Gotham FC and Seattle Reign Raise Alarms Over ‘Atrocious’ Pitch in NWSL Playoff Clash

HARRISON, N.J. – Gotham FC head coach Juan Carlos Amoros criticized the field conditions at Sports Illustrated Stadium during the team’s 1-0 win over the Seattle Reign on Sunday, a complaint that underscored the infrastructure challenges the league is grappling with during this season’s playoffs.

The NWSL fined Gotham $10,000 in the buildup to Sunday’s quarterfinal over the quality of the pitch, which appears to have been overworked in recent weeks. Gotham are a secondary tenant at the stadium, which is owned by New Jersey’s Hudson County and is primarily the home of Red Bull New York. The MLS side played its regular season finale on Saturday evening, less than 24 hours before the 12:30 p.m. local kickoff for the NWSL match. The stadium also hosted a rugby doubleheader the previous week, the aftereffects of which were easy to see during Sunday’s game.

“I feel the obligation to almost apologize for the state of the pitch,” Amoros said post-match. “I think at this level, in this kind of game, as a league, we should be having a better surface. Unfortunately, our football club did absolutely everything in their power to make sure that was the case. Unfortunately, it wasn’t, but luckily, it looks like nobody got hurt and the game was what it was.”

Players from both teams complained about the playing conditions, including Gotham’s Jaelin Howell, who worked her way back from an ankle issue in time for Sunday’s match.

“Obviously it’s pretty sandy out there and so a little unstable, but I want to be able to give my all to the team and everything I got, and so obviously I can’t think about that,” Howell said. “The other team has to play on that, too, so we acknowledged it and we moved on, and I think our team managed it pretty well for the most part.”

The Reign’s Jess Fishlock, a member of Seattle’s squad since the inaugural NWSL season in 2013 who played the final match of her career, was more blunt in her assessment of the field.

“We performed so well for this group of players to come against a team like that at home on this field, which is atrocious, just saying it out loud,” she said.

Her comments were echoed by Reign coach Laura Harvey, who has worked in and around the league since its inception.

“Let’s be real, there’s no way a playoff game should be played on that,” Harvey told ESPN post-match. “I just can’t believe they’ve allowed it. They knew it last week.”

Amoros said the field conditions ultimately impacted Gotham’s ability to perform on Sunday, the NWSL Shield winners stringing together a performance he described as “not the best football match that you will ever see.”

“When you play on a pitch like that, you cannot be thinking of the next action or what you’re gonna do once you get that ball,” he said. “You need to be looking at the ball because it can bounce at any given time. Plus, it just changes the whole dynamic of the game and it changes the dynamic of how we play. We adapted certain things. We adapted certain things on the game plan. We had to be a bit more direct in certain situations, but it definitely affected the way we played, yes.”

Gotham will conclude play at Sports Illustrated Stadium next Sunday at 3 p.m. local time in the NWSL semifinals against the Kansas City Current. The Red Bulls, who missed the MLS Cup playoffs for a second consecutive season, will host another match the night before, this time a friendly against Club America during the men’s international break.

Gotham’s vulnerabilities on display

The pitch was an understandable obstacle for both teams, but Gotham’s struggles did not end there. The reigning champions, who are favored to win the championship for the third time in four seasons after winning the Shield, were second-best against the lowest-seeded team in the postseason. They benefited from a fourth-minute own goal from Jordyn Bugg, forced by standout Jaedyn Shaw, but were unable to actually assert any sort of dominance as the game progressed.

Gotham did not take a single shot on target over the course of the game, their six shots totaling just 0.17 expected goals. The Reign were not all that much better, but momentum shifted their way in the second half, eventually racking up 11 shots and 0.54 expected goals. The visitors were stymied by Gotham defenders Tierna Davidson and Jess Carter, as well as 2024 goalkeeper of the year Ann-Katrin Berger.

“She literally does it on a consistent basis,” Shaw said about Berger. “It’s crazy the kind of saves that she makes, and I feel like she makes a worldly save at least once a game. I mean, I think it’s hard enough getting through a back line, but to get through Ann is a whole other task, and I think we’re all really grateful to have her back there. I know I am, as an attacker, and I think we all just have full trust in her ability. She’s just such an integral part of our team and the way that we like to play as well. Even from the goal, she’s such a big piece of the way that we play and our style.”

Gotham’s attack, though, had no such excuses. Midfielder Rose Lavelle exited the match at halftime as the coaching staff manages her minutes after dealing with a knock in recent weeks, her exit diluting their attack. Forward Sam Kerr, meanwhile, failed to register a single shot and took just 23 touches over the course of 90 minutes in an absent performance during an inconsistent return to the NWSL. The Australia international has scored just four goals in 18 games since joining Gotham in July, despite racking up 9.67 expected goals along the way.

Amoros credited the Reign for their ability to lock out Gotham’s defense.

“I think they did a good job trying to stop certain situations,” he said. “I think that was the key. They did really well on the press. They were first and second in a lot of duels, and they obviously play short passes to then go diagonal, which is obviously something difficult to defend and something that is a lot more doable than probably over a style of play. It’s just different, and we had issues with those situations to defend. At the same time, we defended them. I think that’s the key.”

Shaw, who attempted to spearhead a lifeless Gotham attack, described a disjointed performance that the team will hope not to replicate in the following week.

“I think we just need to be cleaner on the ball,” Shaw said. “Obviously, the surface doesn’t really help, but just in general, I think we can be more comfortable on the ball, facing forward and just be clinical in our passes, which I think will help us get to the final third a little bit more with more quality chances on goal.”

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