Gotham FC fails to score in third straight game, drawing with Orlando Pride | OneFootball

Three home games, zero goals. To say it has been a slow start at home would be an understatement as NJ/NY Gotham FC produced another scoreless performance, their third of the week, in a 0-0 draw with the Orlando Pride.

This was an improved performance from Gotham FC, with the general level of play just being slightly, but noticeably better than what fans saw from the previous three games to start the season. It still was not enough to score or earn the three points, but it was certainly their most promising 90 minutes of this young season.

For Orlando, it was a second straight clean sheet, and this draw meant they earned four points from two away games in five days. It has also been a trying time for the Pride, who are tied with Gotham and Denver Summit FC on five points to start this season.

It's now onto Kansas City, where the Bats will visit the Kansas City Current for the first time since last year's incredible playoff stunner in the quarterfinals. The Current is also in an even worse way than Gotham, as they are on a three-match losing streak, failing to score in the previous two fixtures. Something must give for the Bats, or otherwise they might end in another draw in the next game.

Gotham FC is goalless in New Jersey... again

Gotham FC came out of the gates in this match looking much crisper and sharper than they have in their previous two matches this week. Passes seemed to connect more often than not, and the sequences of attacking play looked much more consistent and more threatening than before.

The first major chance for Gotham came in the 17th minute when Emily Sonnett found Rose Lavelle with an inch-perfect long ball from the Gotham backline, which put the midfielder in on goal. The chance would come to nothing, however, as a heavy touch from Lavelle allowed Orlando's goalkeeper, Anna Moorhouse, to come and calmly collect the ball.

The Bats earned another chance at a goal in the 35th minute when a Lavelle cross found Savannah McCaskill on the edge of the box. She let off a decent first-time shot, but it was straight at Moorhouse. Six minutes later, Esther González got the ball on the edge of the box and let off a shot of her own, but it went wide of the goal.

While the game went into halftime at 0-0, it was arguably Gotham's best half of the season, as they played their best and produced a few decent chances without giving up much in their own half.

Gotham came out in the second half as the much more assertive team, winning multiple corners in a row early on. They had decent chances as the half progressed, but none that would be considered overly dangerous. The biggest flashpoint of the match came in the 78th minute when Jordynn Dudley, who had come on as a substitute in the 54th minute, looked to have been fouled in Orlando's box for what would have been a Gotham penalty. The referee waved play on, and VAR did not intervene when the ball eventually went out of play.

Still, the home side continued to push for the opening goal with second-half substitutes Midge Purce, Sofia Cook, and Dudley all creating chances and opportunities for Gotham to score. Alas, they came up short. This means that the NJ/NY side failed to score in all three home games so far this season.

While they can look at the positives of what has been a very strong start ot the season from a defensive perspective, they cannot win games if they can't score goals. The Orlando match was their best performance of the season, with much better sequences of attacking play that looked far more promising than what they produced earlier this week. Yet, it was not enough just yet. Getting Jaedyn Shaw back from injury and Guro Reiten into the squad for the first time will help, but the entirety of the attacking play should not come down to missing two players.

They have the attacking talent to produce multi-goal games at will, and the players know they can play better than this. While the alarm bells are not ringing just yet, they are starting to get louder. And with just one more match before a lengthy international break, Gotham FC will want to not only score a goal against the Kansas City Current next week, but earn all three points as well.