Gotham FC wins third-place game over AS FAR in Champions Cup | OneFootball

The first part of the 2026 season for NJ/NY Gotham FC has come to an end with a strong 4-0 victory over African champions Royal Armed Forces Sports Association. This win means the Bats finished in third place in the inaugural FIFA Women's Champions Cup. After a tough loss to Sport Club Corinthians Paulista in the semifinals, this was a good bounce-back from that result, bringing them out of their European preseason trip with some positive momentum before the start of the NWSL regular season in six weeks.

While the ultimate result was not achieved, ending the tournament with a win should hopefully have the group feeling positive moving forward. The overall performances in both games were good, all things considered, but Gotham FC will feel that there is still plenty to work on going forward.

A bounce-back win for Gotham FC

Gotham started this game by immediately moving up the pitch, trying to strike right from the jump, but they were quickly called offside. Soon after, AS FAR went down the other end of the field and caused chaos in the NJ/NY side's box as the ball pinballed around. The ladies cleared the ball before the Moroccan side was able to get a shot off.

It was a pedestrian opening 15 minutes after this moment, where, other than a yellow card for a foul on a goal-bound Midge Purce, which could have been on the verge of a red, not a lot happened for either side.

That did not last long since Gotham opened the scoring in the 27th minute when Lilly Reale played a short pass up to Khyah Harper, who played in place of Gabi Portilho today. She cut in from the wing, beat a defender, and unleashed a strong near-post shot that beat the goalkeeper to score the first goal of 2026. That lead was nearly short-lived as AS FAR immediately came forward, where a long-ball found forward Sanaâ Mssoudy, who got a shot off that Ann-Katrin Berger made a huge save on to keep the African champions scoreless.

In the 38th minute, Gotham doubled their lead. Sofia Cook, in for the injured Rose Lavelle, took advantage of some sloppy play out of the back, winning the ball incredibly high up the pitch. She then fizzed in a cross that bounced off Jaedyn Shaw's foot right to Savannah McCaskill, who slotted it home for her first goal in her second stint with the club.

And then five minutes later it was 3-0. Shaw made a run in the box, and after hesitating to shoot, she was bundled over from behind. As such, the team was given a penalty kick. And with both Esther González and Lavelle unavailable today, it was Shaw on penalty duties. She sent the goalkeeper the wrong way, slotting the ball into her bottom-right to give Gotham a comfortable 3-0 lead heading into halftime.

Gotham wasted no time in the second half in getting a fourth. A Shaw cross found the head of Harper, whose effort was saved by the goalkeeper Khadija Er-Rmichi. The ball then bounced to the feet of Purce, and she sent the ball into an empty net to give the NWSL side a 4-0 lead.

Afterward, Gotham went into cruise control, controlling the game while also creating a few more chances before coming out as 4-0 victors, securing third place in the inaugural Champions Cup. While they obviously would have preferred to have played in the finals, ending this trip with an emphatic win can be viewed as a positive.

A big takeaway from this match was how well both Harper and Cook played. Both were given this opportunity in part thanks to injuries sustained by Portilho and Lavelle in the semifinals against Corinthians, and both of them took advantage of this opportunity.

Harper came away with a goal and very nearly had a second, while Cook had a very strong overall game despite not getting on the scoresheet. Both of them taking a step forward in their development and becoming real depth options the club can rely on in 2026 will be huge for the team's success this year.

In addition, this match also saw college free agents Andrea Kitahata and Talia Sommer make their club debuts, with both coming on as second-half substitutes. While the much-anticipated debut of Jordynn Dudley will have to wait, getting both of these players some minutes before the regular season starts is important, as both of them will also be expected to play big roles off the bench for Gotham FC.