Tag: Gotham FC

Farewell Ashlyn Harris: USWNT goalkeeper, World Cup champ, celebration chronicler

The two-time World Cup winner has announced her retirement

Former U.S. women’s national team goalkeeper Ashlyn Harris has announced her retirement, bringing an end to a decorated 13-year career.

Harris was a member of two World Cup-winning teams, in 2015 and 2019, earning 25 USWNT caps after making her debut in 2013.

The 37-year-old also played in all 10 seasons of the NWSL thus far, playing her final season in 2022 with NY/NJ Gotham FC alongside her wife and fellow World Cup champion Ali Krieger.

After Harris announced her retirement, Gotham FC confirmed she would be staying with the club in the newly created position of Global Creative Advisor.

“It has been my greatest honor to represent this country both on and off the field,” Harris said.

“I started this journey with U.S. Soccer at the age of 13 and it has shaped me in every part of my life. I’m proud of the woman I’ve become, and I can only thank the people who have supported me and lifted me throughout it all. Thank you to all my youth national team coaches, full national team coaches, goalkeeper coaches, support staff, and everyone in between.

“To all my teammates, you have been the driving force to my longevity. This journey has always been about the people for me, so thank you for all the incredible memories and life-long friendships. To the fans, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I hope in some small way I’ve impacted your lives the way you all have impacted mine.”

Harris also gained fame for her tremendous work as unofficial USWNT videographer following the team’s 2019 World Cup win. Her Instagram stories from that evening in Lyon are the stuff of legend. Some (very NSFW) highlights can be found here.

From all of us Ashlyn, thank you for the content.

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Alana Cook sent Midge Purce $10 for helping OL Reign win the NWSL Shield

Cook surely felt winning the Shield was well worth her $10 payment

OL Reign won the NWSL Shield on Saturday, but not without a little help from Gotham FC.

The Portland Thorns were looking good to clinch the Shield, awarded for the best NWSL regular-season record, when last-place Gotham came up with an unlikely late comeback to turn a two-goal deficit into a 3-3 draw on the season’s final day.

The draw snapped a league-record 12-game losing streak and handed OL Reign a chance to swipe the Shield away from their Northwest rivals if they could defeat the Orlando Pride later in the evening.

The Reign emphatically did just that, winning 3-0 to clinch the third NWSL Shield in club history and first since 2015.

Seeing that OL Reign would not have clinched the Shield without some help from her team, Gotham star Midge Purce felt the least she could do is request a $10 payment from her USWNT teammate and Reign defender Alana Cook for “facilitating championship win.”

Cook duly obliged.

By clinching the Shield and the top overall seed in the playoffs, OL Reign locked down a NWSL semifinal at Lumen Field on October 23. They will face the winner of the quarterfinal between the Houston Dash and Kansas City Current match, which takes place on October 16.

On the other side of the bracket, the Thorns clinched a first-round bye by finishing second, and will host the winner of the quarterfinal between the San Diego Wave and Chicago Red Stars.

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What are my NWSL team’s playoff chances? Your guide to the last two matchdays of the season

There’s so much potential for NWSL chaos this weekend

The NWSL season has just two rounds of games left, with every team having two more chances to pick up points.

Eight teams are alive in the playoff race, and somehow only the Portland Thorns know that they’re definitely going to the postseason. The table is packed like the stands at Snapdragon Stadium! It’s as crowded as a storage container locker room at Segra Field! It’s a lot to take in, is what we’re saying.

NWSL Chaos is in the eye of the beholder, and while we can all agree on an idea like a seven-team tie was the wildest thing out there last week, that dream is over. We now have a wide range that are all arguably the most bonkers outcome.

The last version of this piece was omakase; you got one incredible scenario to savor, but no choices. This time, you’ve got the whole menu to look over, with truly wild scenarios peppered throughout this piece.

What are my NWSL team’s playoff chances? Your guide to the last two weeks of the season

What if everyone finishes tied for first? The NWSL wants to find out!

There are less than two weeks left in the NWSL regular season, and yet no team has clinched a playoff spot. Only three teams are officially out of the running, and the prospect of a truly bonkers final table — we promise, there is a possible scenario detailed below that is a true mind-melter — is still very much looming over proceedings.

Here, then, is Pro Soccer Wire‘s breakdown of every team’s situation heading into the last 12 days of the season.

What are my NWSL team’s playoff chances? Your guide to the stretch run

We stared at the NWSL standings for 10 hours so you don’t have to

The NWSL is officially in the home stretch, with the season down to its final three weekends. Most teams have just four games left to play, and we have an incredible five teams all within two points of one another at the top of the table, along with a potentially wild race for the last playoff spot.

Here, then, is Pro Soccer Wire‘s breakdown of every team’s situation heading into these final, critical games of the season.

PRO admits ‘egregious officiating error’ in Gotham FC vs. Angel City match

When one mistake is actually three mistakes

The Professional Referees Association (PRO) isn’t mincing words after a major mistake over the weekend.

PRO on Monday released a statement admitting to what it called “an egregious officiating error” in Angel City’s 3-1 win at NJ/NY Gotham FC, a call that deprived Gotham of a clear goal early in a match that was effectively a must-win for them to keep slim playoff hopes alive.

In the 12th minute, Taylor Smith played a ball down the right flank, where both Midge Purce and Ifeoma Onumonu were making runs. Purce got to the pass first, cutting the ball back to Onumonu. Onumonu tried to sweep the ball home first-time, but her shot appeared to take a hefty deflection off of Angel City captain Ali Riley.

Nonetheless, it spun up and over DiDi Haracic, bouncing off the back post and over the goal line. Haracic grabbed it, but that’s where the confusion really kicked in.

Referee Brandon Stevis, after a moment, gave Gotham a corner kick. Which is to say, the call was that there was a deflection off of Riley, and that the ball did cross the endline, but it did not enter the goal.

While Onumonu’s shot did have plenty of spin on it, the amount of movement it would take for the ball to have looped up, gone completely over the endline somewhere above the crossbar, bend back into the field of play, and then hit the post, would seem to require the laws of physics to not actually hold.

Currently, there are no known reports that the laws of physics break down inside Red Bull Arena.

With Onumonu’s shot not doing anything impossible in our reality, that effectively means we have several different errors resulting in the play ending in a corner kick. The first is straightforward: The ball clearly goes over the line, so the call on the field should be a goal.

But, if the referee has decided that there’s no goal, why would play even stop? If it’s not a goal, Haracic is saving a shot that hit the post, so there’s no reason to stop play at all. It’s either a goal, or the game should just continue on.

And then to add onto that conundrum, the ball only ever crosses the endline once…when it enters the goal. It’s never close to going out for a corner. Of all three mistakes, this one’s the furthest from being true. At least you can understand how, on a fast-moving play, a referee or assistant referee aren’t in position to see a shot cross the line. NWSL doesn’t have VAR, this kind of missed call will happen. But…a corner? How?

These are questions PRO appears to have been asking internally, leading to the following statement:

During the National Women’s Soccer League match between NJ/NY Gotham FC and Angel City FC on August 28, an egregious officiating error was made in the 12th minute when a goal was incorrectly not awarded to NJ/NY Gotham FC after the ball had crossed the goal line between the goal posts.

The match officials misjudged where the ball had crossed the goal line, and wrongly awarded a corner kick to NJ/NY Gotham FC.

The officials involved in this error have been removed from their next PRO assignment(s).

While PRO deserves credit for addressing the mistake quickly and clearly, it won’t help a Gotham team that desperately needs to catch a break. Within five minutes of this play, Angel City took the lead, and by the 31st minute, the visitors were up by three and effectively coasting to a win that may have major consequences in the NWSL playoff chase.

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Ashlyn Harris and Ali Krieger have adopted another child

The Gotham FC couple now have a family of four

Ashlyn Harris and Ali Krieger have added to their family.

Both players announced via Instagram on Tuesday that they had adopted a baby boy named Ocean. That takes their family up to four, as they adopted their daughter Sloane last year.

Harris and Krieger, both normally starters for Gotham FC, had both announced that what they referred to as a “family matter” would keep them out of the team’s August 7 game against the Chicago Red Stars, and the pair were both listed as out with an excused absence for Gotham’s trip to face OL Reign on August 14.

As it turns out, the unexpected absence was for good news, a relative rarity in the NWSL: The couple were simply adding to their family.

https://www.instagram.com/p/ChVO7AepoBI/?igshid=YTgzYjQ4ZTY%3D

“My wife and I are excited to share that we have adopted a baby boy. Our hearts are full during this time and we are so grateful for the love and support our family, friends and club have shown,” Harris wrote on Instagram. “Sloane has been thriving and wakes up every morning saying ‘Baby, baby.’ We are incredibly thankful and excited for this new chapter as we parent 2 under 2. Let the sleepless nights rage on @alikrieger … I wouldn’t want it any other way. Ocean Maeve Krieger-Harris, welcome to the family baby boy. Your Moms and big sister love you very much.”

“Welcome to the world, Ocean Maeve!” wrote Krieger. “We are so thrilled for our growing family and couldn’t be more excited to have two beautiful babies to share life with! Baby Boy, you are so loved and adored already and I’m so proud to be your Mommy.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/ChVO7GUu1hv/

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Gotham FC names Hue Menzies interim head coach

Menzies will take over for the rest of the 2022 season

Just two days after parting ways with Scott Parkinson, NJ/NY Gotham FC has announced that Hue Menzies will lead the team on an interim basis for the rest of the 2022 NWSL season.

Menzies is the second Black head coach, interim or otherwise, in NWSL history, both of whom were named to their posts on an interim basis in 2022. Seb Hines is in a similar position with the Orlando Pride. He was named the 2018 CONCACAF Women’s Coach of the Year after helping Jamaica qualify for the 2019 World Cup, a first for the country.

“Hue is a soccer lifer and a true professional with a track record of success when it comes to building programs and developing players,” said Gotham FC GM Yael Averburch West in a team press release. “I’m confident Hue will help our players reach their potential this season while we continue our coaching search.”

“I want to thank Yael and ownership for giving me the opportunity to work with such gifted athletes,” added Menzies. “This is an incredibly committed team and there’s still time left in the season to turn things around. I’m excited to get to know these players and help aid their progress anyway I can.”

Menzies, who holds a USSF A License, has a wide range of experience outside of the NWSL. He has worked in college soccer as an assistant at the University of Texas, co-founded the Lonestar Soccer Association in Austin, and has for the last decade been the executive director for the Florida Kraze Krush youth program.

Two hours before the announcement, Averbuch West spoke to reporters and said that an interim head coach would be named before Gotham’s match on Sunday against OL Reign, with Menzies announced afterward.

Menzies takes over with Gotham on a miserable run, having lost six of their last seven games. They have the fewest goals scored in NWSL this season, and have lost by multiple goals six times in 12 regular season games.

While the chances of them overcoming that to return to the playoffs are slim—Gotham would need to make up a nine-point gap in 10 games—improved performances are well within reason for a team boasting USWNT regulars Midge Purce and Kristie Mewis, as well as a preseason Golden Boot favorite in Ifeoma Onumonu.

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Now Eli Manning is getting in on Gotham FC ownership too

The NWSL club is bringing on a host of high-profile owners from the sports world

Former NFL star Eli Manning has joined a growing group of big-name investors in NJ/NY Gotham FC.

Manning, along with current New York Giants executive Pete Guelli, were introduced as the NWSL club’s newest minority owners on Wednesday.

“I have lived and worked in this community for almost two decades,” said Manning in a statement. “It’s home to me, and Gotham FC is my family’s favorite soccer club. Combine that with the organization’s strong leadership, talented roster, and sustained growth, and it became clear that joining this great group was a fantastic opportunity.”

Manning came onboard two weeks after WNBA legend Sue Bird joined the club’s ownership group.

NBA star Kevin Durant is also part of Gotham’s ownership group, along with ex-USWNT star Carli Lloyd.

The introduction of celebrity ownership has been a growing trend across the NWSL in recent years. Angel City FC launched this season with high-profile owners including actresses Natalie Portman and Jennifer Garner, and tennis icon Serena Williams. Other investors across the league include Dominique Dawes, Chelsea Clinton, and Jenna Bush Hager (Washington Spirit), and Naomi Osaka (North Carolina Courage).

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Hammond responds after Zerboni uses ‘harmful’ anti-Native American phrase

“Our larger culture continues to perpetuate harmful stereotypes”

Madison Hammond, the NWSL’s only Native American player, spoke out Tuesday night in response to NJ/NY Gotham FC’s McCall Zerboni using an anti-Indigenous metaphor in comments to media following her side’s 4-2 loss to the Houston Dash over the weekend.

Gotham supporters group Cloud 9 referred to Zerboni’s statement as “unacceptable,” and demanded that both Zerboni and Gotham address the matter with both a public apology and internal action.

Hammond then posted a thread on her Twitter account spelling out the harm Zerboni’s words could do, and noting that she had spoken with Zerboni privately.

“This has to be acknowledged and is really important. Not because I want to call out one person but because it’s indicative of how our larger culture continues to perpetuate harmful stereotypes about Native Americans and Indigenous cultures,” said Hammond.

“I’ve spoken with McCall and I know she didn’t intend harm but phrases like ‘too many chiefs’ ‘pow wow’ ‘sitting Indian style’ and many more are rooted in brutal racism and are still way too common in our everyday lexicon,” Hammond added.

Hammond concluded by stating that she hopes this begins “a necessary conversation” about anti-Indigenous phrases being used in the NWSL and elsewhere.

Zerboni offered an apologetic tweet of her own, though it did not specify what actions she was actually apologizing for.

Less than a week before her comments, Zerboni was Gotham’s nominee for the Ally Award, a new NWSLPA award sponsored by Ally Bank.

The Ally Award “recognizes the athlete that embodies the idea of ‘teammate,’ supporting and motivating rookies and veterans alike. The 12 nominees portray the character and leadership that have helped elevate the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) globally,” said Ally in a press release announcing the nominees.

On Wednesday, Gotham made its first public statement about the matter, saying that as an organization, it “will not abide by any language that perpetuates harmful stereotypes.”

“We have addressed the matter internally and will continue to seek opportunities to educate our organization and community about the impact words have on others,” concluded the club statement.

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