{"id":297744,"date":"2026-07-16T16:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T16:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/297744\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T16:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T16:10:09","slug":"gotham-fc-tops-washington-spirit-in-front-of-record-queens-classic-crowd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/297744\/","title":{"rendered":"Gotham FC Tops Washington Spirit in Front of Record Queens Classic Crowd"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">No. 4 Gotham threw a record-setting party in Queens, as Rose Lavelle\u2019s first-half strike lifted the reigning NWSL champion past No. 2 Washington 1-0 in front of <a href=\"https:\/\/justwomenssports.com\/reads\/queens-classic-gotham-fc-washington-spirit-nwsl-game\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">42,175 fans<\/a> \u2014 an New York City women\u2019s sports record.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On her bobblehead night, Lavelle curled a long stunner into the far post in the 37th minute, echoing her performance in last year\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/justwomenssports.com\/reads\/2025-nwsl-championship-shatters-records-with-viewership-topping-1-million\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"30310\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">title match shutout<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cGood thing it went in,\u201d the US midfielder joked afterward. \u201cBecause if I missed it and I didn\u2019t cross to Esther that would have been bad.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Australia captain Sam Kerr made her long-awaited <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/Da1hy0Fv5bf\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">NWSL return<\/a> in the 64th minute to deafening applause, immediately slipping into Gotham\u2019s high press.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s a good preview,\u201d said Gotham defender <a href=\"https:\/\/justwomenssports.com\/reads\/tierna-davidson-captains-new-look-gotham-fc-roster-ahead-of-2025-nwsl-kick-off\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"24751\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Mandy Freeman<\/a>. \u201cWe&#8217;re hoping to see more of her stretching ability, the way she can connect with the midfield and get behind&#8230; Sam is a great, well-experienced player, having her on the team has been a joy.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Both teams battled 90-degree heat and a wildfire-driven haze that forced <a href=\"https:\/\/justwomenssports.com\/reads\/fifa-world-cup-hydration-breaks-mia-hamm-2026\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"35868\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">two hydration breaks<\/a> per half, breaking up the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIf we have to have a hydration break every 15 minutes, then we shouldn\u2019t be playing \u2014 that\u2019s my opinion,\u201d Spirit star Trinity Rodman told reporters. \u201cBut at the end of the day, there\u2019s 40,000 people\u2026 It was a hard situation for everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cCan I be honest? I don\u2019t like them,\u201d echoed Washington coach Adri\u00e1n Gonz\u00e1lez. \u201cIt kills the momentum.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>  <script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No. 4 Gotham threw a record-setting party in Queens, as Rose Lavelle\u2019s first-half strike lifted the reigning NWSL&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[90798,19202,9,24,106846,63,122,68711,124,123,27660,113199,68321],"class_list":["post-297744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-2026-nwsl-season","tag-gotham-fc","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nwsl-attendance","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-classic","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-rose-lavelle","tag-sam-kerr","tag-washington-spirit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297744","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=297744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}