Red Bull Arena | Harrison, New Jersey – Sunday, June 4 at 6:00 PM ET
Players to watch:
Three of Gotham’s last six goals have been scored from outside the box, including defender Bruninha’s strike on Sunday. Only two of Gotham’s previous 29 regular season goals dating back to October 2021 were scored outside the box while only San Diego (4) has more goals from outside the box this season.
San Diego forward Alex Morgan scored six goals in her two matches against Gotham FC last season, scoring four times in May and two more times in June. The six goals against a single opponent equals the most in a season in NWSL history with Gotham’s Lynn Williams, who scored 6 times against Boston in 2016.
Match facts: Gotham FC hosts San Diego Wave FC in the lone match of Sunday’s action. Gotham FC is looking to build on a four game unbeaten run in the league, though most recently drawing 1-1 with Washington. Meanwhile, San Diego is unbeaten in three league matches and most recently drew 1-1 with Portland. Gotham still sits at the top of the league table with 17 points, while San Diego sits in 4th place with 16 points, behind only Portland and the Reign on goal differential.
Those 17 points have table-topping Gotham off to its best start since 2013, when it had 22 points after nine games. Gotham has conceded just six times over its last nine games in all competitions as well (W5 D3 L1), keeping four clean sheets in that time.
San Diego has won its last two road games, winning, 2-0, in Kansas City and 3-0 in Houston. A team has recorded three straight shutout wins on the road just four times in a single season in NWSL history, with the Thorns in July-August 2021 being the last to do so.
San Diego won both of its matches against Gotham FC last season by a combined score of 7-0. Only Portland over Orlando (8-0) had a larger margin of victory over the two regular season meetings in 2022.
Noted (via Jen Cooper, The Kicker):
- Forward Lynn Williams has 4 game-winning goals so far. The club (and league record) is 6, held by Midge Purce from 2021 (tied w/Crystal Dunn WAS 2015). The only player other than Purce to log 5 game-winners in one season was Sam Kerr (5 in 2017).
- Next game for forward Midge Purce will be her 100th in regular season play.
- Forward Alex Morgan has 58 regular season goals. Only 3 players have scored more – Sam Kerr 77, Lynn Williams 62, Christine Sinclair 60.
- Through week 9, only POR (23) and RGN (17) have scored more goals than San Diego (16).
