{"id":258802,"date":"2026-08-20T15:27:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T15:27:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/20\/wins-for-gotham-and-louisville-tears-in-portland-and-a-look-at-rookie-of-the-year-equalizer-soccer\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T15:27:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T15:27:14","slug":"wins-for-gotham-and-louisville-tears-in-portland-and-a-look-at-rookie-of-the-year-equalizer-soccer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/20\/wins-for-gotham-and-louisville-tears-in-portland-and-a-look-at-rookie-of-the-year-equalizer-soccer\/","title":{"rendered":"Wins for Gotham and Louisville, tears in Portland, and a look at Rookie of the Year \u2013 Equalizer Soccer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"mvp-content-main\" itemprop=\"articleBody\">\n<div id=\"mvp-post-feat-img\" class=\"left relative\" itemprop=\"image\" itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/ImageObject\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<meta itemprop=\"url\" content=\"https:\/\/equalizersoccer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/2026-08-20T015629Z_1451669839_MT1USATODAY29622554_RTRMADP_3_NWSL-CHICAGO-STARS-FC-AT-HOUSTON-DASH-1000x600.jpg\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<meta itemprop=\"width\" content=\"1000\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<meta itemprop=\"height\" content=\"600\"\/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><!--mvp-post-feat-img--><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"mvp-feat-caption\">Photo Credit: Joseph Buvid | Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n<p>This week, Gotham and Louisville continue blazing, Portland brings the waterfalls, and Houston\u2019s rookies shine.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Gotham FC keep scoring, winning, and rolling with the punches<\/h2>\n<p>Has a frontrunner for the Shield finally emerged? The defending NWSL champions \u2014 who have never finished a season higher than third place \u2014\u00a0are now six points clear of second place Washington Spirit. They have not lost a game since the first game back from the summer break. They did, though, experience significant off-field losses across just one week in July. On July 20, head coach Juan Carlos Amor\u00f3s shared that he will be stepping aside for a five-week paternity leave. On July 24, Emily Sonnett then ruptured her patellar tendon, ruling her out for the season.\u00a0Just three days later, Gotham FC lead goalscorer Esther Gonz\u00e1lez announced her mutual contract termination \u201cto attend to personal matters.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-bluesky-social wp-block-embed-bluesky-social\">\n<blockquote class=\"bluesky-embed\" data-bluesky-uri=\"at:\/\/did:plc:w3igw5mx7hned6oxzt3jzr5x\/app.bsky.feed.post\/3mt3hjg4qik2d\" data-bluesky-cid=\"bafyreighayf3uwqft2jxhoqo5xx5lmp2etvz3qu6xoymji2yd5si4h55pi\">\n<p lang=\"en\">Jaedyn Shaw with the footwork \ud83d\udc83Sam Kerr with the smoooooth tap in \ud83d\ude2e\u200d\ud83d\udca8<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; <a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/did:plc:w3igw5mx7hned6oxzt3jzr5x?ref_src=embed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NWSL (@nwslsoccer.com)<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/did:plc:w3igw5mx7hned6oxzt3jzr5x\/post\/3mt3hjg4qik2d?ref_src=embed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">2026-08-15T00:53:49.503Z<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/embed.bsky.app\/static\/embed.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>If anything, it seems the recent changes have galvanized the squad. Acting head coach Shaun Harris has helped uncork Gotham FC\u2019s attack. The team is one game away from setting a new club record for consecutive games with a goal. New arrival Sam Kerr has fit like a glove. She scored the match winner against Kansas City last weekend. Harris praised his striker saying, \u201cYou see a player like Sam Kerr on the opposition team sheet and that sends a message psychologically. If Sam\u2019s getting jammed up or they\u2019re doubling her or something, it just frees up someone else. \u2026 We have the talent across the board to be able to punish them. Sam is only just getting started. We haven\u2019t seen the best of her yet.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Break out the tissues for Hanks and Castellanos\u00a0\u00a0<\/h2>\n<div class=\"equalizer-paywall\">\n<div class=\"paywall-block\">\n<p>\n      Access the best women\u2019s soccer coverage all year long\n  <\/p>\n<p>\n     Start your FREE, 7-day trial of The Equalizer Extra for industry-leading reporting and insight on the USWNT, NWSL and beyond.\n  <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><!-- CONTENT END 3 --><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<!--mvp-post-tags--><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<!--posts-nav-link--><\/p>\n<div class=\"mvp-org-wrap\" itemprop=\"publisher\" itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/Organization\">\n<div class=\"mvp-org-logo\" itemprop=\"logo\" itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/ImageObject\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/equalizersoccer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/equalizerWhite-1.png\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<meta itemprop=\"url\" content=\"https:\/\/equalizersoccer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/equalizerWhite-1.png\"\/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><!--mvp-org-logo--><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<meta itemprop=\"name\" content=\"Equalizer Soccer\"\/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><!--mvp-org-wrap-->\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/equalizersoccer.com\/2026\/08\/20\/talking-points-wins-for-gotham-and-louisville-tears-in-portland-and-a-look-at-rookie-of-the-year\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Photo Credit: Joseph Buvid | Imagn Images This week, Gotham and Louisville continue blazing, Portland brings the waterfalls, and Houston\u2019s rookies shine. Gotham FC keep scoring, winning, and rolling with the punches Has a frontrunner for the Shield finally emerged? The defending NWSL champions \u2014 who have never finished a season higher than third place [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":258804,"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-258802","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\/258802","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=258802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}