Gotham FC earns second straight win after strong performance over Chicago Stars | OneFootball

Two games, two wins for NJ/NY Gotham FC after the April international break. This time, they took down Chicago Stars FC 2-0 away from home. They seemingly carried over their performance from Saturday's win over Bay FC into this match, as it very much looked like a continuation of that game.

While they did get a bit of relief on the injury front with the return of Lilly Reale, she was the only name to come off the injury report, and even then, she was not able to start. Despite the makeshift backline and most likely altered tactics as a result, they were not affected by it as they made their way to another win and three points in the standings.

Chicago failed to form their first winning streak of 2026 after their win on Saturday over Boston Legacy FC. This could have been a trap game for Gotham, as they played in a very unique venue, with it both being a turf field and also being located right on Lake Michigan. It has hosted some very weird Chicago Stars victories.

Now the Bats moved up to fourth in the table with this victory, albeit with almost all of the teams below them having one or even two games in hand. They now head back home for a Sunday matchup against Racing Louisville FC, hoping to extend this winning streak to three.

That winning feeling X2 for Gotham FC

Despite the quick turnaround, Gotham FC fielded the same Starting XI to begin Wednesday's game as they did against Bay on Saturday. And it paid off big time in the first half with the team starting the game on fire. Just 45 seconds in, rookie Jordynn Dudley scored her first of her pro career, just four days after registering her first-ever assist. A fantastic low-driven cross from the left by Jaedyn Shaw found Dudley on the backpost, where she slammed it past Alyssa Naeher.

And Gotham just kept on coming after that, as Dudley turned into a provider. She found Esther González, but the Spaniard uncharacteristically shanked the shot wide of the goal. Shortly after that, the Bats found themselves on a 3-on-2 where González elected to shoot instead of pass, and smacked one off the post.

After, Gotham extended the lead in the 10th minute. Guro Reiten put in a great cross that Rose Lavelle was able to get her right foot on, giving her team the 2-0 lead. Chicago was all over the place defensively in the opening 10 minutes and was, in reality, pretty lucky to be trailing by just two goals.

Then, the Stars had their first chance of the game minutes later when Jenna Bike put in a high looping cross to the back post that Ryan Gareis ended up blasting the shot over the crossbar. And from that point, the first half ended up being the Dudley show.

The young forward did everything in the attacking portion of the game. She received plenty of looks on goal, creating chances for her teammates, and had Chicago's rookie left-back Tessa Dellarose in a blender in the first half, so much so that the home team's head coach Martin Sjögren took her off for Michelle Alozie at halftime.

The second half had a much calmer feel to it with both sides shoring things up defensively. The Stars had their best chance of the game when Nádia Gomes was sent in 1-on-1 with Ann-Katrin Berger, but she sent her shot wide of the goal. Gotham continued to generate chances, but could not capitalize on them.

Thankfully, the match settled down from that point on. The visitors took control of things and maintained their 2-0 lead through to the full-time whistle. They had their chances in the second half to add a third, but it seemed like they were content to get through this one on cruise control with another game coming up in four days.

This is now Gotham's second win in a row, their first winning streak of 2026, and also, perhaps more importantly, their second consecutive strong performance. It would be one thing if they were to earn these wins, but not have the performance back up the result. However, to have the results be fully justified by both the eye test and the underlying numbers signals a big shift from the opening five games of the season. Obviously, the opponents in these two games haven't been the best, but the difference from the first five games is so stark that the opposition becomes less of a factor.

And what is especially great about these two games is that the big guns have shown up. González, Dudley, Lavelle, Shaw, and Reiten have all made major contributions going forward, and the makeshift backline of converted forwards Purce and Reiten, along with a restricted Tierna Davidson, has allowed just two shots on target against Gotham FC in two games.