The news that outgoing Chelsea Women manager Emma Hayes will take charge of the USWNT from next summer (as has now been confirmed) may have dominated the headlines during the last week, but there was another major story breaking in the USA at the weekend as the 2023 NWSL Championship match took place, with a new name guaranteed to be on the trophy at the close of play as both OL Reign and NJ/NY Gotham locked horns in their quest for glory.
The game itself proved to be a fascinating contest for the neutral and a tense watch for fans of both teams, with each having moments when they were in control and moments when they were on the back foot, and both Reign head coach Laura Harvey and her Gotham counterpart Juan Carlos Amorós were forced to show tactical astuteness as the match went on in order to keep their sides in the ascendency.
In the end, though, it was Gotham who took the win and earned their moment in the spotlight, with Amorós’ game plan proving to be superior to Harvey’s. This tactical analysis will look at how his side managed to gain an edge over their opponents at Snapdragon Stadium (home of San Diego Wave) and how they went from the foot of the table to lifting the trophy in the space of a single campaign.
Lineups
OL Reign opted not to make any changes to their starting XI from last weekend’s tight semi-final win against San Diego at the same ground, with Harvey deciding that continuity was the best policy as she tried to give her team the strongest possible chance of getting their hands on the Championship trophy.
That meant that retiring winger Megan Rapinoe retained her place in the side as she looked to bow out with a first-ever NWSL Championship medal in her grasp, whilst fellow forward Veronica Latsko, who had scored the winning goal against the Wave, also kept her place. Lauren Barnes, normally a left-back, continued her partnership with Alana Cook in central defence, with OL still short of options in that area of the team.
NJ/NY Gotham also decided not to make any changes as Amorós went with the same XI that featured against Portland Thorns in their semi-final, although he did make a few tweaks to where some players started. Former Real Madrid Femenino striker Esther González switched from the deeper role that she had occupied at Providence Park to leading the line, whilst Yazmeen Ryan shifted inside the pitch and Lynn Williams moved to the wing, giving the team a more orthodox appearance in that players were featuring predominantly in their main positions.
NJ/NY Gotham’s midfield control
When dissecting NJ/NY Gotham’s game plan, several key concepts really helped them to get over the line, and it was clear that they had worked in the week on playing a certain way in order to take early control of the match and to put their opponents under pressure from the first whistle. The first of those that needs to be examined is their desire to control the central third, knowing that doing so would take a significant number of OL’s critical names out of action.
In its simplest form, the plan was for Gotham to keep as many players nearer the top of the field as possible whenever they had the ball, with their 4-1-4-1 shape designed to allow overloads in advanced areas. It was clear that Amorós wanted to pin the OL players as far back as he could and prevent them from moving forward and closing the spaces down.
The reason for this was that he wanted to give those in the middle as much time and space to operate as possible, allowing them to move the ball around the field and launch attacks from deeper positions. One player who proved essential to that was Nealy Martin.
Tasked with sitting in the hole between Gotham’s defensive and midfield lines, Martin’s responsibilities were wide-ranging, with her seen dropping into the back line when needed to facilitate a wider line when they were under pressure. Still, her main job was to dictate play from deep and to ensure that Gotham could keep progressing up the field whenever they had possession.
When looking at her pass map for this match, it is clear to see just how important she was in that regard, with her constantly drifting around the pitch and covering a large portion of the central third during the encounter.
The variety of directions that she passed the ball in is also important to note, as that indicates that she was not only sending the ball forward but making decisions about when it was appropriate to do so and when she needed to be more conservative and simply retain possession.
She will not necessarily attract the headlines, with the performances of Williams, Midge Purce and González likely to be the subject of most conversations in the coming days. Still, there is little doubt that Gotham would have found it a lot harder to execute their game plan without her being on the field, especially given that her presence was the reason that both Ryan and Delanie Sheehan, as the two advanced midfielders, were rarely required to track back in the first half and could instead focus on supporting what was happening ahead of them.
As mentioned, Amorós’ side could not keep their opponents back for the whole game, and there were times when the Seattle side could get into the middle and final third, especially once they had made a few tactical alterations.
However, it was very noticeable that Gotham were never phased by this, with them instead having a pre-agreed formula that allowed them to deal with their opponents when they progressed up the field.
As mentioned, they were always working on the basis that removing OL’s key passing options in the middle would hinder the Reign’s ability to ask any serious questions of them, and that was why their aggressive pressing of individual players whenever they did receive the ball, as Emily Sonnett has done here, was common to see. Now, the former Washington Spirit player, who has become a really effective midfielder after spending her career previously in the back line, is unable to turn and find a teammate and instead stands at significant risk of conceding possession, and that was why OL struggled initially to get into the game.
It should be mentioned that Harvey’s side did play into Gotham’s hands through them taking too long on the ball and giving Amorós’ team time to get around individuals in this way, and Sonnett was not the only one to fall foul of this pressing technique. However, the critical point is that Gotham had clearly worked on this tactic in the run-up to the Championship encounter, and it was another reason that their game plan looked stronger as an overall package than their opponents’ did.
OL did change things around in the second half. So Gotham were unable to sustain that superiority after the break, but that again didn’t concern them as they simply reverted to a counterattacking approach that had again been worked on by former Tottenham Hotspur Women co-head coach Amorós on the training ground, with him trying to make his side watertight whilst retaining their ability to test their opponents at the other end of the field.
Relinquishing control of the midfield was a risky approach, given that it allowed OL to control the flow of the match and to send long balls towards runners around the field. However, the organisation and teamwork that Gotham demonstrated was what allowed them to limit the effectiveness of those attacking chances, with Sonnett finding Rose Lavelle here, who in turn sends the ball forward for ex-PSG Féminine forward Jordyn Huitema to run onto, but the chance doesn’t come to anything as the Canada international is shepherded out of play by former Atlético Madrid Femenino player Maitane López.
Therefore, when looking at why Gotham managed to win this match, there is little doubt that their ability to control the central third was critical. Even though they did have to adopt a more defensive approach in the second half, their ability to work together and the clear understanding of what was expected at each stage ensured that they always had a chance of winning the match.
Lynn Williams
Another very noticeable thing about NJ/NY Gotham’s play, more so in the first half than the second, was their desire to ensure that Williams could play as centrally as possible despite being named on the wing. It was clear when looking at how they facilitated this that they had again worked on how to make this possible, with individual players having specific tactical instructions that meant that Williams was able to operate close to those in the middle and to exert the same goal threat as she has demonstrated throughout the 2023 campaign.
One of the things that Gotham knew was essential was covering the wings, with the risk being that Williams would leave that area of the pitch open as she tried to move towards the middle, giving OL an easy way out whenever they were under pressure.
In order to secure that channel, there was a straightforward idea planted into the system, in that the back line would slightly distort when they had the ball to the extent that the full-back on Williams’ side of the field, which was 2023 Rookie of the Year Jenna Nighswonger, would play further up the channel and would act almost as a winger, whilst the remainder of the back line would shift across to ensure that no gaps were left open.
This is again when having Martin in front of them and able to drop in when needed was vital, both because it meant that they didn’t always leave the other side of the pitch open but also because it meant that they could retain the four-player line that they needed whenever the ball was lost, and Nighswonger was unable to get back in time.
Whilst that then allowed Williams to move infield, creating the attacking threat from her that they wanted from her, it is essential to note that setting up this way also greatly benefitted Nighswonger and played to her individual strengths, too, in that she has demonstrated during her debut NWSL campaign that she is a dependable player who can create chances through accurate crosses from the wing. She has proven to be a dangerous player to leave in spaces such as this.
Therefore, whilst the focus was on Williams here, it was clear that it benefitted the whole team to distort the shape in this way, which was another reason they could take control of the match from its early stages.
When examining Gotham’s tactics in advanced areas during the last few match weeks, what has been clear to see is that there is a desire for someone to sit in the hole behind the leading target player or players and to ensure that loose balls can be picked up and goalscoring opportunities that may have been previously squandered are being converted at the second time of asking.
This has become more prominent ever since Amorós dipped into the European transfer market over the summer to add González and the aforementioned López to his squad, with the former showing on plenty of occasions last season in the Spanish capital just how potent she is in the final third and how alert she is to where she can make a run and affect a game.
Having that sharpness of mind is one of the reasons that Gotham have managed to introduce this extra tactical detail to their play, but what has really made it work so effectively is that it has not always been the same players who have been deployed in that role. Instead, positional rotation has been prominent when Gotham have been inside the final third, with the player named in that deeper role changing both between and during matches.
This is why it was mentioned at the beginning of the analysis that Amorós didn’t make any changes to his starting XI but did alter a few players’ starting positions, and it really depends on how he wants to play as to who is handed which role. In this match, the aim was clearly to use González’s pace and ability to stretch opponents to take defenders out of the way of the ball and to create spaces for those behind, allowing Williams to test her luck once she had got into the middle channel.
It was a plan that worked to perfection and which directly resulted in Gotham’s opening goal, with Purce showing good speed and skill with the ball to beat three OL opponents on the far side of the field before entering the goal area, whilst González made a forward movement that attracted the attention of both Cook and right-back Sofia Huerta and allowed Williams to meet the pass from Purce and to turn it into the net.
It was a goal that was simple in its execution but which only came about because each element that went into constructing it came off. From this moment, it was clear why Williams had been tasked with getting as central as possible and why so many aspects of Gotham’s tactics had been built around enabling her to do so.
OL Reign’s tactical changes
Whilst the analysis has focused on NJ/NY Gotham’s game plan and why they won this match, it is essential to examine the part played by OL Reign in making the contest such a tactically interesting and absorbent one. They can be pleased about several aspects of their play, knowing that there were things that let them down on the day.
What was clear from the very early minutes was that Harvey’s side had set their sights on playing long balls and on trying to exploit the gaps behind Gotham’s defenders, with the newly crowned champions setting up with a very high backline and giving the Seattle club a significant amount of territory to target whenever they had the ball.
There were plenty of attempts by the Reign to unlock those areas of the pitch, but they rarely led to anything due to Gotham’s ability to get underneath the ball and win it before it could land at the feet of an attacker. This was because, with the ball hanging in the air whilst in transit, the Gotham defenders, in particular the central defensive partnership of López and Ali Krieger (the latter of whom was also playing her final match before retirement), had plenty of time to get into the right position and to thwart their opponents’ attempts to breach their line constantly.
It was for this reason that OL changed as the first half went on and tried to play with quicker transitions, with the ball staying on the ground more and players using sequences of one or two-touch passes in order to keep it moving, and that did have the desired effect in that it instantly made it a lot harder for Gotham to keep them out.
It was also at that point that the aforementioned high line became more of a liability for Amorós’ side, with this situation showing how forward Bethany Balcer, who had come on for Rapinoe following the latter’s sixth-minute injury, has been able to control the ball and to exploit a gap in the line then to give Lavelle something to run onto. This chance led to OL’s equaliser and came just a few minutes after Williams’ opener, so it shows how making that tweak did allow OL to challenge Gotham in ways that they weren’t as comfortable dealing with, and it was for this reason that they ended the first half as arguably the better team.
Harvey clearly wanted more, though, as she continued to indicate her tactical flexibility during the second half, with another change seeing OL press with a greater intensity from the front as they tried to increase the pressure on Gotham’s defenders.
However, it wasn’t only about pressing as one unit, with the Reign going in turn as they tried to ensure that the ball was played into positions where they would have the advantage. In this case, Balcer has closed down Gotham goalkeeper Mandy Haught here before Lavelle and Huitema, who have hung back, have targeted Brazil right-back Bruninha in the second phase, with the intention of pinning the ball close to the sideline and increasing the chance of it being knocked out of play by Gotham in a promising area for OL.
In this case, Gotham did manage to play their way out of danger. Still, it was clear from the way that they took to it so quickly that OL had worked on this tactic during the build-up to their trip to California and always had it in reserve in case they needed to turn to it, showing again how there were positives for them to take despite ending up without the trophy in their hands.
When looking at what let the Reign down, several things need to be considered, including their slow start, their inability to penetrate Gotham’s block as the game was drawing to a close, the number of players who didn’t have their best performances (such as Wales midfielder Jess Fishlock, who was kept very quiet during her time on the field) and the mistakes that they made during the match.
It is the latter that enabled Gotham to stay in control of things even when it looked like they were under pressure, with OL making plenty of loose passes that led to Gotham launching counterattacks or regaining the ball too cheaply and showing a general lack of organisation as the game went on. There were moments when they worked together as a team, such as when they instigated the press shown previously, but there were also moments when players simply didn’t talk to each other, like here when Lavelle and Balcer tried to win the same ball and ended up colliding with each other.
This was an unfortunate moment and, to some, perhaps, a comical one, but it really summed up how there was a disconnect in their ranks and how that hindered their play. Contrast it with the way that Gotham were set up and worked together both with and without the ball, and it is clear to see just how detrimental this was to OL’s hopes of lifting the trophy and of giving Rapinoe the perfect parting gift.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this tactical analysis has looked in detail at the 2023 NWSL Championship match between OL Reign and NJ/NY Gotham, breaking down the tactics that helped the latter to their first-ever title and the reasons that the former finished as runners-up.
Throughout the analysis, it has been apparent just how Gotham’s game plan was critical to their success, with there being no overcomplicated strategies and instead a few simple ideas that had been worked on in training and which were executed well as a result. Amorós does deserve a lot of credit for that, and also for his hard work throughout the season, with him performing what could be described as a minor miracle in that he took over a team that had finished bottom of the pile in 2022 and had turned them into champions.
For OL, they will know when reflecting on the way that the game went that this was a chance missed, and it would be fair to say that they were perhaps rattled by the early loss of Rapinoe and the fact that they couldn’t call on her experience as the game went on when they needed it most. They will also be aggrieved at some of the refereeing decisions that didn’t go their way, with Harvey making it clear from her reactions on the sidelines that she was not happy with some of the calls being made.
However, they will also know that they were second best for large parts of this match and that, despite it being a topsy-turvy affair, the better team did come out on top. They will have other chances to secure their first Championship title, starting with next year, but it just wasn’t to be this time around.
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