What is going on with Gotham FC, and why is the team struggling to score?

With just five points and two goals from the opening five games, it is safe to say that the 2026 NWSL season has gotten off to a less-than-ideal start for NJ/NY Gotham FC. The defending champions sit in 13th out of 16 teams, but are just one point out of a playoff spot.

This is a continuation of a frustrating trend that has come about in recent years despite the team's success. While Juan Carlos Amorós' tenure as the Gotham FC head coach has seen unprecedented success for the club, including two NWSL Championships, a CONCACAF W Champions Cup win, and the best NWSL regular season record in club history, there have been some suboptimal patterns that have developed during his tenure.

Slow starts, poor home records, and long barren stretches in front of the goal have all come up multiple times over the past three-plus seasons and have all been the major culprits for Gotham's slow start in 2026. But why? Why does a team that has had so much success in recent years seemingly have so many underlying issues?

Gotham FC's slow start to 2026

Gotham FC is off to a 1-2-2 start, matching their slowest start to a season under Amorós in 2024, during which they have managed only two goals. They also have a 0-1-2 record at home for two points, their worst record during their first three home games of a season under the head coach. The main culprit for this is the lack of goals over this opening five-game stretch, something they have been prone to in recent years.

Their only two goals this season have come off a defensive miscue from Boston Legacy FC that Esther González expertly dispatched, and a long-range seeing-eye goal from Jaedyn Shaw against the Kansas City Current. And while others have had their moments, there aren't really any instances fans can look back on and say, "That player should have scored."

A look at some of the underlying numbers suggests a lot of the club's scoring woes come from the players not making the most of their opportunities. As per the American Soccer Analysis Viz Hub, Gotham has an average defensive action height of 46.2 meters. That means that on average, the NJ/NY side is winning the ball about 46.2 meters up the field from their goal line. To put a visual on it, that is around the edge of the center circle in their own defensive half.

This is actually a good thing for Gotham as it shows they are able to win the ball higher up the field than most other teams, making their journey to the goal much shorter. Still, they failed to make the ability to win the ball high up the field count as they sit 13th in the league in touches in the opposition's box per game. Essentially, Gotham can win the ball higher up the field than most teams, but then their attack doesn't make it much further up the field from there.

And in the rare instances they do make it further up the pitch, they are not able to create many chances when they get there, with just four big chances created, less than one per game. And even then, when they do create those big chances, they fail to capitalize on them, as they have not converted any of the four big chances that they have created.

What is the root cause of these issues?

There are plenty of things that could be blamed for Gotham FC's slow start to the season. Some of which are in the club's control, while quite a few are not. But even when it comes to some of the ones that are seemingly out of the club's control, there are still measures that can be taken to try to reduce the effects of these outside factors.

A lot of this comes down to the style of play that Gotham employs. While it is very hard to criticize how they play, given they've won multiple titles this way, there needs to be more flexibility that allows for a more open style of play when the game calls for it. It's understandable to play this way when playing away to the Current, or in the playoffs. But when one plays at home against a clearly inferior opposition, they have the horses on the backline to deal with a few more fires that come from the forwards being given more liberty to play in a more attacking way.

One thing that does push against this, though, are the injuries and minutes restrictions some of this team's players have had so far this season. Both Bruninha and Mandy Freeman have missed the entire season so far due to injury, while players like Midge Purce, Tierna Davidson, Shaw, and González have all played on minutes restrictions as they return from their respective injuries, while González had been coming back after missing a big chunk of preseason on maternity leave.

This really came to the forefront in their recent game against Kansas City when Kayla Duran exited with what is now known as an ACL injury. This saw Davidson come on in her place, but given how early this injury came in the game, Davidson was unable to finish and had to come off after around 40 minutes on the field.

There was then the case of Shaw, who scored the opening goal, but had to come off at halftime after missing the past three games with a hamstring injury. They could have really used her in that second half when they were trying for an equalizer, but the minutes restriction she was on kept her off the pitch in that half. Both of these instances stemmed from minute restrictions on certain players, which most definitely hindered their game plan and what they could or could not do regarding tactical changes or substitutions.

Another wrinkle added to 2026 that the club has never had to deal with before, which may be having a big effect on how things are going, is the FIFA Women's Champions Cup in January. While on the surface, two games do not seem like much, there's a lot more to it than just the games. From an extended preseason, shortened offseason, and also having to travel all the way to Spain and then London to take part in these matches, a lot of time and effort went into these games that could be catching up to the players and contributing to their poor form to start the NWSL season.

The next four games for Gotham are very winnable. They will play at home against an up-and-down Bay FC team, followed by games against the bottom three teams in the table, Chicago Stars FC, Racing Louisville FC, and Boston, respectively, with the last two also being at home.

If the Bats can pick up nine or ten points from a possible 12, which they are more than capable of doing, then Gotham FC could vault up the table, given how close pretty much every team in the league is to each other. It would also help ease some of the fans' concerns when the NWSL heads into the midseason World Cup break.

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