– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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HARRISON, NEW JERSEY — In the most ideal position to start their run to repeat as champions, Gotham FC dealt with an almost untenable situation on the pitch, literally. Yet, they fought through that to continue their path towrds another league title, though the actual path they’ll be marching on next week is almost surely going to be up for debate in the next few days.
Gotham powered through a 1-0 victoey over the Seattle Reign in the NWSL quarterfinals on Sunday, played on a sandy, chewed up pitch inside Sports Illustrated Stadium. The breakthrough came early in the fourth minute, when Jaedyn Shaw’s corner kick was turned in for an own goal by the Reign’s Jordyn Bugg.
That the game was actually staged inside Sports Illustrated Stadium in the first place was the bigger story than the actual result. The league fined Gotham $10,000 in the lead-up to Sunday due to the quality of the pitch. Major League Soccer’s New York Red Bulls played their regular season finale on Saturday evening, less than 24 hours before the 12:30 p.m. local time kickoff for today’s game, and the stadium also hosted a rugby doubleheader the previous week that also left the pitch in rough shape.
Gotham are a secondary tenant at the stadium, which is owned by New Jersey’s Hudson County and is primarily the home of the the MLS’ Red Bulls.
“I feel the obligation to almost apologize for the state of the pitch,” Gotham head coach Juan Carlos Amoros said. “I think at this level, in this kind of game, as a league, we should be having a better surface. Unfortunately, our football club did absolutely everything in their power to make sure that was the case. Unfortunately, it wasn’t but luckily, it looks like nobody got hurt and the game was what it was.”
Seattle head coach Laura Harvey was more blunt in her assessment of the field conditions.
“Let’s be real, there’s no way a playoff game should be played on that shit,” she told ESPN post-match. “I just can’t believe they’ve allowed it. They knew it last week.”
Amoros cited the conditions in describing the subpar performance from the regular-season champions, who officially did not attempt a shot on goal throughout the game yet made their lead from the Reign’s own goal stand throughout. Despite the offensive struggles, Gotham’s defense stepped up in the second half when it had to, including when goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger made a couple of point-blank saves that kept the team’s clean sheet.
“She literally does it on a consistent basis,” Shaw said about Berger. “It’s crazy the kind of saves that she makes and I feel like she makes a worldly save at least once a game and I mean I think it’s hard enough getting through a back line but to get through Ann is a whole other task and I think we’re all really grateful to have her back there.
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Sunday afternoon’s game, with photos taken by ALOST staff photographer Dale Horton. After clicking on a photo to enlarge the picture, press the left and right arrow buttons on either side of the caption to scroll through the rest of the pictures that appear on the first page. Also, click on the numbers and/or arrow appearing immediately below the picture grid to load the next set of photos. There are 40 pictures in total.
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