The ultimate Gotham FC preview for the 2026 season: Games, players, and more | OneFootball

With the success of 2025 now in the rearview mirror, NJ/NY Gotham FC will begin their quest to defend their CONCACAF W Champions Cup and NWSL titles in 2026. This is going to be the NJ/NY team's biggest ever season with a minimum of 39 games in 2026. This breaks down as follows: 30 NWSL games, up from 26 in 2025, two W Champions Cup knockout games in late May, four W Champions Cup games in the fall, the reworked Challenge Cup in June, and the two games in London for the inaugural FIFA Champions Cup back in January.

Here is what fans can expect from Gotham FC in 2026.

Gotham FC and the NWSL Challenge Cup

The Challenge Cup again takes on an altered format. Beginning as a centralized tournament in Utah brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, it has since been switched to a preseason tournament, to a midseason tournament, to a one-off game to open the season between the previous season's Shield and Championship winners.

While that will again be the case with the NWSL Champions, Gotham, playing the Shield winners, the Kansas City Current, it will feature a change in timing and venue.

Instead of being held on February 20 at Sports Illustrated Stadium as originally scheduled, it will now be on June 26 at ScottsMiracle-Gro Field in Columbus, Ohio, marking the NWSL's first time ever playing in Ohio. The change came at the request of Gotham, who wanted more time in between their FIFA Champions Cup games and the start of the regular season.

CONCACAF W Champions Cup

After winning last year's inaugural version of the CONCACAF W Champions Cup, Gotham FC has the chance to repeat as champions in May. They face Club América Femenil in their semifinal meeting on May 20, and if they were to win, they would play the winner of the other semifinal between C.F. Pachuca Femenil and the Washington Spirit in the finals on May 23. All matches will be played at Estadio Hidalgo in Pachuca, Mexico.

They will then embark on their third W Champions Cup group stage campaign in the fall when the 2026-27 competition begins. As of now, it will see Gotham play four group games, two at home and two on the road. Given that both the USL Super League and Canadian NSL teams are now eligible to take part in this competition, CONCACAF may expand the tournament to accommodate these extra teams and thus result in a format change. That is just speculation, though, for no announcement on competition format or team allocation has been made at the time of writing.

Gotham FC's NWSL regular season

With the additions of new expansion sides Boston Legacy FC and Denver Summit FC, the NWSL will play its longest season ever at 30 games, 15 each at home and on the road. Gotham opens their season on the road against Boston on Saturday. The home opener will be one week later against the North Carolina Courage.

The full schedule can be found here. This season will also see midweek games return in NWSL play as the season length will be the same as last year, despite the four extra games.

New arrivals and player departures for Gotham

Gotham FC saw an unprecedented level of roster consistency in comparison to recent years as 21 of last year's players, including all 12 that saw the field in the championship game, returned. Then, there were just five departures.

Those departures included forward Ella Stevens and midfielder Josefine Hasbo, who joined Boston via free agency and trade, respectively. Forward Geyse's loan was not made permanent, and she went back to Manchester United FC before signing for Club América on a permanent transfer. The last two departures saw forward Gabi Portilho traded to San Diego Wave FC for $175k in intraleague transfer funds, and midfielder Stella Nyamekye joined Norwegian side SK Brann for an undisclosed transfer fee.

To replace those outgoing players, Gotham made five acquisitions, again taking advantage of the college free agent market. Midfielder Talia Sommer from Butler University, forward Andrea Kitahata of Stanford, goalkeeper Teagan Wy of Cal Berkley, and standout forward Jordynn Dudley of Florida State were supplemented by a little bit of NWSL experience in midfielder Savannah McCaskill for $175k from San Diego.

Dudley, in particular, should be an exciting addition to this Gotham team and could be Gotham's third Rookie of the Year winner in four seasons if she can live up to the hype. However, one should not discount Kitahata, who is coming off an excellent senior season at Stanford. And of course, one should not discount McCaskill either. With the large number of games and her ability to play in different positions in midfield, she could be a crucial acquisition when things are said and done.

Final roster notes

After tearing her ACL last April, Tierna Davidson has been activated off the SEI list ahead of the start of the season. Her exact status for game one is still unclear, but she should be back in the starting lineup sooner rather than later.

After missing the beginning of each of her first two seasons with Gotham due to an offseason surgery, Rose Lavelle enters year three in New Jersey healthy. Other than the aforementioned surgeries, Lavelle has stayed relatively healthy during her time at the club. If she can maintain that through a whole season, then it could be a huge boost to the attack.

Meanwhile, Katie Stengel got married this offseason and will now be known as Katie Lampson moving forward. The forward returns to the Bats after her playoff heroics last season, scoring the game-winning goal in the 120th minute in the quarterfinal against the Kansas City Current.

Jaedyn Shaw will enter her first full season as a Gotham player after being acquired from North Carolina late last season. Shaw made an immediate impact, scoring on her debut and in two playoff matches. Like Lavelle, a full season of a healthy Shaw really makes Gotham's attack much more dynamic compared to recent years.

Much is expected in year two for last year's rookie class. Fresh off winning Rookie of the Year, Lilly Reale will look to push on and solidify her spot on the USWNT's 2027 World Cup squad. After what was an at times up-and-down rookie season, Sarah Schupansky will look to find more consistency. She still finished tied for the second-most assists in the NWSL. And after a minimal amount of playing time in 2025, both Khyah Harper and Sofia Cook will seek bigger roles in 2026.

After finishing second in the Golden Boot race and top five in both of the last two seasons, Esther González will look to go one better and finally finish at the top of the scoring charts. As mentioned earlier, a healthy Lavelle and Shaw, as well as Midge Purce, who will hopefully be back to her pre-ACL tear form, should help the striker earn that elusive top scorer trophy.

Interestingly, the Bats will go into the season carrying four goalkeepers after signing Wy and returning all three keepers from 2025. There is a chance that when the next USL Super League season starts in mid-August, one of Wy or Ryan Campbell will be loaned to one of the teams in that league in order to get some much-needed playing time.

And lastly, there is some housekeeping regarding jersey numbers for Gotham FC. Shaw has switched from 2 to 10 with rookie Dudley taking over the number 2 shirt. Of the other rookies, Kitahata will take 24, Sommer has 14, and Wy will occupy the 20 shirt. McCaskill will take the number 13 after originally having 21 during her first spell as a Sky Blue FC player from 2018-2019.