Gotham FC falls 1-0 away to Racing Louisville as game is tough one to swallow | OneFootball

Looking to bounce back after last week's underwhelming draw against Chicago Stars FC, NJ/NY Gotham FC lost their third game of the season away to Racing Louisville FC. This 1-0 loss means the Bats have dropped points in three of their last four games.

Louisville continued their great form with two wins and a draw in their last three games. This was also their first win at home in 2025, and they jumped up to their unofficially trademarked ninth place in the regular season standings.

Meanwhile, Gotham missed the opportunity to earn more points. This might be the best Louisville team the NWSL has seen, but even still, it would not be unfair to say that the Bats are better. But they did not execute like most know they can. Finding a level of consistency that brings up their bottom-end performances is needed ASAP, as it seems like parity has been re-found in NWSL. Every point is crucial, as nothing is set in stone this season regarding the top spots in the standings.

This was probably a very frustrating watch for Gotham FC fans and was very clearly frustrating for the players as well. Three of their next four league matches are at home, and having that run of games to try and rebound from two poor results should be a recipe for success.

Gotham FC had a frustrating loss in Louisville

The game started slowly. Gotham FC or Louisville could not produce much from an attacking perspective. The home team did a very good job of pressing the Bats and keeping them in their defensive third. As such, they could not win the ball very often or create much going forward.

The first major chance came in the 25th minute when Midge Purce made a very Purce-like run from midfield and found Geyse with a pass. Geyse then, rather impressively, got off a quick, powerful shot that was well saved by Racing goalkeeper Jordyn Bloomer. This was then followed by a decent run of attacking play for Gotham, who managed to put the pressure on, but never quite challenged Louisville's goal.

The last attacking chance of the first came in stoppage time from Louisville. Savannah DeMelo played a great no-look through ball to Janine Sonis, whose shot was initially saved by Ann-Katrin Berger. But then the shot looped down in front of the goal and had to be cleared off the goal line by Lilly Reale. Both teams went into halftime with their own share of decent offensive chances, but there was a feeling that neither of them played overly well.

After, Gotham had a good chance in the 51st minute. A brilliant team move was started by Reale with a reverse pass to Emily Sonnett, who then played a flick pass to Esther González. González then created space for herself and put in a great cross for Geyse. The Brazilian managed to get a head on the cross but guided it wide of the goal. Then, just five minutes later, Louisville found the opener.

A long-range missile from midfielder Taylor Flint got past Berger and gave Louisville the 1-0 lead. It was surprising to see Flint given so much space to take the shot by Gotham's midfield. Most players do not score from that distance, so the Bats can be forgiven for allowing that shot. Still, it looked like a soft spot in their midfield coverage rather than the team intentionally allowing her that space.

Louisville then went into more of a defensive shell from that point on, allowing Gotham to have the ball and dictate play. And other than a header in the 72nd minute by González that was put just wide of the Racing goal, it was a lot of busy nothing from Gotham. Plenty of possession, lots of passing and movement, but it never really resulted in any real dangerous attacking threats.

At the end of the game, there was a little controversy. The visitors won a free-kick deep into stoppage time, looking for a late equalizer. After initially being forced to re-take the kick after the referee had not started play, he inexplicably blew for full-time after Berger played the initial pass.

In fairness, they had played the full five minutes of stoppage time, and the referee has the right to call the game whenever he wants. But the free kick was in Gotham's attacking half. If the referee is going to give the free kick, then they at least have to let the team get off some sort of play.

Either way, 1-0 was more than a fair result for Louisville, who might be turning a corner and might finally be on the path towards finishing higher than ninth in the final standings. As for Gotham, to say the last five games have been a bit of a mixed bag would be an understatement. Great away wins against Angel City FC and Washington Spirit have kind of been nullified by poor performances against Portland Thorns FC, the Chicago Stars, and now Friday night against Louisville.

Of course, with the amount of roster turnover from last season to this, many would expect some inconsistencies, especially in the early part of the season. But the bad performances are not just them being straight up beaten by their opposition. Gotham beats themselves up too. Often, things look disconnected in the midfield with simple passes being misplayed, and the team is seemingly unable to find sustained attacking momentum.

At least during last season, when they were struggling to score multiple goals a game, they looked like they were capable of doing so. This season, it just looks like the players are keeping possession for the sake of it and not really knowing what to do from there.

It is really baffling how Gotham FC can look like world beaters one week, then look tepid and like they have zero chemistry the next. This is a much younger roster and these are some of the growing pains one would expect with a young team. However, the swings probably should not be this big week to week.