Gotham FC resumes NWSL regular season play on Saturday evening in San Diego with the identical lineup from its NWSL Challenge Cup victory last Friday in Columbus, Ohio.<\/p>\n
Rookie sensation Jordynn Dudley and Spanish striker Esther Gonz\u00e1lez, the club\u2019s newest all-time leading scorer, lead the line for a Gotham FC squad looking to extend its six-match unbeaten run in league play.<\/p>\n
Gotham FC and the first-place San Diego Wave kick off at 8:45 p.m. ET at Snapdragon Stadium in Southern California, with ION set for the national broadcast. It\u2019s Gotham FC\u2019s first of three road matches in the Golden State this second half of the campaign, and it opens a two-match away swing with a July 10 fixture against surprise third-place Utah Royals.<\/p>\n
To open the second portion of the 2026 NWSL season, coach Juan Carlos Amor\u00f3s turns to a familiar slate of faces. Saturday\u2019s starters blanked the Kansas City Current in their 2-0 cup win last week, with Dudley and Gonz\u00e1lez landing on the scoresheet.<\/p>\n
Against San Diego, Dudley lines up on the right flank, opposite 21-year-old attacker Jaedyn Shaw, whose five combined assists and goals lead Gotham FC this season. Gonz\u00e1lez, with 29 goals across all competitions for Gotham FC, spearheads the attack ahead of the dynamic pair of 21-year-olds. It\u2019s the eighth time the trio will start together.<\/p>\n
In the midfield, U.S. Women\u2019s National Team maestro Rose Lavelle pulls the strings ahead of 26-year-old Jaelin Howell and 29-year-old Savannah McCaskill. The midfield three has started eight of 12 NWSL regular season matches together. Lavelle\u2019s 14 goals in 46 regular season matches with Gotham FC set a hard-charging new scoring pace after the 31-year-old netted nine goals in her previous 59 NWSL regular season games with other clubs.<\/p>\n
Jess Carter moved from center back to right back for the NWSL Challenge Cup, and the England international stays there for the return to NWSL regular season action. She\u2019ll play opposite former Chelsea teammate Guro Reiten, who takes up the left flank. Club captain Tierna Davidson and Emily Sonnett form the central pairing in front of goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger, who could move into a tie for second all-time in shutouts at Gotham FC with a clean sheet at San Diego.<\/p>\n
Gotham FC\u2019s bench includes 2023 NWSL Championship MVP Midge Purce and a pair of welcome additions after long-term injuries sidelined them through the first half of the season: defenders Bruninha and Mandy Freeman. Goalkeeper Shelby Hogan; midfielders Sofia Cook, Sarah Schupansky and Talia Sommer; and forwards Khyah Harper and Andrea Kitahata round out the substitutes bench.<\/p>\n
Defender Kayla Duran (knee) and midfielder Taryn Torres (knee) are both on the season-ending injury list. Forward Mak Whitham is on international duty with the U.S. Youth National Team.<\/p>\n
Gotham FC lineup vs. San Diego Wave FC<\/p>\n
30 \u2013 Ann-Katrin Berger (GK)<\/p>\n
27 \u2013 Jess Carter<\/p>\n
6 \u2013 Emily Sonnett<\/p>\n
15 \u2013 Tierna Davidson (c)<\/p>\n
18 \u2013 Guro Reiten<\/p>\n
7 \u2013 Jaelin Howell<\/p>\n
13 \u2013 Savannah McCaskill<\/p>\n
16 \u2013 Rose Lavelle<\/p>\n
2 \u2013 Jordynn Dudley<\/p>\n
9 \u2013 Esther Gonz\u00e1lez<\/p>\n
10 \u2013 Jaedyn Shaw<\/p>\n
Substitutes: 1 \u2013 Shelby Hogan (GK), 3 \u2013 Bruninha, 11 \u2013 Sarah Schupansky, 14 \u2013 Talia Sommer, 21 \u2013 Sofia Cook, 22 \u2013 Mandy Freeman, 23 \u2013 Midge Purce, 24 \u2013 Andrea Kitahata, 34 \u2013 Khyah Harper<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gotham FC resumes NWSL regular season play on Saturday evening in San Diego with the identical lineup from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386541,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[74,76,75],"class_list":["post-386540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}