NWSL championship 2023: OL Reign 1-2 Gotham FC – as it happened

Ali Krieger hails the team’s experience. That, Gotham have in abundance, and it showed. Purce is by no means aged, but she has been battling on NWSL fields for years now. The bench is full of players with dozens of US national team caps.

We’ll wrap it there. Congratulations to Megan Rapinoe on a great career. Congratulations to Gotham FC on a great win. Congratulations to Ali Krieger for both.

Excellent decision. Her assist on the first goal was spectacular. She followed up with a solid corner kick for a second assist, and she was dangerous throughout.

They saved the captain for last, and Ali Krieger gets a tremendous ovation. What a way to wrap a career.

Medal presentation time. They’re going in numerical order, and coincidentally, most of the players wearing the numbers 1 through 8 for Gotham FC didn’t play in this final.

Nice roar for Mana Shim, whose impact off the field cannot be overstated.

The broadcasters are telling us Gotham had run out of substitutes. But previous rounds of the playoffs have had more than three subs, and that’s all Gotham had used to this point. They must have used all of their substitution windows. That, or we’ve just seen a shocking mistake.

No matter. No harm done.

And Gotham are worthy winners. Perhaps it’s unconvincing to see the sixth-place finisher in the regular season lift the trophy, but given the parity in the league this year, it’s not as if any other team demonstrated themselves to be more worthy of the honor.

What a strange, compelling finish to a strange, compelling season.

90 +11 mins: The free kick hits the wall. It goes wide. Throw-in. How much time is left? Where am I? What’s going on?

It’s over.

I’m a referee, and I’m confused. I’ve been told in situations like that in which what would ordinarily be called DOGSO (denying an obvious goal-scoring opportunity) does not actually deny a goal-scoring opportunity is NOT a red card.

And … Gotham can’t substitute! They’ve used their windows, I suppose? Betos can’t go in. It’s Nealy Martin, the defensive midfielder, putting on a shirt and going in goal.

It’ll be a free kick just outside the box. Every Gotham player is in the wall, it appears.

90 +6 mins: CHANCE! So nearly the equalizer on a wild play in which the ball bounced in front of the box. Haught comes out, but it’s not all the way to the box. Under pressure from Bennett, she handles the ball! It goes to Lavelle, who shoots high.

But it will be reviewed. She clearly handled the ball outside the box. It’s considered denying an obvious goal-scoring opportunity.

(Even thought it didn’t deny a goal-scoring opportunity, because Lavelle had a shot at an open net.)

RED CARD to Haught. Here comes the veteran Michelle Betos.

90 +5 mins: Williams holds the ball against pressure and kills off another few seconds.

The Reign play it very directly, but Haught grabs it again.

90 +3 mins: Free kick to the Reign just inside the Gotham half. Gotham sits back, and Quinn tries a through ball that goes straight through to Haught.

90 +2 mins: Diagonal ball to Balcer, and she earns a corner kick … no, wait, she was offside. At least, she was called offside. Maybe not, as we see from the replay.

90 +1 mins: Lynn Williams is having a tremendous game as well, and she’s pressing in second-half stoppage time.

Correction: We’ll have six minutes of stoppage time.

90 mins: A violent collision between Purce and Balcer, and it appears both benches were up yelling for play to stop as Balcer is down. The players’ heads collided, and Balcer may have hit her head again upon the landing. Balcer wears a protective headband, and that might be a good thing here.

Five minutes of stoppage time.

89 mins: Katie Stengel, who scored the winner in the semi, replaces Esther Gonzalez, whose goal looks likely to be the winner in the final.

87 mins: Purce, surely the game’s MVP, neatly beats US national teamer Emily Sonnett, who earns a yellow card for fouling before Purce can get too far away. What a game she’s having.

86 mins: Elyse Bennett enters the game, replacing … Fishlock? Really? I’m not sure I’d take her off the field at this stage unless she’s broken something.

Not that Laura Harvey is someone I would ordinarily second-guess.

85 mins: Peter Oh: “The Gotham keeper is clearly wasting a New York minute every time she has the ball in her hands. So Naught-y.”

It appears we have GOT a HAM emailing us tonight.

83 min: The Reign dial up the pressure. For all the poise Gotham have, Jess Fishlock can impart some fear into any opponent.

81 mins: Offside against the Reign.

Allie Long, who honed her game in part in some hard-scrabble men’s futsal leagues in New York, comes in for Delanie Sheehan. Gotham just has so much experience on that bench.

80 mins: And then it’s a needless foul at midfield by Bruninha, undermining the point about Gotham effectively closing out the game.

78 mins: Possession for Gotham now, and they look as cool as you like. The Reign might need wholesale changes just to have swarming bodies to press.

74 mins: I started my day at Duke University, and it’s a Duke alum, Quinn, who is about to come on for the Reign.

Latsko just missed another good chance, this one on a long diagonal cross from McClernon. Maybe not the easiest ball to settle given its pace, but she’ll be disappointed not to put one on frame there.

And that’ll be it for Latsko, as she is the one who’ll depart. Fishlock will move into the attack, and she immediately goes on the offensive but is stopped in her tracks.

The crowd is counting the number of seconds Gotham keeper Mandy Naught is holding the ball.

72 mins: It’s a lull. The Reign surely need a sub at some point. The only one they’ve made so far was in the sixth minute, with Balcer replacing the unfortunate Rapinoe.

But it’s Gotham attacking, with Nighswonger shooting into a crowd.

69 mins: Sinead Farrelly, out of the sport for more than seven years, enters as a sub for Ryan. Can she win a championship with Gotham here?

63 mins: The Reign play over the top, but it sails long. Clearly a solid game plan at this stage

62 mins: Haught will stay in, having made the first save of the game by either keeper.

60 mins: SAVE by Mandy Haught, one on one with Latsko as Gotham’s high line is beaten again.

Haught is down hurt.

58 mins: Corner kick to Gotham, and Rookie of the Year Nighswonger will swing it in. Cleared.

Time to sub soon?

57 mins: Looks like a check for a possible handball against the Reign’s Phoebe McClernon, but that would be harsh. The ball was bounding around.

55 mins: Can we, once and for all, put an end to the myth that there’s no diving or embellishment in women’s soccer? Yes?

Gotham establish possession for a bit.

52 mins: The Reign call off the press for a bit, allowing Gotham’s defenders to pass it around and breathe.

Then it’s Gotham’s turn to press, and Huerta is forced into a bad pass. The Reign regain possession, though, and Veronica Latsko races into the box with the ball. She hits the ground. Reign coach Laura Harvey thinks it’s a penalty. She’s alone in that belief. Nothing there.

50 mins: CHANCE. Again, the Reign play it forward. It’s partially cleared to Balcer, who brings it down with her chest at the top of the box and fires just wide.

49 mins: Huerta’s distribution from right back adds another dimension to the Reign attack. Her cross this time is cleared and lands at the feet of Fishlock. The Welsh international shoots well wide.

47 mins: The Reign press Gotham all the way into the corner but let them off the hook with a foul. Still, the Gotham defense just hasn’t looked solid tonight.

46 mins: Did that seem like a short halftime break?

Kurt Perleberg asks my thoughts on the US women hiring Emma Hayes.

Funny you should ask:

In this most unpredictable of seasons, we’ve had an unpredictable final thus far. The Reign had the better of play early despite the loss of Megan Rapinoe, but Gotham conjured a moment of brilliance to take the lead. Then the Reign punished Gotham’s awkward offside trap. Back to the other end of the field, the Reign lost a World Cup champion attacker on a corner kick, and you just can’t do that.

45 +5 mins: Not a bad effort from the Reign on the free kick, but Gotham cope with the pressure.

45 +4 mins: Huerta plays a long dangerous cross from right back. Krieger cuts it out. Rose Lavelle ends up with the ball and is fouled. Dangerous free kick chance for the Reign just outside the box.

Too easy. Esther Gonzalez is virtually unmarked in the middle of the box, and the World Cup champion cleanly heads the ball into the net.

Second assist of the game for the excellent Midge Purce.

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45 +1 mins: Gotham with the corner kick, and …

45 mins: Haught comes out to clear the ball 25 yards from her own goal.

Neither of these teams scored much during the season, and each semifinal was a 1-0 decision, but this may end up 4-3.

43 mins: In the net, but Reign forward Huitema was quite clearly offside. That’ll add to the anxiety level for Gotham, though. They’ve had the better of play, but this high line against a team as skilled as the Reign … maybe we shouldn’t question the NWSL’s Coach of the Year, but this seems risky.