Red Bull Arena | Harrison, New Jersey – Saturday, April 1 at 7:30 PM ET
Players to watch:
Gotham FC forward Midge Purce notched a goal and assist in the win over Angel City on Sunday, leading an impressive Gotham side that brought back all three points from Los Angeles. The occasion marked Purce’s third career NWSL game with both a goal and an assist, with two of those coming in season openers (also 2022). Gotham’s other goalscorer was club debutant Lynn Williams, who was acquired in the offseason from the Kansas City Current. Her lone appearance for the side came in 81 minutes in the Challenge Cup against Louisville last year before her year was cut short due to injury.
Despite the Reign’s loss in its season opener last weekend, one of the bright spots was a landmark appearance for defender Lauren Barnes. Barnes played in her 190th regular season NWSL match, the most matches played by a single player in league history. Gotham’s McCall Zerboni is second in the category with 189 games played. As far as the match itself, forward Bethany Balcer registered a team high four shots and goalkeeper Phallon Tullis-Joyce made three saves and conceded just the one goal.
Match facts: Gotham FC opens up its 2023 home campaign against OL Reign on Saturday night with an impressive opening showing against Angel City FC bolstering the hosts, while OL Reign will be entering with motivations just as high following a season opening loss in Washington, D.C. to the Spirit.
Gotham FC’s 2-1 win over Angel City was the club’s first win after trailing at halftime since a 4-3 win over the Boston Breakers on September 30, 2017. Though the club conceded early on to ACFC, it steadied itself and saw the duo of Purce and Williams deliver the goals necessary to complete the comeback. The victory ended a 37-game winless streak when losing at halftime for Gotham, the third-longest such winless streak in NWSL history.
Meanwhile, OL Reign were shut out in their season opener, losing 1-0 to the Spirit despite having an expected goals (xG) value of 2.25 on 16 shots. It was the team’s highest xG in a match they were held scoreless since a 1-0 home loss in September 2019 to Sky Blue (2.72 xG), now Gotham FC. OL Reign were held scoreless in the NWSL Semi-finals, but before that had not been held scoreless since a 1-0 loss to Kansas City on July 17.
History has favored OL Reign in this fixture, with Saturday’s visitors earning five clean sheet in 11 road games all-time against Gotham FC, losing just three times in those matches (W5 D3). The only NWSL team to be shut out at home by a single opponent more than Gotham against the Reign is the Houston Dash (six times against both OL Reign and Portland).
