{"id":296591,"date":"2026-07-15T14:21:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T14:21:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/296591\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T14:21:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T14:21:19","slug":"gotham-fcs-queens-classic-at-citi-field-a-dream-come-true-for-queens-born-goalkeeping-coach-qns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/296591\/","title":{"rendered":"Gotham FC\u2019s Queens Classic at Citi Field a \u2018dream come true\u2019 for Queens-born goalkeeping coach \u2013 QNS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gotham FC assistant goalkeeper coach and Queens native Michelle Betos says it is a \u201cdream come true\u201d to take part in the historic Queens Classic<\/a> Wednesday night, with Gotham FC and Washington Spirit set to draw more than 30,000 fans in the first ever women\u2019s professional sporting event held at Citi Field.<\/p>\n

The game, which is a rematch of the 2025 NWSL Championship, is also anticipated to be the largest ever women\u2019s sporting event in New York City. The Queens Classic has also taken on increased significance in recent weeks after Gotham announced that it would be moving into the soon-to-be-completed Etihad Park in Willets Point<\/a> in 2028<\/p>\n

For Betos, who was born in Queens and attended St. Francis Prep, the Queens Classic and the imminent move to Queens are symbolic of the growth of women\u2019s soccer in the borough.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cGrowing up in Queens, there weren\u2019t even that many teams for me to play on,\u201d Betos said. \u201cOnce I got more serious about soccer, there wasn\u2019t the same access and exposure, so I had to go to Long Island.\u201d<\/p>\n

She hopes that Gotham\u2019s move from New Jersey to Willets Point will inspire the next generation to take up soccer and challenge basketball\u2019s hegemony in the city.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI just know that there\u2019s so many incredible athletes in the city that now\u00a0are going to start looking at soccer, going to start going to the games on the weekends. It\u2019s honestly incredible.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Betos added that this is an \u201cexciting time\u201d for women\u2019s soccer in the United States but believes that the sport still has plenty of room to grow.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not even near it\u2019s pinnacle,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s really an honor to be a part of it all.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

She believes that the growth of the game will only be fueled by the 2026 World Cup, which has been co-hosted by the United States, as well as the 2031 Women\u2019s World Cup, which America will also co-host alongside Mexico, Costa Rica and Jamaica.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been so fun to see the country rallying around soccer,\u201d she said, adding that the US Men\u2019s National Team has helped unify the nation over the past six weeks.\n<\/p>\n

Betos pointed to the 1999 Women\u2019s World Cup, which was hosted by the US, and said the tournament proved an inspiration for her and several other players of her generation.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you ask one out of every two players my age why they started playing soccer, it\u2019s because we saw those women doing incredible things.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the five years before that tournament, however, Betos hopes to see a \u201cshift in the narrative\u201d around pay-to-play in America, adding that prohibitive costs are preventing talented young players from reaching their full potential, which leaves the United States at a disadvantage. Both the NWSL and the US Women\u2019s National Team stand to benefit from making the sport more accessible, she added.<\/p>\n

\u201cSoccer, around the world, is the one sport everyone plays because everyone has access,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s a pay to play model in America, especially on the girls\u2019 side. So I\u2019m hoping that\u00a0as the country buys more and more into the sport, we\u2019re\u00a0looking around the world, looking at what the best national teams in the world are doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the short term, though, Betos is looking forward to a historic night on Wednesday and a historic move to Queens in two years, although the move will be bittersweet because it means Gotham will leave its long-term home of New Jersey.<\/p>\n

Betos joined the club in 2022 \u2013 winning the NWSL Championship the following year \u2013 before joining the club\u2019s coaching staff following her retirement in 2024.\n<\/p>\n

Although her stint at Gotham has been relatively short, Betos is under no illusions as to how significant the Queens Classic and the move to Etihad Park will be. She recalled playing against Gotham when at Rutgers when the club was known as Sky Blue and said the upcoming game is a testament of how far the club has come.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be doing something like this, especially in the middle of the World Cup when there\u2019s obviously enough soccer to be going around, is just something special for the club and a testament to how far we\u2019ve come,\u201d Betos said. \u201c(The move to Etihad Park) is symbolic of the growth of this league. The\u00a0motto of the club is \u2018always building, never finished,\u2019 and\u00a0this is just another step in such a cool direction.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gotham FC assistant goalkeeper coach and Queens native Michelle Betos says it is a \u201cdream come true\u201d to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296592,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[64112,19202,112969,9,24,19203,63,122,124,123,68321,15000,14771],"class_list":["post-296591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-etihad-park","tag-gotham-fc","tag-michelle-betos","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nwsl","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-washington-spirit","tag-womens-soccer","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}