, they were seeing that the ticket to San Diego slipping away. With the goal advantage, Gotham FC, like it is usually said when teams go full defense, parked the bus, now they’ll be riding it to San Diego for the NWSL finals.

The role of the refereeing exasperated both fans and players. While their reasons may be arguable other than being disappointed at the loss, there were a number of controversial plays on both sides of the pitch.

A series of one on ones between the keeper and an attacking players. Minutes after the start of the game, one between Thorn’s keeper Shelby Hogan and Gotham’s forward Esther González, Thorn’s Sophia smith, and Olivia Moultrie, against Mandy Haught, one on each half. Plays that had players and fans alike asking for penalties and red cards. Plays that in my opinion would have have justified the use of the VAR. The privilege of slow motion, out of the pressure of the moment, might allow to interpret good criteria in the decision, however, the moment might have asked for a further review, referees were lucky.

Head Referee Danielle Chesky, took leadership of a high stakes game on a field borderline suitable for a football match, she didn’t let discipline escape from her hands. She let players play on, and intervened when she thought things were heating up.

Away fans might interpret the four yellow cards she punished Gotham FC for harsh play as a testimony of their tenacity. All four to defensive players on hard fouls that stoped key transitions into attack by the Thorns. Locals argued on leniency towards a team who used harsh play outside of the rules to get advantage on clear dangerous developing plays. The refereeing trio was protested heavily when they left the field.

Fan fueled refereeing debates tend to be unresolvable, but one truth when weather goes extreme, win or loose comes down to a handful of plays, almost a toss of the coin, and it wasn’t the day for the Portland Thorns. Both teams played to their strengths, but Gotham FC turned out to be just that sharper than their hosts. The Portland Thorns left the pitch crushed, fans kept cheering after the match, sure that their girls gave it their all.

The second semifinal, found the San Diego Wave, 2023 Shield Champions, and hosts of the 2023 NWSL final, loosing for the same minimal 0-1 result to OL Reign. A goal in minute 47 by Veronica Latsko left San Diego fans having to be content at witnessing Seattle OL Reign and Gotham FC battle for the top prize of this 2023 season at their home stadium of Snapdragon Field, this coming Saturday, November 11 at 5:00 PM PST.

(Gallery Photos by Diego G Diaz)