After Final Season’s Trophy Double, Gotham Seeks Success on the World Stage

has achieved sustained success in constructing right into a powerhouse within the .

After main the Bats and CONCACAF W Champ final season, the 41-year-old Spanish head coach seems to be to additional improve the membership’s popularity overseas forward of the inaugural 2026 FIFA Ladies’s Champions Cup.

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Amoros and his workers have prioritized small steps in pursuit of bigger membership targets. His detailed game-by-game strategy is much like the philosophy of supervisor Diego Simeone, who typically makes use of the phrase “partido a partido” (Spanish for recreation by recreation) to explain the mindset that he instills into his crew.

“We attempt to concentrate on the day-to-day,” Amoros stated throughout Friday’s media convention. “We all know that if we take pleasure in ourselves and carry out higher, then we’re going to have the ability to win the quick time period and win in the long run.

“I believe typically we don’t attempt to focus an excessive amount of on outcomes. We all know we need to win the championship, we all know we need to win the FIFA Champions Cup, however proper now we concentrate on how we are able to get one step nearer, how we could be higher tomorrow, how we could be higher the day after. I believe that’s what retains us going, and on the similar time, it’s about having fun with that course of. Whenever you put an excessive amount of concentrate on simply the end result, then you definitely overlook concerning the steps. The steps are literally pleasing as properly.”

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Amoros Has Ushered in a Trophy-Laden Period for Gotham

Gotham FC head coach Juan Carlos Amoros walks out to the sector in opposition to the Houston Sprint in a NWSL recreation at Sports activities Illustrated Stadium. Lucas Boland-Imagn ImagesLucas Boland-Imagn Pictures

Since taking cost of Gotham forward of the 2023 season, Amoros has led Gotham to 2 NWSL Championships and one CONCACAF W Champions Cup title. He turned the membership’s most profitable coach inside a span of three seasons.

Final yr, he turned the primary coach in NWSL historical past to win home and continental trophies in a single season. His 74 regular-season video games coached surpassed Jim Gabarra (66) for essentially the most in Gotham’s historical past.

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Amoros is coming into his fourth season with Gotham with the chance to repeat as NWSL and CONCACAF W Champions Cup champions. The Bats will quickly compete within the semifinal spherical of the FIFA Ladies’s Champions Cup in late January and can welcome the Kansas Metropolis Present at Sports activities Illustrated Stadium for the NWSL Problem Cup on February 20.

“I all the time say you attempt to win a title for months or years, and also you truly win it when the referee blows the whistle on the remaining second,” Amoris stated. “It’s only a second, however it’s important to take pleasure in on a regular basis till that second after which be able to do it once more. That’s the character of who we’re – particularly having fun with each day.”

Gotham enters 2026 with the prospect to compete for 4 trophies with the FIFA Ladies’s Champions Cup and NWSL Problem Cup as well as .

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“Now, perpetually, we’re going to be the primary champions of the continent at membership stage, and we need to do the identical on the world stage,” Amoros said.

Gotham Might Make Historical past as First-Ever NWSL Membership To Win Quadruple

Gotham FC celebrates their NWSL Championship victory. (Gotham FC)Gotham FC

If all the pieces breaks proper for Gotham, they may make unprecedented historical past. No NWSL franchise has achieved a single-season trophy quadruple. The Bats may emulate ladies’s European golf equipment like Barcelona, Arsenal and Chelsea, who’ve received 4 or extra trophies in a single season.

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“It’s been hard-fought to get the assets and recognition the membership has now, however I believe we’re higher for it,” defender Mandy Freeman stated. “The membership is de facto pushing not solely the soccer side, but in addition the worldwide side of who we need to be among the many remainder of the groups.

Yearly is a push. Yearly is a drive – desirous to develop, desirous to be higher.”

Gotham has begun preseason coaching in Sotogrande, Spain, in preparation for the FIFA Ladies’s Champions Cup, which can happen in London.

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The Bats will open the event in opposition to Brazilian membership Corinthians on January 28 at Gtech Group Stadium in Brentford, London. Ought to Gotham advance, they may face the winner of Arsenal and Moroccan membership AS FAR within the event’s February 1 remaining at Emirates Stadium.

Amoros acknowledges .

“The starvation they need to win is unbelievable,” Amoros said. “It’s of their nature. They win one competitors, and so they’re already excited about the following one.

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“Once I got here right here, I needed to depart a legacy, and the scenario the membership and the crew had been in wasn’t excellent. I need to be remembered as a great one who’s been at a soccer membership and helped make it higher. I believe thus far we’ve been in a position to obtain that.

“Clearly, we’ve made historical past with the trophies and success we’ve had at membership stage, but in addition at a person growth stage. It’s changing into increasingly actual. If you happen to had advised me once I was beginning my fourth yr that we’d be competing on the world stage with Gotham, I’d have stated that was the goal.”

Freeman has been important to the profitable setting that Gotham has constructed. At age 30, she is the longest-tenured participant within the group’s historical past and is coming into her tenth season with the membership.

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“The depth of coaching — we’ve picked up the place we left off,” Freeman stated. “There was no actual reentry. We simply hit the bottom operating with the [FIFA Women’s Champions Cup] developing actually quickly.

“We’re not happy. We received the championship, however we’re not happy with the place we ended within the standings, and that’s one thing we undoubtedly need to enhance this yr. That begins now – constructing the inspiration not just for profitable this competitors, however carrying that over into the season.”

Bats Convey 29-Participant Roster to Europe

Gotham FC ahead Sarah Schupansky and midfielder Rose Lavelle prepare earlier than the opening kick in opposition to Bay FC at Sports activities Illustrated Stadium. John Jones-Imagn ImagesJohn Jones-Imagn Pictures

Gotham has assembled a 29-player roster for the preseason. The years in parenthesis characterize the participant’s contract expiry.

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Goalkeepers (3): Ann-Katrin Berger (2026), Ryan Campbell (2028), Shelby Hogan (2026)

Defenders (8): Bruninha (2027), Jess Carter (2026), Tierna Davidson (2027), Kayla Duran** (2026), Mandy Freeman (2026), Kat Jordan*, Lilly Reale (2027), Emily Sonnett (2026)

Midfielders (10): Sofia Prepare dinner (2026), Josefine Hasbo (2027), Jaelin Howell (2027), Rose Lavelle (2026), Savannah McCaskill (2026), Stella Nyamekye (2027), Sarah Schupansky (2027), Jaedyn Shaw (2029), Talia Sommer (2026), Taryn Torres (2027)

Forwards (8): Princess Ademiluyi (2029), Esther González (2027), Khyah Harper (2026), Andrea Kitahata (2026), Gabi Portilho (2026), Midge Purce (2026), Katie Stengel** (2026), Mak Whitham (2028)

* Non-roster invitee

** Contract expires following the conclusion of the 2026 FIFA Ladies’s Champions Cup

Freeman understands her function of serving as a veteran chief who units the usual for younger gamers to comply with. Her veteran affect can positively impression and ahead Andrea Kitahata as they modify to Amoros’ enjoying type and the calls for that include becoming a member of the reigning NWSL champions.

“Which means getting the brand new gamers we have now in camp on board with our enjoying type, the connection and the tradition of the crew and fixing the little issues we felt may have improved our standings final yr as properly,” Freeman stated.

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Amoros, his workers and veteran gamers like Freeman, captain Tierna Davidson, longtime defender Emily Sonnett and skilled goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger have laid the groundwork for Gotham’s success by way of sheer consideration to element.

Little particulars and small steps have added as much as championships as Gotham seeks to entrench itself among the many world’s most profitable ladies’s soccer groups.

This story was initially revealed by on Jan 9, 2026, the place it first appeared within the part. Add Athlon Sports activities as a

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