Controversial refereeing calls highlight Gotham FC's loss to Kansas City Current | OneFootball

In their first game back after the CONCACAF W Champions Cup glory, NJ/NY Gotham FC dropped their third straight NWSL game, this time to the league-leading Kansas City Current, by a score of 2-1. This extends the team's winless streak against the Current to 10 games in all competitions.

For Gotham, this was their fifth NWSL loss of the 2025 season in just 10 games, one more loss than they had in the entire 2024 season. This loss sees them stay in ninth at the time of writing, but depending on how other results fall this weekend, they could drop as low as twelfth come Monday.

There is still time to turn things around for Gotham with more than half the season to go, and a lot more jumbled up and bunched together mid-table patch of the standings they find themselves in. However, it's starting to get late for them, and they need to find wins on a more consistent basis if they want to make the playoffs, let alone host a quarterfinal match.

There were multiple aspects that led to the loss. It did not help, though, that Gotham FC went down a goal early in the match.

Gotham FC's game was a wet and wild one

Mere seconds after the heavens opened and torrential rainfall started at Sports Illustrated Stadium, Kansas City got on the board. The Current's high press forced a turnover from Emily Sonnett right on the edge of Gotham's 18-yard box. And mere seconds later, the ball went from the foot of Temwa Chawinga to a wide-open Michelle Cooper, who slotted the ball past Ann-Katrin Berger to give her team the lead less than three minutes in.

The NJ/NY side then came back with a chance of their own two minutes later when a Mandy Freeman cross found the head of Esther González, who just barely missed the opportunity to equalize the game for Gotham. This would prove to be a crucial miss since Kansas City doubled their lead in the 11th minute.

This time, the roles were reversed from the first goal as Cooper played provider to Chawinga on a brilliant team goal from the Current. They managed to build out from the back into the midfield, where Vanessa DiBernardo picked up the ball and played a beautiful long through pass to Cooper down the right wing. Cooper then played a first-time cross to Chawinga, who side-stepped an on-rushing Berger to slot the ball into an empty net to make it 2-0 for the Current.

The half then went from bad to worse for Gotham as Ella Stevens was forced off through injury in the 26th minute and replaced by Sarah Schupansky. While no official word has been given as to what the injury is, it appeared she was favoring her left leg.

The second half got off to an explosive start when it looked like Gotham had scored their first goal off a header from Sonnett. However, VAR ruled the goal out as they had spotted a push from her on a KC defender just before she headed the ball into the net. While fans were understandably disappointed at the decision, it was the right call.

VAR then came back into play a few minutes later when González felt Current defender Kayla Sharples' arm had hit the ball in the Kansas City box. While the ball did make contact with Sharples' arm, VAR, again rightly so, ruled no penalty. The arm was in a natural position, and the contact was more ball to arm than arm to ball in close proximity. This was enough for VAR to rule no penalty.

Then things truly went off the rails. In the 63rd minute, Gotham again thought they had scored their opening goal. González pounced on a loose ball in the box and slotted it past Current goalkeeper Lorena. But then the play was stopped after the game had restarted, and the goal was ruled offside.

While González was offside on the initial ball played into the box, the ball was then played, deliberately, which is the key factor here, by Current defender Ellie Wheeler. A defender deliberately playing the ball in a situation like this should nullify the offside call and allow González to have played the ball without issue.

Now, there is an argument for her potentially interfering with an opponent or even gaining an advantage by being offside, and the wording of this rule is most likely intentionally vague to allow for more interpretation from the referee on a case-by-case basis. But the fact that this call did not go to the VAR monitor while the previous handball and Sonnett goal calls did is something that Gotham fans should rightly be annoyed by.

Nevertheless, per the game's pool reporter Jenna Tonelli, she asked the referee about the offside call, and Wheeler's play was deemed not to be a deliberate play. The reason was that the "player had to stretch to make contact with an aerial ball, while moving back towards her own net."

Then, the Bats were forced into their second injury-induced substitution of the match when Midge Purce was forced off and replaced by Sofia Cook in the 70th minute. Purce is notably working her way back from an ACL injury and recently played her first full 90 minutes. While this looked like a separate injury, any sort of setback will be viewed negatively, especially given Gotham's dwindling depth at the forward position.

The one silver lining for Gotham was Rose Lavelle. She came on for her season debut in the 74th minute and influenced the Current's own goal deep into second-half stoppage time. She also looked like the Lavelle fans love and know. Alas, her influence was a little too late, for the Bats could not score to secure a draw.

Now to the refereeing. The Gotham fans today were loud and rightly annoyed with how the game was called. While the non-penalty call and the Sonnett disallowed goal were the correct decisions by the VAR, the way the González goal was called back left a sour taste in people's mouths.

While there is some gray area in the rules surrounding that situation, as mentioned earlier, the fact that it did not go to the monitor and ended up being called back seemingly after play had restarted made it feel like the officiating crew was not overly thorough in how they reviewed that play. Clarity surrounding that call will probably come out in the following days, but for now, all fans can do is assume and hope that the correct call was made and that Gotham did lose on a bad call.

This is now four straight without a win for Gotham in NWSL play, and the bad tendencies came out again from this team. Conceding early and/or on the opposition's first attack and not being offensively clinical enough impacted the result. Despite the overturned goals, the team could have had legitimate goals had González and Sonnett scored on their good chances with their head.

There is no shame in losing to Kansas City, even at home, but the Bats very well could have earned three points. They now have two games before the summer break, away to Utah Royals FC and home to Bay FC. Both fixtures are winnable, and getting six points combined with some unfavorable results for those around them could see Gotham FC firmly in a playoff spot going into the break.