Gotham FC stays perfect in the Champions Cup with a win over Alianza

NJ/NY Gotham FC continued their run of good results as they beat the El Salvadorian champions Alianza Women FC 2-0. The result sees them continue their perfect start to their CONCACAF W Champions Cup title defense after their 2-1 win over C.F. Monterrey Femenil at home two weeks ago. This win also extends the team's unbeaten run in the competition to eight games dating back to the beginning of last year's tournament.

It was a much-needed three points for Gotham FC in order to continue on this good run of form. They are now four games unbeaten in all competitions. While the performance in this match was not great, getting the three points, keeping the momentum up, and continuing to rotate the squad were the most important aspects of the fixture.

This was overall a good day for Gotham. They stayed perfect in the group stage so far and got some of their squad players some much-needed game time. Now headed back into NWSL play, they can carry a decent amount of positive momentum for the first time in months.

Gotham FC has six points from six in the Champions Cup

As the match got started, one thing that became apparent pretty quickly was the pitch. While the surface itself was in good condition, it was playing incredibly fast, with multiple passes being overhit and almost "outrunning" the players, if one will. This made things especially difficult for both teams to really sustain longer periods of attacking play, as passes were constantly being put out of play or being easily intercepted.

As the half moved on, Alianza was the team who were better able to take advantage of this fast surface as they held Gotham FC to just six shots with zero on target. The Bats did have one or two good chances, with Kayla Duran very nearly getting her first goal as she just headed wide off of a corner, and then a few minutes later, Sarah Schupansky shot high on a chance from outside of the box.

The major flashpoint of the first half came in the 39th minute as Taryn Torres was taken down in the box for what looked like a penalty kick. The referee, however, did not see it as a foul and instead awarded Gotham a corner. There was definite contact from the defender on Torres after she had knocked the ball forward, but that knock, which went pretty far away from her and was going out of bounds, may have been why the referee decided not to award the penalty kick. Ultimately, the game entered halftime scoreless.

Before the second half started, Gotham made two changes. Jess Carter, who was the only player in the Starting XI who had played the full 90 minutes on Friday in Orlando, and Mak Whitham made way for Bruninha and Katie Stengel. It was not Whitham's night on her first professional start, as she is still looking for her first pro goal. She did not play particularly poorly, but it was pretty easy to see that she was slightly overwhelmed playing as the main striker.

After another 15 minutes of struggling to make things work offensively, Gotham FC was handed a lifeline as they were awarded a penalty kick. A shot by Geyse was blocked, with the rebound finding Sofia Cook, who had an Alianza defender go through the back of her in the box. The penalty was called, and Geyse then managed to bury the ball in the top right corner, sending the goalkeeper the other way to give the NJ/NY team a 1-0 lead.

There was then a bit of an injury scare as Stengel, who had come on at halftime, was taken off in the 75th minute and replaced by Josefine Hasbo. While Stengel is yet to hit the back of the net in her second stint with Gotham, she has given this attack a bit of life in recent games and missing her for an extended period of time will definitely put Gotham's goalscoring depth to the test.

Then, the Bats put the game to bed in stoppage time. Duran headed home a Schupansky corner for her first goal with the club and doubled the lead to 2-0. Scoring the second goal was really beneficial for Gotham, as not only did Alianza make some, albeit not very threatening, forays forward, but with goal differential being the main tiebreaker, any additional goals scored could be of huge benefit down the line.

While it wasn't the drubbing a lot of people expected, especially after seeing what the Washington Spirit did to this team, it was effective. Gotham FC walked away with the three points and did so with the vast majority of their main Starting XI not taking part.