Gotham FC allow costly own goal after dominating tie with Reign

There is a reason Gotham FC has the most players of any club team — six — heading to Paris for the 2024 Olympics.

And they further proved the case for 98 minutes Sunday afternoon against Seattle Reign FC, controlling the game at Red Bull Arena.

But in the 99th minute, the Reign equalized, 1-1, on an own goal off a set piece.

“This is what happens when you only have the lead of one nil,” Gotham head coach Juan Carlos Amoros said.

Tierna Davidson, Crystal Dunn, Rose Lavelle, Jenna Nighswonger and Emily Sonnett were selected for the final U.S. Women’s National Team roster on Wednesday.

In addition, all-time NWSL leading goal-scorer Lynn Williams (79 career goals) was named an alternate.

The clubs last met for the 2023 championship, when Gotham shocked the NWSL scene.

They were the sixth seed and the last team to make postseason play, but they made it to the finals, prevailing over Reign 2-1.

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Last season, Reign had Lavelle — who scored in the title match — Sonnett and Sam Hiatt, but all three came over to Gotham in the offseason.

In the rematch, Gotham came out thundering.

“Our high pressing in defense is something that we bring to the game that adds a lot of excitement and creates a lot of opportunities for us,” Nighswonger said. “It’s one of the reasons why we’ve been so successful this season.”

Gotham (8-3-4) used its pressing antics to shut down any Reign attacking play from the gate.

Reign (2-9-4) looked to play through Tziarra King and Ji So Yun on the right flank, but Nighswonger and company shut them down.

Through the first 20 minutes of the match, Gotham saw 64 percent possession.

Despite their efforts, they could not find a way to get one in the back of the net in the first half.

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At halftime, Amoros had a simple message for his team.

“We needed to find the spare players and spare gaps,” Amoros said. “That final piece, we needed to do a bit better.”

And they did just that.

Just two minutes into the second half, Nighswonger found the ball on the left flank near midfield with space and time.

She gracefully scanned the field before curling a perfect through ball to Ella Stevens.

She received the ball out wide, which pulled Reign goalkeeper Claudia Dickey off her line.

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Stevens then found Lavelle near the penalty spot, who slotted home an easy finish.

“In the second half we brought a lot more energy,” Nighswonger said. “That’s one of the reasons we got the goal.”

Unfortunately for Gotham, the match turned the game’s dying moments.

Quinn lined up to take a free kick in the 99th minute on the left side near midfield, lofting the ball in the middle of the penalty area.

Reign’s Veronica Latsko, battling Gotham’s Nealy Martin in the air, tried to get her head on it.

But Quinn’s ball just cleared Latsko and Martin, trying to clear it wide, instead floated it over an outstretched Ann-Katrin Berger.

The final whistle blew almost immediately after the restart.

Gotham had 15 shots with only one goal; they simply could not tuck the game away.

“We still need to put games away; we need to score more goals and capitalize on the opportunities we have,” Williams said. “The longer we let teams play and feel like they’re in the game, things like tonight happen.”

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