{"id":255115,"date":"2026-07-29T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/29\/nwsl-mid-week-preview-esther-gonzalez-leaves-gotham-fc-for-personal-reasons-the-gist\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T00:00:00","slug":"nwsl-mid-week-preview-esther-gonzalez-leaves-gotham-fc-for-personal-reasons-the-gist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/29\/nwsl-mid-week-preview-esther-gonzalez-leaves-gotham-fc-for-personal-reasons-the-gist\/","title":{"rendered":"NWSL mid-week preview, Esther Gonz\u00e1lez leaves Gotham FC for personal reasons | The GIST"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><strong>The GIST: <\/strong>Still missing the FIFA men\u2019s World Cup? We have the perfect mid-week pick-me-up: The second half of the NWSL season is almost here and while teams like the Washington Spirit and Utah Royals are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nwslsoccer.com\/standings\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">rising to the top<\/a>, there\u2019s still <em>plenty<\/em> of footy to play before the eight-team playoff field is finalized this fall. Here\u2019s the latest moves and matches from the pitch.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\ud83d\ude1e High-scoring forward Esther Gonz\u00e1lez leaves Gotham FC:<\/strong> The Batties\u2019 all-time top scorer abruptly left the team under mutual contract termination earlier this week to attend to personal matters back home in Spain. Gonz\u00e1lez already registered six goals this season and was integral to Gotham\u2019s 2023 and 2025 championships. Wishing her well.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\ud83d\udcfa Looking ahead, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/story\/_\/id\/49444838\/uswnt-gotham-fc-portland-thorns-emily-sonnett\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ailing Gotham<\/a> is one of six teams in action tonight:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>\ud83c\udfc7 Racing Louisville vs. \ud83d\udca7 Kansas City Current \u2014 8 p.m. ET:<\/strong> Louisville just earned their first win in six games. Will they find another W against the Temwa Chawinga\u2013less Current as she <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cafonline.com\/caf-womens-africa-cup-of-nations\/news\/chawinga-sisters-stun-nigeria-in-historic-malawi-wafcon-upset\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">makes history<\/a> for Malawi at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cafonline.com\/caf-womens-africa-cup-of-nations\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Women\u2019s AFCON tournament<\/a>?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>\ud83c\udf86 Washington Spirit vs. \ud83d\udc51 Utah Royals \u2014 9 p.m. ET:<\/strong> Forward Trinity Rodman\u2019s NWSL\u2013leading Spirit have five wins in their last six games, but revamped Utah is on the rise. This is going to be good.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>\ud83d\uddfd Gotham FC vs. \u2614 Bay FC \u2014 10 p.m. ET:<\/strong> Time will tell how impressive Gotham can continue to be without Gonz\u00e1lez and veteran Emily Sonnett, who suffered a <a href=\"https:\/\/equalizersoccer.com\/2026\/07\/28\/emily-sonnett-underwent-surgery-hasnt-traveled-with-gotham\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">serious knee injury<\/a> in their last game. Lucky for them, newest Battie Sam Kerr is already <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/DbM4EHTCi-G\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">back to her NWSL scoring ways<\/a> \u2014 and Bay FC\u2019s shaky defense shouldn\u2019t pose a problem.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>\n  !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n  n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;\n  n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n  t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,\n  document,'script','https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n  fbq('init', '1716705275141133'); \/\/ Insert your pixel ID here.\n  fbq('track', 'PageView');\n      <\/script><script async defer src=\"https:\/\/platform.instagram.com\/en_US\/embeds.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thegistsports.com\/article\/nwsl-mid-week-preview\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The GIST: Still missing the FIFA men\u2019s World Cup? We have the perfect mid-week pick-me-up: The second half of the NWSL season is almost here and while teams like the Washington Spirit and Utah Royals are rising to the top, there\u2019s still plenty of footy to play before the eight-team playoff field is finalized this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":255116,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6805],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-255115","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-womens"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}