Gotham FC survive early red card for much-needed draw
HARRISON, NJ — For Gotham FC, this was a tie that felt like a win.
With their playoff positioning teetering, Gotham FC survived the earliest red card in the NWSL all season to gut out a shorthanded scoreless draw with the favored Washington Spirit at Sports Illustrated Stadium on Saturday.
With eight teams making the postseason, Gotham (5-5-5, 20 points) temporarily clawed their way into seventh, ahead of Racing Louisville FC on goal differential pending the latter’s tilt with Orlando later on Saturday night.
They moved a point clear of North Carolina after the Courage fell on Friday.
Gotham had to go from their high press to playing compact defense. But the reigning CONCACAF Champions Cup winners — despite a disappointing regular season so far — got a huge result against third-place Washington.
Keeper Ann-Katrin Berger got caught out, but Washington striker Rosemonde Kouassi hit the left post in a profligate display.
Gotham’s luck seemingly ran out a couple of minutes later. Geyse looked to have gotten away with a bad tackle on Gabrielle Carle that likely should’ve been a yellow. But after a video review, the refs went straight to red, tossing the Manchester United loanee out of the game in the 30th minute and leaving Gotham FC down a player for the rest of the afternoon.
Gotham had a player tossed in last year’s matchup with Washington, and got their NWSL-leading fourth red already this season. Nobody else has more than one. This was the earliest ejection in the league this year.
But they managed to hold on, even after Washington star Trinity Rodman — nursing a back injury — came off the bench in the 75th minute
Berger got undercut by her own defender, Lilly Reale, to leave the net open, but Heather Stainbrook’s right-footed shot from the center of the box got blocked and cleared off the line to keep it scoreless.
Gotham even had one last crack eight minutes into stoppage time, when Reale got forward and had her left-footed shot from outside the box saved by Washington keeper and former teammate Aubrey Kingsbury.
But in the end, Gotham will gladly take the point and run with it.
Credit to Nypost AND Peoples
