LONDON —It will be easy to view Gotham’s extremely early exit from the Women’s Champions Cup as a result out of the blue, an underdog tale with Corinthians as its protagonists. Rerun this game and some of those 21 shots the NWSL champions rained down on Leticia’s goal might have found a way through. The delirium that spread from the stands onto the pitch at the final whistle made clear that Corinthians, now 1-0 winners thanks to a Gabi Zanotti 83rd minute counterattack, had agreed with Gotham’s pre-match assessment that the Americans had been the favorites.
And yet there was nothing flukey to this. This was not a case of minnows sending the top dogs crashing out, but of one side finding the ways to narrow a gap to their opponent that had not been that great to begin with, and then edging this contest in the decisive moment. That came seven minutes from the 90th, one of Corinthians’ customarily dangerous counters eluding Jess Carter and finding veteran captain Gabi Zenotti, her low drive punishing Ann-Katherine Berger for drifting out of position.
Ultimately this was a game decided by who could exploit the mistakes of the opposition. That shouldn’t be a matter of any great surprise, both of these teams were returning to action in the midst of what might otherwise have been their off season. For Gotham this was their first competitive match since beating Washington Spirit to the NWSL Championship on November 22. Corinthians’ season had come to an end only a few weeks later with defeats to rivals Palmeiras. Neither side lacked for energy but the sort of automatisms that come several games into a new campaign eluded Gotham in particular.
In the second half they were able to get Midge Purce isolated with her full back, but only once, when substitute Katie Stengel cut across her defender, did it result in a clear cut opening. In the first half Gotham found it easy enough to progress through the Corinthians lines, but without really manufacturing the high volume of penalty box touches that might result in good quality shots. The final count of 21 looks impressive, but only twice did they draw a save from Leticia in the Corinthians goal.
Their best chance of the game was not one of those. A loose pass from Leticia was stolen by Jaedyn Shaw and sat up nicely for Savannah McCaskill, but her swing at the ball flew wide of the target. It might have been that moment that Juan Carlos Amoros had in mind when he ruefully noted post-match that “football is about goals, if you don’t score them you get punished.”
While it was easy to agree with that it was not quite as obvious that Amoros was right when he attested that Gotham had controlled the game. If they did, they certainly did not translate it into enough. You couldn’t argue against the NWSL side’s dominance of possession, they had around 65% of the ball after all, but this still felt like a game that was happening to them. Solid in their mid-block, waiting to spring the outstanding Jaqueline on the counter, Corinthians seemed to have the game where they wanted it.
“We knew we had to change a little bit,” said Luca Piccinato. “We like to always have the ball. We like to be in possession. This is one of our targets, but I think we were able to control well and actually finish better. We knew when we were in possession we would be able to find the best moment to win.
“We were a little bit scared to begin with, but then we stabilized the game. We planned to be aggressive in certain moments. We know in a match like this we have to adapt.”
Perhaps it is easier to make those adaptations when it feels like you are at home and on this Wednesday lunchtime, a slice of west London had the feel of Sao Paulo in every way bar one. It really would have been nice if Corinthians could have brought the weather with them from Brazil, but instead they drew “unbelievable” support, the Brentford Community Stadium bouncing to the poroporo before a ball had been kicked.
Ninety minutes and change later and the Corinthians players hurled themselves into a jubilant North Stand, the exceptional Gi Fernandes stood on the advertising hoardings, arms spread aloft in triumph, basking in an adulation that was intermingled with incredulity. This is Brazil and this is what Brazilian clubs, men’s or women’s, do on the intercontinental stage. The much-vaunted NWSL-WSL face off in a final will have to wait.
“Nobody wins before the game but everyone was talking about Gotham and Arsenal in the final,” said Piccinato, whose six time Copa Libertadores winners are not going to settle for second place. “We want to leave England with this title. I believe that with more time, we had to adjust, we think we’ll have quite a few possibilities in terms of our planning.
“In the final we are going to have to play a little better in the transition. Playing against a big team like Gotham made us put the block closer to our area, there were some spaces in open areas we can improve. We are going to focus a bit more in this area.”
What they deployed in that area was still enough to threaten Gotham all the way through and perhaps that shouldn’t have been as much of a shock as it felt in the moment. After all, Opta’s power rankings might place the NWSL champions as the 11th best club in the sport and Corinthians the 39th, but the gap in team rating is hardly a chasm. Indeed those rankings place the Brazilians either side of Boston Legacy and Angel City. If Corinthians could draw Gotham into the right sort of game, this was always on the cards.
“We were aware [of how Corinthians might play],” said Amoros. “Football is played in different ways around the world, and we know that in this, you know, this kind of game is very different to the American league. I think it’s just the way it is, everywhere is different. That’s the beauty of the game.”
So too were the celebrations that engulfed Corinthians at the final whistle. It might be on to the next one for the champions of South America but whatever the outcome of Sunday’s final, this remarkable show of strength will not soon be forgotten.
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