Gotham FC defeats the Washington Spirit to become NWSL Champions again | OneFootball

They've done it again. NJ/NY Gotham FC has won their second NWSL Championship in three years, both times coming as the bottom seed in the playoffs. And they managed to win the same way they did in the previous two, with a strong defensive performance and an individual moment of brilliance. This led to a 1-0 win over the Washington Spirit.

In addition to having to win two games on the road, the opponents on their road to the win are impressive. First, they defeated the record-breaking Kansas City Current at the fortress that is CPKC Stadium. Then they beat last year's Shield and Championship winners, Orlando Pride.

Of course, the Bats capped everything off with a win over the Washington Spirit, who not only made last year's final but won this season's Challenge Cup and were pretty consistently the second-best team throughout the course of this 2025 season. The NJ/NY side faced a murderer's row of teams, and Gotham managed to get through all of them, conceding just once on a somewhat fluky goal.

Longtime fans will understand just how remarkable this is, given the position this club was in less than a decade ago. Pretty much a joke both on and off the field, the turnaround from being the red-headed stepchild of NWSL to one of the league's marquee clubs. It's probably difficult for most fans to believe that this is their reality now, but believe it, because it is real.

Gotham FC has a second star atop the crest

The match got started with an audacious effort from playoff superhero Jaedyn Shaw, who fired a bomb from the center circle right from kickoff, trying to catch Spirit goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury off her line. The shot had the power to get there, but was wide of the goal.

This shot set the tone for Gotham FC in the opening 15 minutes, as it seemed like a shoot-on-site game plan with players firing multiple shots from long range. The ladies then thought they opened the scoring just five minutes in when an Esther González shot found the back of the net, but the Spaniard was judged to be just a fraction offside.

After a somewhat frantic opening 15 minutes, the game slowed down with a lot more of the fixture being played in midfield. The physical play also started to ramp up with multiple players getting involved physically. This included the first yellow card of the match, which occurred deep in stoppage time when Lilly Reale brought down Spirit forward Rosemonde Kouassi in an effort to prevent the Ivory Coast international from a potential fast break just before halftime.

Coming out of halftime, the Spirit started to build up some momentum and looked like they may have figured some things out during the break. The first main talking point of the second half came in the 59th minute when Reale fouled Kouassi once again, in a not too dissimilar fashion from her yellow card foul in the first half. She got away without a second yellow card, but it was clear that Head Coach Juan Carlos Amorós had seen enough and just four minutes later replaced her with Bruninha.

Usually, Bruninha plays as a right-back for this team. However, just six minutes before she came on, the Spirit had brought on Trinity Rodman, who had taken up the left-wing position, going up against Mandy Freeman. And given that Bruninha got a red card in last year's semifinal against Washington thanks to a second yellow foul against Rodman, Amorós decided to keep her at left-back.

The next main talking point of the second half came in the 73rd minute when a coming together between Rose Lavelle and Hal Hershfelt saw the Spirit midfielder roll her ankle and have to step off the field to receive treatment for an extended period of time. This was arguably where Gotham won the game, as they not only played a player up and built some positive momentum, but inaction from Spirit Head Coach Adrián González played a huge role.

The CBS broadcast made it seem like Deborah Abiodun was ready and available to come on, but González stuck with playing a player down in the hopes that Hershfelt could continue. And while she did come back on, it was that decision to leave her on that contributed to the moment of the match.

In the 80th minute, Gotham found the breakthrough. Bruninha worked her magic down the left-hand side and put a ball across the box that Lavelle managed to run onto and put home with a first-time shot with her favored left foot to give Gotham the lead with 10 minutes to go. And part of the reason why was that Hershfelt, on her injured ankle, could not move across and close down on Lavelle like she normally could.

Gotham then hung on to the 1-0 lead for the final 10 minutes plus five minutes of stoppage time to claim their second NWSL Championship in three years and become the first North American women's team to pull off the league and continental cup double after winning the inaugural CONCACAF W Champions Cup in May.

In addition to Lavelle and Bruninha, Sarah Schupansky played fantastically well. After not featuring last week against Orlando, the rookie started and played the full 90 minutes. In addition to her usual fantastic passing range, she had by far her strongest defensive performance of the season, limiting Washington's offensive output.

Also, the entire backline of Reale, Jess Carter, Emily Sonnett, and Freeman in front of Ann-Katrin Berger made the German's life very easy, limiting the Spirit to zero shots on target. And in addition to those four, another shoutout to Jaelin Howell. In a week that saw her celebrate her 26th birthday and receive her first USWNT call-up in three years, Howell put up a player of the game worthy performance yet again. She led all players in tackles, fouls won, and duels won, capping off what has been a truly remarkable 2025 for the player and Gotham FC.