Gotham take NWSL Championship victory lap to New York City Hall, celebrate surprise title: 'Underdog my ass'

NEW YORK – Three hours of sleep before a Monday morning report time of 10:00 a.m. is usually a recipe for disaster, but for Gotham FC, the hard work was already done. While New Yorkers quite literally scurried to work and school, Gotham players and staff boarded an open top bus near City Hall less than 48 hours after winning their second NWSL Championship, the signs of their triumph clear to see. Trophy and winners' medals? Open top bus? Check. Sunglasses to mask the sight of fatigue and the fireball shots that, at the very least, Championship MVP Rose Lavelle and general manager Yael Averbuch West had taken in that morning? Check.

It was a fitting return to New York for Gotham, who had won the title in likely "the toughest way to get there," according to midfielder Jaelin Howell. They entered the playoffs as the lowest-ranked team and knocked off the Kansas City Current, who won the NWSL Shield in record-setting fashion this season, reigning champions Orlando Pride and perennial favorites Washington Spirit to claim the title. Gotham were an atypical No. 8 seed – Jaedyn Shaw's famous "Underdog my ass" quote was repeated twice on Monday, including by the player herself, and referenced by outgoing mayor Eric Adams. The team's tangible quality stood out during their playoff run, anchored by a rigid defense that limited the Spirit to zero shots on target on Saturday in San Jose and the individual brilliance of both Shaw and Lavelle. At City Hall, though, the intangibles were celebrated.

This year's NWSL Championship is Gotham's first since transitioning from a plucky underdog to a super team, boasting the accolades to back up the label. They have reached the NWSL playoff semifinals in each of the last three seasons and Saturday's trophy lift was not their first this season – they won the inaugural edition of the Concacaf W Champions Cup in May, securing their spot in January's first-ever FIFA Women's Champions Cup. It comes as little surprise that a star-studded team would reach these heights on skill alone but as Gotahm's players looked back at a successful campaign, the immeasurable aspects of their talents stood out.

"I think we talked about just our grit and our never say die mentality," Howell said, recalling that each of Gotham's four postseason goals were scored in the 68th minute or later. "I think we have a lot of experienced players that have played in very big games and know how to manage games and credit to everybody just for sticking to it and our coaching staff for coming up with the game plans to keep us in the game until we have our star show up and show out, and so I'm just really happy for them and for the whole team."

Unity was a running theme of Gotham's celebratory remarks especially for minority investor Carolyn Tisch Blodget, who joined the ownership group in late 2022 and has taken a more hands-on role after their 2023 NWSL Championship.

"From my perspective, the biggest thing that I felt like was missing last year was I, as an owner, never really defined our culture." Tisch Blodget said. "We went really deep and built out what our mission was, what our vision was, what our values were and we quite literally spray-painted them all over the office and now we know any time somebody is joining Gotham, whether it's a new ticketing person, whether it's a new player, they know what they're joining in Gotham."

The word "family" continued to pop up, Lavelle poignantly remarking at City Hall that "when you get to do what you love with people you love, it makes the journey that much sweeter." True to form, Gotham have a weird family tradition in their embrace of "Feliz Navidad" – the Christmas song blared out as confetti poured on the players on Monday morning, an anthem they adopted back in late summer.

"Honestly, we played in the locker room because the Spanish girls always want Spanish music and I think that's the only one they could come up with that has English in it, too," Howell said, "so then we would just play every time we won and then it just became this thing so now we go crazy every time it comes on."

Gotham's trip to City Hall, though, is the result of several different successful journeys all coming together in the same place at the same time. The victory lap in New York is well-earned on both a collective and individual basis, this year's triumph serving as a catalyst for growth in multiple forms.

Jaelin Howell's big week

For Howell, her first NWSL Championship was sandwiched between a call-up to the U.S. women's national team and her flight to Orlando following the City Hall celebrations. The midfielder could earn her first international cap since 2022 in the USWNT's year-end friendlies with Italy, a fitting reward for a strong first season with Gotham.

"It's honestly surreal, but I'm just so blessed," Howell said. "I think it's been, I would say a lot of trials the past couple years and so honestly this year, everything coming together, like I said, it's just amazing. All the hard work behind the scenes, coming out on top and so just really grateful and all of them and the club to take a chance on me, where I feel like home and for all to come together."

The 26-year-old Howell, a prospect with the USWNT when she last played for the team, has found an ideal landing spot after spending the early years of her career with Racing Louisville and embarking on a brief stint with the Seattle Reign last year.

"I think [head coach] Juan [Carlos Amoros] has had this undenying belief in me and I feel like I honestly haven't really had that," she said. "He's helped with my confidence. All the coaches just doing little extra things for me bringing me in. I think also just the world-class players I get to play with every day and learn from -- [Emily] Sonnett and Rose [Lavelle], getting to play with them, Jess [Carter] and Ann[-Katrin Berger] and Esther [Gonzalez], being able to play with that caliber of player has really excelled my game and I've just tried to soak up every moment and learn from them and so I think it's just a combination of all of that but I think it's also the most joy I've had playing soccer in a very long time and so I think that's honestly what a lot of people close to me see when I play is just the joy that I have right now."

NWSL 'building something great'

Gotham may be a two-time NWSL champion but they were first-time visitors to City Hall on Monday, the club correcting course after a missed opportunity in 2023 to host any large celebration after a surprise title-winning run.

"Being able to celebrate like this was the single most important thing to me, personally," Tisch Blodget said. "When we came in, obviously we had just come in as new owners, but that was a complete failure of the organization to not be able to celebrate like the team deserved. Our chief business officer who has worked with me for many years, we started planning this on November 24th of 2023. … Our marketing team, our business team, pulled literal heroics to make this day happen, but it was critical to us that our fans got to celebrate. It was critical to us that every single one of our players got to be here and so we pulled it off."

Tisch Blodget said she also received the congratulations of other owners around the league in being able to pull off the trip to City Hall, describing them as colleagues that further validates her decision to invest in Gotham three years ago.

"I think the thing that I have been impressed by the most, that I think has given me the most assurance that we are building something great, is the group of owners sitting around the board table." she said. "Every single owner believes in what we are building, knows that it's going to be a long, hard journey to get there and this is not an overnight success, but that we are building something special, that when we all look back in 10, 15 years, we will all say, 'Wow, remember we know and knew what the NWSL was?' And that's a really shared belief so obviously we're competitors on the field but we are all business partners at the end of the day."

Tisch Blodget also expressed her confidence in commissioner Jessica Berman, acting as one of the owners who recently gave the green light to extend Berman's deal by three years.

"Jessica brought tremendous stability to this league," she said. "Everything that happened, we were not owners in the league when everything happened, but Jessica has brought real stability. I think she's built incredible relationships with our media partners, with our brand partners and as I said before, I think really helped bring in a group of owners that were like-minded in their belief, willing to invest and willing to really build something together. I think she listens, she is honest and really hears all sides and is so committed to building this league into what we all believe it can be."

The executive, who is a member of the Tisch family that has a stake in the NFL's New York Giants, said a busy offseason is ahead for her and Gotham's fellow investors, who generally work harder during the NWSL's break than on matchdays. A busy period awaits for the league as a whole – the NWSL faces an existential question about the salary cap, which is reportedly hindering the league's ability to keep its biggest star in Trinity Rodman.

"I can only speak for myself," Tisch Blodget said. "We are currently, I think, the best league in the world. We want to continue to be the best league in the world. That requires having the best stars and it's a competitive global game, which is great. I think competition makes us all better, but we all need to recognize what that's going to take to continue to be the best."