Gotham FC earns place in Summer Cup final with 1-0 win over Angel City FC

On Tuesday night at CPKC Stadium, NJ/NY Gotham FC squeaked out a 1-0 win over Angel City FC to earn their place in the NWSL x Liga MX Femenil Summer Cup final. This is Gotham's third consecutive win against Angel City after beating them in their last league game before the Summer Cup 2-1. Despite a lengthy list of absences that included 14 players, the Bat have continued their fine league form. They have not been beaten so far in the Summer Cup and have not conceded a single goal in any of their games.

This win means that Gotham FC will play in the final of this tournament, scheduled for Friday, October 25, at Toyota Field in San Antonio, Texas. This will mark the NWSL's first time playing an official match in San Antonio.

This semifinal also marked Gotham's first time at CPKC Stadium, home of the Kansas City Current. The team's first matchup with the Current at this stadium is scheduled for Saturday, September 28. Plus, the NWSL Championship game is set to be played there as well, so they will hope to make two more appearances at this stadium come season's end.

This semifinal win comes on relatively short rest having just wrapped up group play with a 3-0 victory over C.D. Guadalajara Femenil, or Chivas, last Friday. Angel City played their last game on Thursday.

Gotham FC started slowly but still got the win

While they were able to come away with the victory, Gotham FC's first half was probably the worst they have played in this tournament. Angel City had the vast majority of the momentum for pretty much all of the first half. Despite this onslaught, which included the corner total being 10+ in Angel City's favor at times, the NJ/NY team survived without conceding a goal in the first half.

Gotham then came out much sharper in the second half which resulted in their only goal of the match less than three minutes in. A great ball from Bruninha in midfield found Yazmeen Ryan down the left wing who was able to then lay the ball off to Delanie Sheehan. She found the back of the net with a great shot past DiDi Haracic. It seemed as if Angel City switched off ever so shortly after Ryan's ball to Sheehan and Gotham was able to pounce on it and make them pay for their mistake.

This is what good teams have to do regardless of league or sport. The margins are sometimes so thin that the only time that an opportunity presents itself is from an opposition mistake. It is of utmost importance that those mistakes are capitalized on. It is something that Gotham FC has improved on as the season has progressed and could be one of their main strengths that hopefully takes them on another deep playoff run.

This one goal was enough for Gotham to secure the victory after a slightly more even second half, but one where Angel City still looked like the better team. So what could be the cause of this relatively poor game by Gotham's standards?

Fatigue is probably the answer. One of this team's strengths has been their depth and this is the main reason why they were able to name such a strong Starting XI despite currently missing about half of their starting roster. That being said, having that many players means the depth itself is gone. Head coach Juan Carlos Amorós is a notorious tinkerer, very rarely starting the same eleven players in back-to-back games. That makes it all the more jarring to see that Gotham only has 11 players who have made multiple starts this tournament, six of which have started in all four games.

While the National Team Replacement Players and the signing of Jess Carter have helped things, mainly in training to help make up the numbers, there is still a bigger drop off in quality from top to bottom on this squad than usual. And Gotham FC knew that this could be a possibility. It is part of why they made all of the signings and trades that they did this offseason. They wanted to not just defend their NWSL Championship win, but also win both the Summer Cup and the upcoming CONCACAF Champions Cup.

As such, the club had to ensure players 1-11 were of high quality, but players 12-30 were as well. Thankfully, the Bats have nearly two full weeks before their next game, a friendly against Chelsea F.C. Women on Monday, August 19.

A few notes from this game

New signing Carter made her first start for the club, going the full 90 minutes. Nealy Martin made her first start as captain, going the full 90 minutes. Tuesday's captain and Sam Hiatt were the two Gotham players to have played every minute of the Summer Cup.

Goalkeeper Cassie Miller earned another clean sheet, her third in as many starts in the tournament, and sixth overall from seven starts this season. It feels kind of cruel to have Miller sit on the bench given how good of a goalkeeper she is. Obviously, Ann-Katrin Berger's form since signing partway into the season makes it more understandable, but it surely must be frustrating for Miller to play as well as she has and still be number two.

Although, as Gotham FC proved last year, having a strong backup goalkeeper can make all of the difference between winning a championship and coming up short.