LONDON — New York to London might not be a particularly arduous journey for most, even via southern Spain, but Gotham FC’s road to the British capital has been a long and winding one. The NWSL champions take the field at the Brentford Community Stadium Wednesday, not as holders of the title they won in such dramatic fashion back in November. Instead, it is the title before that, one won by a team that has predominantly broken apart, that set this club on a journey they hope will end with them crowned the first world champions of women’s club football.
The then-NJ/NY Gotham FC side that beat OL Reign in the 2023 NWSL Championship game would face off against the best of CONCACAF the following year before raising the continent’s first championship in Leon, Mexico, 18 months after they had qualified for the competition. That in turn earned them the right to travel across the Atlantic as North America’s first representatives in the FIFA Women’s Champions Cup, the annual intercontinental clash that, at least until the Women’s Club World Cup begins in two years’ time, will crown the sport’s best club side.
No wonder that in such a long stretch, so few of those who began the journey are still there. Only three of the starting XI that Juan Carlos Amoros named for that 2023 final are still with the club as they arrive in London. When the head coach explains the long journey to Hounslow, it seems faintly remarkable anyone is still standing.
“It would be a dream come true for us to be in this position two games away,” said Amoros. “Something that is very special.
“It’s been a process of four years it’s taken us to get to this competition. We need to win the [NWSL] championship, go next year around North America to qualify for the semifinal, final. Last season, we were able to win in Mexico and now we’re here.
“It will be the pinnacle, the top of the mountain [if we win] at this point. But, we also know that there is even more competitions that we want to keep winning.”
The Women’s Champions Cup too has come the long way round. In November, Wuhan Jiangda beat Auckland United on home soil before themselves losing to home favorites AS Far in Morocco last month. Now the final four — representing North America, South America, Africa and Europe — meet in London, the semifinals at Brentford’s home on Wednesday before Arsenal’s 60,000 capacity Emirates Stadium hosts the third place playoff and final on Sunday. Gotham’s campaign begins against Corinthians, by far the dominant force in both Brazilian and South American football, the winners of six of the last nine iterations of the Copa Libertadores.
Despite the impressive record of their opponents, few are in any doubt as to who the strong favorites should be when the two sides take the field at 12:30 p.m. local time (7:30 a.m. ET). After all, this is the best that the NWSL has to offer, at least according to the playoffs, if not the final standings in the league. Gotham would probably have to acknowledge that they are strong favorites for the semifinal, perhaps even for the competition as a whole.
“You always got to bet on yourself,” joked Jaelin Howell. “We’re our own favorites, put it that way,” said defender Mandy Freeman, a veteran of that long road to CONCACAF glory and beyond. “We hope we are,” added Jaedyn Shaw.
Whether they actually are, well, that is what makes the Champions Cup so intriguing. When these sorts of competitions take place in the men’s game, there is an inherently limiting factor, the economic reality of the sport. In both the old and new formats of the men’s Club World Cup, South American clubs certainly roused themselves to punch above their weight, but that was the point. When the continent’s richest side, Flamengo, trail Real Madrid by the best part of $1 billion in revenue, there’s not really much of a case against deciding the best men’s club side in the Champions League.
In the women’s game, the margins are finer, financially and perhaps on the field. Arsenal’s Champions League triumph last summer made them Europe’s richest club side with revenue Deloitte estimated at around $30 million. Transpose that over to the NWSL and the Gunners would certainly be one of the league’s top earners, but, according to Forbes, they would not match Angel City and Kansas City Current.
The relative parity between NWSL and Europe’s top clubs is reflected in player movement. Jenna Nighswonger and Crystal Dunn are among the former Gotham players who moved to Europe while Amoros’ squad has been strengthened by the addition of Ann-Katrin Berger and Jess Carter to a group that also includes Spain international Esther.
That sense of meaningful stakes between the best of each continent offers a sense of importance to this competition that perhaps mitigates against the fears of jamming more games into an overwhelming schedule.
“When we played the CONCACAF Women’s Cup, which was the first time as well, we showed the players some pictures of competitions from the past,” said Amoros. “You could see, for example, Sweden, the first Euros [sic, the first European Championships were indeed won by the Swedes against England in a two-legged final where both nations hosted], where there were fewer fans, less recognition. The Champions League, all these competitions had to start somewhere.
“This is something that in the women’s game also needed to happen. So I’m super happy that we as Gotham are going to be in this competition in the 2028 one [the Club World Cup} as well. Hopefully, we are again next year. I think it’s truly important. And I think in the women’s game, it’s a slightly different, the global stage, if you want to call it. But I think in the men’s, realistically, Europe is clearly the dominant.
“Every player in the world wants to come to Europe. While in the women’s game, we could definitely say that the NWSL is at least at the same level. So I think that makes it even more interesting. Internationally, obviously, the U.S. at an international level has been the dominant country the last couple of decades. And I think it’s really something different to the men’s and we want to make it even better. So hopefully this tournament is the first of many.”
Whether it will be the first of many won by an NWSL representative is another question. Gotham might find themselves at a disadvantage in a putative final against Arsenal. They have spent the last three weeks in a warm weather training camp in Sotogrande, Spain, but that is no match for the competitive gearing up the Gunners have had in the midst of a WSL season that saw them win 2-0 at champions Chelsea at the weekend.
Arsenal too pride themselves on their firsts: first in attendances, first in league titles won, the first English side to win the European Cup, and indeed the second.
“We’re proud to be in this competition,” said Arsenal coach Renee Slegers. “We want to compete for trophies. This is a new trophy in women’s football. And I think Arsenal have been trailblazers for long. We want to be part of that. We want to make history as well.”
Of course, it is presumptive to think about the final already when an unfamiliar opponent lies ahead of Gotham. Corinthians are nothing if not used to winning and their squad includes a host of veterans including Tamires, winner of 148 Brazil caps, and captain Gabi Zanotti, the most successful player in the club’s history and, at 40 years of age, nearly a year Marta’s senior.
Gotham have never played a Brazilian opponent before but they can at least rely on intel from their teammate Gabi Portilho, who joined from the Brabas (roughly translated as ‘the fierce girls’) in December 2024. Brazil international Bruninha is also well aware of how her international teammates from Corinthians might test their U.S. opponents.
“It’s nice for us to be able to see their style of play, the Brazilian players,” said Shaw. “Seeing how they play and playing against them every day is super helpful. Them being in Brazil with those players and that team is really helpful, as well as scouting.”
Gotham will also be able to deploy some Brazilian flair of their own in the form of Shaw, whose formative years involved several trips to Brazil where she played futsal with Santos’ women’s team.
“It really shaped me as a player to be honest, seeing the vision on the field, knowing how to combine in small spaces, getting out of them on the dribble and the pass: those are some of my strengths,” she said. “Just being around Brazilian culture, football and futsal, is something I think really helped me build the passion for the game. It’s really where I fell in love with it, I would definitely credit a lot of the way I play to that country.”
Her footballing identity having been so strongly forged in Sao Paulo, Shaw is surely going to be even more eager to get one over on one of Santos’ historic rivalries. Then again she is far from the only Gotham star with plenty to motivate themselves in the days ahead. It has taken a long time for Gotham to get this far. They aren’t minded to slow down with the summit in sight.
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