It will likely be remembered as the loudest Gotham goal scored inside Red Bull Arena.
With five minutes of stoppage time left on the clock, Gotham was banking on some late-game theatrics to keep the match from entering overtime. That’s when Delanie Sheehan, who entered Sunday’s quarterfinal game against the Portland Thorns in the 90th minute, delivered a ball to midfielder Rose Lavelle in the heart of the box.
With a quick touch, Lavelle buried the ball into the back of Portland’s net, giving Gotham a 2-1 victory, stamping its ticket to the semifinals and bringing Gotham one step closer to defending its 2023 title.
“That was such a moment of brilliance,” said Lavelle. “It was a great run, and then to have the composure to be able to deal with two defenders on you and act like that, it was such a good play. She came in and came up in such a huge moment.”
That moment gave Gotham the franchise’s first playoff win at home, before a record crowd of 15,540 fans in Harrison, New Jersey that roared with excitement. It was an electric night filled with all the appropriate fanfare of a playoff game, serving as a benchmark for the club’s upward trajectory in recent years, both on the field and behind the scenes.
“It’s a historic moment for the club,” Gotham head coach Juan Carlos Amoros said before Sunday’s match. “It’s something that this club has worked extremely hard (for), for a very long time.”
While Gotham players and staff say they approach every game with the same mentality and preparedness, the significance of Sunday’s game separated it from just another game day. Sunday’s record crowd was a mark of the team’s progress.
“There’s a big swell of momentum that makes it really exciting,” said Gotham’s general manager Yael Averbuch West.
That momentum, began when Averbuch West joined Gotham’s front office in 2021, shortly after a major brand refresh that sunset the club’s former identity as Sky Blue — an era of the team marked by a lack of investment on underperformance. Averbuch West joined as interim general manager that August, before moving into a permanent role by December. Since stepping into the role, the former professional player and the club’s first draft pick in 2009 when it played in the Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) league, has made Gotham’s aspirations of becoming one of the greatest clubs in the world crystal clear.
Averbuch West joined Gotham as general manager in 2021 (Robert Deutsch / USA TODAY Sports)
The team’s championship in 2023 helped propel that vision forward, with Gotham securing a quartet of superstar signings in the offseason. The team signed four USWNT regulars in Lavelle, Crystal Dunn, Emily Sonnett and Tierna Davidson, giving the group a glamorous welcome with an introductory press conference set in the Rainbow Room at Rockefeller Center in January.
Once the season began, Gotham navigated a schedule crammed with more fixtures across multiple tournaments. The team was invited to compete in the Women’s Cup during the preseason and later featured in the inaugural NWSL x Liga MX Femenil Summer Cup, advancing to the tournament’s championship round. The team’s successes on the pitch also qualified Gotham for the CONCACAF W Champions Cup, which added midweek fixtures to its already-crowded schedule. The team also hosted Women’s Super League side Chelsea over the summer, in what organizers marketed as a “clash of champions.”
Gotham’s ability to adapt to a demanding schedule was key in its success on the pitch this year, leaning heavily on its roster depth in a way that not many other clubs have been able to do. That was especially important during international windows when as many as seven players reported to national team duties.
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“We were adaptable. We performed consistently well,” Averbuch West said. “But also, I think what’s really important to us is, I feel that we’re still getting better. … We’re on a continuous ascension to try to better ourselves, and we’re never finished focusing on the things that are going to make us better.”
Behind the scenes, Gotham has been working to find its footing in the New York sports market. One step towards that was bringing in a new minority owner and strategic investor in Carolyn Tisch Blodgett, whose family co-owns the New York Giants. She officially joined Gotham two days before the club lifted the NWSL trophy last year.
“We had an opportunity as legacy sports owners to either take a step back and watch the NFL continue to flourish or lean in and really help drive a lot of the innovation happening in sports,” Tisch Blodgett said. That’s when she started her family’s sports investment firm, Next 3.
The firm quickly put women’s sports at the top of its list because of the potential for sustainable growth in the sector.
“So many signs pointed towards women’s sports, and, in particular the NWSL,” Tisch Blodgett said. “We looked at, actually, a bunch of different teams in the NWSL, but wearing my ‘New York legacy sports owner hat,’ the idea of being able to come into the New York/New Jersey team was obviously a dream come true.”
Tisch Blodgett joined Gotham’s ownership group last year (Jonathan Jones / USA TODAY Sports)
So far, the Tisch family’s rookie year as NWSL owners has resulted in considerable success. There’s what fans see — like finishing third in the season and signing international players like Germany’s Ann Katrin Berger or England’s Jess Carter. But there’s so much that happens behind the scenes in the day-to-day.
“I think in a lot of ways, we fluctuate between considering Gotham a startup and a turnaround, because it’s some ways, we’re so focused on growth,” Tisch Blodgett said. “We’ve been really focused on improving the fan experience, getting people out to Red Bull (Arena), getting people to attend games, engage with us on social. … We know that once people come to games, they’re going to come back.
“The other piece is turnaround mode. There were things we needed to improve on the business side.”
That included investing in an office, so employees wouldn’t have to be fully remote, and hiring a chief business officer and chief operating officer. On the soccer side, the team also invested in things like a nutritionist, chef and security for the team, and upgraded its medical staff.
“It’s easy to sit here today looking at our growth in ticket sales, our growth in sponsorship, the fact that we are seeded number three this year, and say, it all looks good,” Tisch Blodgett said. “(But) we are eyes wide open to how many things need to continue to improve, both on the business side and the soccer side, and really see this as a journey… there is still so much more work to be done.”
Gotham has also been aggressive in finding ways to raise the club’s profile in the region, by “bringing Gotham into the New York culture.” Some of the free agent signings from the offseason, for example, took part in the Times Square ball drop on New Years’ Eve. Players have been at the U.S. Open and New York Fashion Week, and the Olympians who medaled in Paris were recently honored at an NFL game.
@gothamfc Sunday Night Fútbol 🤝 Sunday Night Football Thanks for having us tonight, @New York Giants! 👋 #GothamFC #nwsl #soccer #soccertiktok #woso #women #footy #football #soccer #medal #olympics #olympics #olympians ♬ original sound – NJ/NY Gotham FC
But the New York sports market can be unforgiving, and while the NWSL has been experiencing record growth, and soccer’s popularity across the U.S. is exploding, weaving a team into the fabric of the region’s professional sports ecosystem is no small feat. Tisch Blodgett realized that when Gotham won the championship last year and legacy New York City sports pages didn’t have Gotham’s win splashed across their pages.
“That was a really sobering first moment of (feeling like), it’s going to be really hard for us to break in,” Tisch Blodgett said. “There’s so many other professional sports teams, but it’s not lost on me that the two teams that have won a championship and brought championships to New York are the two women’s teams. So, that’s an amazing thing.”
In 2023, Gotham fans were left without a meaningful way to celebrate their team’s championship. There was no parade or public gathering, like what the New York Liberty organized following their first WNBA title last month. Instead, Gotham organized a private celebration for its supporters’ group, Cloud 9, and season-ticket members, in the weeks following the success.
“Last year, when we won, I wish we were able to come and give the crowd and the fans what they deserved, which was an amazing celebration, and we fell short of that,” forward Lynn Williams said. “So to be able to play our first home game in front of our crowd, for the supporters who have been supporting us when we weren’t the best, and now that we are going in the right direction of winning games, it’s really cool that we can give that to them, and also for them to give their energy to us in return.”
Davidson, who scored Gotham’s opening goal, said the atmosphere was palpable inside Red Bull Arena.
“To have over 15,000 there cheering us on and supporting us in our first-ever home playoff game, it’s just really incredible,” Davidson said. “I think that really pushed us over the finish line. We felt the energy all game, and it’s so important for us, especially games that are so close, to use that extra boost.”
For defender Mandy Freeman, who has been with the club since 2017, the game illustrated a full-circle moment for the veteran player.
“I was just talking with someone of the days we were playing at Yurcak (Field), but to be able to play at Red Bull Arena, to have a sellout crowd, beating records in our attendance every year. It’s great. It’s very fulfilling,” Freeman said. “I think this is the trajectory that we want to go as a club, always striving to be better, do better. And I feel like we’re accomplishing that slowly every year.”
(Top photo: Lucas Boland / Imagn Images)
