Gotham FC’s Long-Term Puzzle: How to Keep the Trophy Train Rolling

Jersey City, N.J. — When Gotham FC’s players climbed the steps of City Hall last November to accept the keys to the city, the confetti was still drifting through Hudson County. Less than 24 hours later, while the celebration lights dimmed, director of scouting and roster development Richard Gunney was 2,800 miles away in California, watching tape on a college forward who might one day spell rookie Jordynn Dudley. That snapshot captures the riddle general manager and head of soccer operations Yael Averbuch West wakes up trying to solve.

“How do we make this the norm at Gotham? That’s the puzzle now,” Averbuch West told The Athletic after the club collected two NWSL trophies in three seasons. The league’s salary cap, roster limits and the new High Impact Player mechanism mean the front office must treat every transaction like a move on a crowded chess board. The latest piece: Norwegian international Guro Reiten, signed on loan from Chelsea through July before a free-agent transfer this summer. Reiten’s elite left foot joins a locker room already stocked with World Cup winners, Olympic medalists and emergent talents.

The ethos inside the organization is “always building, never finished.” Gunney, who describes match-day glamour as the sport’s dessert, insists the day-to-day recipe is “boring, consistent, predictable” so that talent identification, cap management and medical protocols run like a Swiss watch. The payoff, Gotham hopes, is a roster deep enough to survive the 35-game grind that defines the modern NWSL calendar.

The early returns on the 2026 campaign show just how thin the margin is. After two weekends only three sides — Angel City, Houston Dash and Portland Thorns — have strung together back-to-back victories. Gotham opened with a scoreless draw against North Carolina, a match highlighted by the 358-day return of defender Tierna Davidson. The result left the Bats in the middle of a congested table, evidence that yesterday’s silverware guarantees nothing tomorrow.

Wednesday night the league cranks up again with a five-game slate, including Gotham’s trip to face an Orlando Pride side desperate to convert draws into wins. While the on-field calculus plays out, the front office will keep scrolling spreadsheets and scouting reports, searching for the next edge.

Because in the NWSL, the trophy you raise is also the target on your back.

USWNT goalkeeper Phallon Tullis-Joyce, meanwhile, is proving off-seasons can be as eclectic as they are brief. The Manchester United keeper recently spent part of her vacation in Indonesia feeding Komodo dragons, part of a long-standing passion for wildlife conservation she detailed in an interview with The Athletic. From penalty boxes to predator enclosures, Tullis-Joyce illustrates the varied lives of today’s global players.

Between roster puzzles and reptile encounters, the women’s game has never been more compelling — or more complicated.