No. 5 Gotham FC lifted another trophy on Friday, taking down No. 6 Kansas City 2-0 in Columbus, Ohio to win its first-ever NWSL Challenge Cup.
In a sometimes chippy affair, Gotham forward Esthér opened the scoring from the penalty spot just before halftime, before rookie Jordynn Dudley called her own second-half shot to secure the title.
“She’s such a winner, and she has the mentality,” Gotham manager Juan Carlos Amoros said of Dudley. “She does that from a humbling position to put the team first and produces on both sides of the ball.”
With the regular season resuming this weekend, the neutral-site match gave both mid-table teams a head start coming out of the midseason break.
“It gives us a good bite,” said Current defender Izzy Rodriguez. “Coming off of a loss, you don’t like that feeling. So now to carry that into the rest of the season, I think it’ll only help us.”
“A final lives its own life — you never know what to expect,” said Gotham FC defender Guro Reiten. “We punished them in two good moments, and that’s all we needed today.”
Where to Watch the NWSL This Week
The NWSL returns Friday, as No. 4 Washington faces No. 11 Houston at 8 PM ET, live on Victory+.
