Challenge Cup ’23: NJ/NY Gotham vs NC Courage

Players to watch: Gotham forward Midge Purce had both a goal and an assist in the first eight minutes of her side’s match with Washington on Friday. Purce joins Christen Press (April 25, 2015) and Heather O’Reilly (July 2, 2014) as the only NWSL players with multiple goal contributions within eight minutes of kickoff. However, forward Lynn Williams, who will miss this match on duty with the Women’s National Team at the Women’s World Cup, is who leads Gotham in scoring with two goals on the year in the Challenge Cup.

North Carolina forwards Brittany Ratcliffe and midfielder Frankie Tagliaferri have both been on the scoresheet in back-to-back wins over Washington and Orlando, respectively. However, Ratcliffe is the only player in the competition this year to be on the scoresheet in three straight games, dating back to the club’s 2-1 win over Washington before a 6-0 win over the Spirit and then a 5-0 win over North Carolina. The Courage has 10 different players that have scored in this year’s Challenge Cup. No other NWSL team has more than seven different players with a goal in this season’s Challenge Cup.

Match facts:

Gotham FC has just one loss in its last seven home games in all competitions (W4 D2).

Over its last two games, North Carolina has scored 11 goals while conceding zero. It is the first time in NWSL history (all competitions) that a team has scored more than 10 goals while allowing none over a two-game span.

Gotham is unbeaten against the Courage this season with a 1-0 league win in April and a 1-1 draw in the Challenge Cup in May. Gotham has never earned a result in three consecutive matches with North Carolina (all competitions).

A win by Gotham tonight puts them into second place over the Washington Spirit, with 1 match left for Gotham at home against the Orlando Pride on Wednesday, August 9th at 7:30 p.m. Orlando currently sits in last place in the cup standings and is already eliminated from the knockout stages.

The Courage enters tonight’s match in first place with 11 points, scoring 15 goals and surrendering 12. This is their final group-stage match of the competition. In the last two games, they’ve scored 11 goals and have two clean sheets. Gotham however enters in third place with 7 points with one more match to play in the group stage of the competition. Gotham has scored 7 goals and surrendered just 1 goal in the competition so far entering tonight. In the past two matches, they’ve scored 5 goals and surrendered 5 goals taking winning just one of the matches (3-1 over Orlando) while losing their last match 4 – 2 in D.C. just 8 days ago.

Gotham’s ability to draw fans in continues with tonight’s Challenge Cup match against first-place NC Courage. There are maybe a thousand people across the entire lower-level bowl of the arena. It is a far cry from their match against Alex Morgan and the SD Wave where they had over 15k in the stands across the two bowls. It was the first time the team had to open the second bowl of the arena. For some reason all three NY teams have struggled at the gate this season, Gotham is doing well this year in the standings and across both competitions that they’re competing in, yet the team is seeing similar numbers to last season when they sat in the league’s basement. The Red Bulls and City FC are struggling but they’re still getting a better average per game than the NWSL in a Women’s World Cup season which usually leads to a spike in attendance.

In the 13′ the center gets buzzed by VAR to discuss possible handling in the box prior, but the VAR crew tells him no handling occurred. The restart sees Orlando in on goal and Abby Smith makes a huge save before the offside flag is raised. We’re seeing the holes opened on the Gotham backline early in this match. It has been a concern all season, across all competitions.

Stengle is onside after a pass from Midge Pruce, and she dances in the box, sets herself at the 17 yards, and rifles a shot into the lower corner of the 1st post to open the scoring in the 16′ of the first half. It is now Stengle’s second goal since joining the club. It is her first goal for the club in the Challenge Cup.

The goal is the first surrendered by the Courage in the Challenge Cup since June 14th when they first played the Washington Spirit a match, they won 2 – 1. They went 213 minutes without surrendering a goal to their competition (Washington, Orlando) Gotham is the first to beat the Courage keepers in their last three matches. The Courage will look to respond after seeing their clean sheet streak end at 2 matches and throughout 213′ of gameplay.

The Courage earn a corner kick in the 40′ of the first half, taken by Narumi Miura and punched out by Abby Smith to teammate Yazmeen Ryan who clears the danger. Ali Kreiger goes down in the 42′, and Ali Kreiger is coming out of the match in the 43′ due to possible injury, Kristen Edmonds enters to replace her on the pitch just before the restart of play.

Gotham goes into the half up 1 – 0 over the Courage after a goal in the 16′ by Katie Stengle broke the NC Courage streak of clean sheets, they went 213′ of play without surrendering a goal to their opposition in Challenge Cup play. #NWSL #ChallengeCup #yerrrr

Looks like both sides have chosen not to make changes in the halftime window. In the 48′ Jenna Nighswonger had a go at the goal from distance and out wide. Her shot from the left side of the goal, outside the box went just wide of the second post. On the restart, K. Pickett of the Courage is shown a yellow card (49′) after hitting the head of her opponent Midge Purce. Purce seems ok after the evaluation by the training staff, she enters back into play shortly after the restart.

“Yeah, well for us it was just take the play again that you kind of stay on top again. Things are difficult and factors that we tried to control; we’ve done it before. A lot of times you know away from home after we will come in on the back of another travel is a very long game. So here we work alone to make sure that we’re focused we’re going now before we actually go to the hotel to increase our focus the players have been fantastic, they’ve sacrificed a lot and they weren’t able to compete throughout the 90 minutes and dominate a really difficult team to play against. We are here for the hard work under the technicality ability that put us on top tonight. Limited in the chances to that need to be official on target to the last few minutes of the game. Three clinical in front of goal. I think we as well were good at creating our chances are very, very, very pleased. with the work and under the work of every single one of them how they apply the game plan and of how they are growing into the style and understanding the size in front of everyone so already very happy to get that win”. — Juan Carlos Gotham FC head coach

Stengle has a nice run at goal in the 57′, she flicks the ball towards the far 2nd post, but Midge didn’t make the run, she may still be feeling the hit from Pickett earlier in this half. It is unlike Midge to miss an easy run such as that one. Yazmeen seems to have stepped up in aid, just seconds later Stengle dances on the Courage backline again causing chaos to ensue and Zerboni says thank you very much taking the shot top of the box to the right of the goal. She curves it low and into the lower corner of the 2nd post for a 2 – 0 lead (59′), the assist goes to Delanie Sheehan on the play. The Courage makes multiple substitutions in the 60′ bringing on Victoria Pickett and Olivia Wingate to replace Frankie Tagliaferri and Tyler Lussi.

Katie Stengle came to ball tonight she has another quality look at the goal, this one to the right of the 1st post in the 63′ she misses the upper 90 by inches, the ball was bending but ran out of real estate and goes wide, had she taken the shot 3 yards sooner it would have changed the outcome and scoreline.

Another Courage substitution in the 65′ Haley Hopkins enters for Brittany Ratcliffe as the coaching staff tries to solve this Gotham FC team out in the bat cave.

Mandy Freeman is now down inside the Gotham box, appears to be a leg cramp or injury. Betos runs down to get word from the training staff and reports back to Juan and the staff. Mandy is running back towards the midfield without any issue, the corner kick is cleared, and the 4th allows Mandy back on the pitch.

Taylor Smith will enter the match for Gotham FC after she goes over instructions with Juan Carlos. Ali Long it appears will join her when the substitution is made, Stengle with a stellar chance at goal off the free kick but heads the ball wide of the far second post in the 73′.

Courage makes two more substitutions Sydney Collins and Sarah Clark enter for Kiki Pickett and Brianna Pinto in the 73′.

Ali Long and Taylor Smith will now enter for Katie Stengle and Mandy Freeman in the 75′ of play for Gotham FC. The crowd gives Stengle and Freeman a well-deserved ovation as they come off the pitch. Gotham has 2 substitutions left should they choose to use them; the Courage is all out of substitutions for the match.

Abby Smith wants her clean sheet, and she makes a double save off the Courage’s latest attempt at goal to try and secure it in the 83′ of play in the second half. She follows it up with another save off the cross into the box by the Courage. If the results hold it will be Abby Smith’s 5th clean sheet of the season across all competitions.

Gotham will use their last two substitutions of the match bringing on Sabrina Flores and Maitane Lopez for Midge Purce and McCall Zerboni in the 90′, both players get an ovation as they leave the pitch.

The fourth indicates a minimum of 5′ will be added to the match, Gotham is throwing bodies in the way to help preserve the clean sheet for the goalkeeper Abby Smith.

The match ends with a 2 – 0 Gotham FC victory and they move into second place in the Challenge Cup standings in the East and move closer to securing a spot in the knockout rounds. Abby Smith gets her 5th clean sheet on the season across all competitions, Gotham will return to play this Wednesday, August 9th against the Orlando Pride with a chance to take the 1st seed in the tournament. For the Courage they will now wait and see what the results are from the rest of the competition including Gotham’s last match versus the Pride.

Photo Credit: © Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports/© John Jones-USA TODAY Sports