The pair won two Women's World Cups together with the U.S., but on Saturday, they are rivals as OL Reign takes on Gotham in the big season finale
When Megan Rapinoe and Ali Krieger, both set to retire at the end of this year, exchanged a few laughs over text back in September, they had no idea what they were manifesting. “When is your last game?”, Rapinoe asked, a question Krieger answered with the date of the 2023 NWSL Championship game. “Well I guess that’s my last game too,” was Rapinoe’s reply, the two giggling away as they imagined the unlikelihood of the stars aligning and setting up a title-deciding clash between Krieger’s Gotham and Rapinoe’s OL Reign.
But that is exactly what has happened. On Saturday, in San Diego, the final action for one of these icons of U.S. women’s soccer will be to lift a title that has eluded them for a whole decade.
These two have won plenty between them, including two Women’s World Cups together, but the top prize in their home domestic league isn’t on an otherwise almost complete list. Rapinoe has come closest over the years, playing in two of these NWSL Championship games and winning three Shields, the award given to the team that finishes top of the regular season standings, during 10 years with the Reign.
Given how regularly the Seattle-based side have been there or thereabouts, if you had predicted at the start of the year that Rapinoe would have a shot of signing off with this title, it wouldn’t have been a particularly bold shout. Krieger and Gotham, though? Now that’s a surprise.
GettyChances hard to come by
NJ/NY Gotham FC is the third different name for a club that has existed since 2006, first as Jersey Sky Blue, then as Sky Blue FC. As the latter, the New Jersey-based side won the Women's Professional Soccer title in 2009, that the league that preceded the NWSL. But shots at glory have been few and far between in the time since, with this year's appearance in the postseason just its third since the NWSL was formed in 2013. Finishing rock bottom of the standings in 2022, winning just four of its 22 matches, it’s fair to say that Gotham was not a popular pick to make the NWSL Championship game this year.
As an individual, despite having two World Cup titles and a UEFA Women’s Champions League triumph to her name, Krieger herself has only come close to the NWSL’s biggest trophy on one occasion, too, and that was seven years ago. With the Washington Spirit, the defender reached the Championship game, but it was lost to Western New York Flash in the most heart-breaking fashion, on penalties, Krieger missing the first spot-kick.
After five years with the Orlando Pride failed to give her another shot, the Florida side only reaching the postseason once in that time, and her first season with Gotham ending in a last-placed finish, Krieger would’ve been forgiven for coming into 2023, the final year of her career, thinking that her chance of adding that elusive Championship to her long list of achievements had gone.
But her swansong had quite the surprise in store…
AdvertisementGettyRebuilding a reputation
Gotham hasn’t been a particularly popular destination for players during its time in the NWSL. For example, when Julia Ashley was chosen by the club in the first round of the 2019 College Draft, despite being a New Jersey native, she opted to go to Sweden. "Just from what I’ve heard in terms of organization, some of the housing issues that they’ve had this past year, I’ve heard some bad things. I think everybody has,” she told at the time.
Indeed, in the Yates report, which mainly outlined the abusive behaviour and sexual misconduct in the NWSL when it was released last October, there were details of those exact issues. “Players reported living in houses with broken windows, cracked floors, leaking ceilings, dried mucus on the walls, and, in one instance, a whole human toenail sitting on a windowsill,” it read.
A lot of work, off the pitch as well as on it, has had to be done to get the team to its first NWSL Championship game, then, and since coming to the club as its general manager in 2021, Yael Averbuch West has done a lot of it.
GettyChange aplenty
So, what has Averbuch West changed? Well, one of the most obvious things is that she appointed a new head coach in Juan Carlos Amoros. The Spaniard previously held roles at the Houston Dash and Real Betis, but is best known for his success with Tottenham, helping the English club win three promotions to reach the Women’s Super League.
The number of staff around him was increased to offer more support, the squad was analyzed and rebuilt, and the issues with the facilities have also been addressed. Some of Gotham’s roster moves did appear questionable at times, with some fan favorites moved on, but others offered a glimpse into how strategic the club was growing to be, such as the shock draft-day trade that saw the club acquire USWNT star Lynn Williams.
That meant Gotham went from having the first overall pick in the draft to having the fourth overall pick, and it used that to select Jenna Nighswonger, who has been so good in her first year in the NWSL that she was up for the Rookie of the Year award.
There have been other stand-out moves, too. USWNT defender Kelley O’Hara joined fellow World Cup winner Krieger at the club, promising young talent Bruninha was brought over from Brazil and, midway through the season, another world champion, in Spain striker Esther Gonzalez, added extra firepower to the attack.
The changes have created a positive environment, a place where players want to be and a cohesive team that has a clear style. It’s also given Krieger, who was handed the captain’s armband in another of those clever off-season decisions, a shot of retiring on the highest of highs.
GettyCaptain Krieger
Krieger makes a fantastic captain, too. At 39 years old, she has plenty of experience under her belt, and a lot of that involves the art of winning. Indeed, she won an incredible treble in a five-year spell in Germany with Frankfurt, which included the Champions League, and she has two World Cup titles to her name.
The defender credits her time abroad with developing her as a person, the spell coming when she was still so young – straight out of college, even, and her personality is a crucial part of what makes her a brilliant leader today.
“When I first met Ali, I was just blown away by her genuine personality and how good of a person she is,” Nighswonger, who will complete her first NWSL season on Saturday while Krieger plays the final match of her career, said this week. “She was so welcoming immediately and she creates such a safe space and a good culture in the locker room.
“Going into a new position this year, I was a nervous wreck playing left-back, but she's helped me grow so much. Before every game she always says, 'I got your back’ or ‘I'm here whenever you need me', and that may seem like the most simple sentence in the world, but for me it's just the best thing. That allows me to get forward more, be more aggressive, go harder into tackles, because I know that the captain of our team and the person that's next to me, my left center-back, she believes in me wholeheartedly.”