A little over two months ago, Gotham FC raised the NWSL championship trophy into the crisp Bay Area air.
A few days later, Gotham took the stage at City Hall in Manhattan and vowed the club was not done yet.
“We are never finished,” head coach Juan Carlos Amorós said. “Our next stage is we want to be the champions of the world in January.”
Gotham returns to action Wednesday in London for FIFA’s inaugural Women’s Champions Cup. And while they are the reigning NWSL champions, they are, of course, far from satisfied.
“Being at Gotham, you want to excel, and we want to be the best. And to be the best you kind of have to play the best and that means playing top competition around the globe,” right back Mandy Freeman told reporters earlier this month. “Being in this competition, that allows us to really play other teams to test our mettle against… great teams from other countries and so we’re ready.”
The past eight weeks have been a “whirlwind,” Freeman said. Gotham has had the shortest offseason of any NWSL team, but they don’t necessarily view that as a bad thing.
Gotham is embracing the quick turnaround. The club is approaching 2026 as a “continuation” from last season rather than a new beginning. It’s the sequel to a potential budding dynasty.
Amorós said the team returned to camp at the beginning of this month ready to hit the ground running. It helps, too, that they returned the majority of their championship-winning team for 2026.
Rose Lavelle, who netted the game-winning goal in the title match, and defensive anchor Emily Sonnett are back along with Jaedyn Shaw, Bruninha, Tierna Davidson, Esther González, Jaelin Howell and Sarah Schupansky.
Gotham also re-signed Midge Purce for another season and acquired veteran midfielder Savannah McCaskill from San Diego Wave FC.
On Monday, Gotham added Florida State star forward and two-time NCAA champion Jordynn Dudley.
The team’s continuity and blend of new talent should bode well as Gotham tries to open their 2026 campaign by capturing a major international title in London.
“That’s the nature of who they are,” Amorós said. “[The players are] hungry. They have to win. It’s unbelievable… I think it comes within the nature, like, they win one competition, they’re already thinking on the next one.”
Gotham has been laying down the groundwork to become a global powerhouse since Amorós arrival in 2022.
Winning the 2025 CONCACAF W Champions Cup last May punched Gotham’s ticket to compete among the six best teams from each continental confederation in the Women’s Champions Cup.
Only four teams – Gotham, England’s Arsenal, Brazil’s Corinthians and Morocco’s Royal Armed Forces Sports Association (ASFAR) – remain in the hunt entering this final week of action.
Gotham is scheduled to play Corinthians in the first of two semifinal matches Wednesday at 7:30 a.m. Arsenal-ASFAR follows at 1 p.m.
The winners will meet in the final Sunday at 1 p.m., with the losers battling for third place beforehand at 9:45 a.m.
Gotham is viewed as a favorite to win the Champions Cup, though Arsenal is believed to be New York’s biggest threat to earning the title as the “world’s best club.”
It’s obvious what Gotham is hoping to do.
“I’m competing to raise another trophy, and that’s kind of the standard here at Gotham,” Freeman said. “We want to be not only the first to win these top types of competitions, but to continue that legacy and coming back and fighting for championships.”