This morning in England, four professional women’s soccer teams — Arsenal, Corinthians, FAR Rabat, and Gotham FC — met in the inaugural FIFA Women’s Champions Cup.
There have been tournaments pitting the best international women’s club sides since at least 2018, when the North Carolina Courage beat Olympic Lyonnais in the final. The Lionesses, it must be said, won two of the four times the tournaments were played, and made every single championship final.
So, it shouldn’t have been a surprise that Gotham, your NWSL champions, did not look like themselves in playing their first game in anger of the 2026 season. Sure, they had U.S. national team stalwarts like Jaedyn Shaw and Rose Lavelle, but there was a frustrating lack of connectivity in the attacking third trying to break down a Corinthians defense who was seemingly happy to park the bus.
Eventually, seven minutes from time, it was Corinthians’ 40-year-old captain Gabi Zanotti who fired a late shot past Gotham goalie Ann-Katrin Berger to provide the margin of victory.
But what had to frustrate Gotham and many of its supporters if the fact that they had possession of the ball for perhaps 40 out of the 45 minutes of the second half, but could not force Leticia, the Corinthians’ goalkeeper, into an outstanding save. Nineteen of Gotham’s 21 shot attempts failed to find the goal frame.
Thing is, Corinthians hadn’t played a competitive match for just about as long as Gotham; their last game was the season-ender against Palmeiras four months ago.
I think Gotham may have thought they could have walked onto the ground and expected the opposition to fold like a napkin. Corinthians, to their eternal credit, didn’t do that.
Soccer’s the kind of game which has small margins, and even with the United States’ amazing success in the women’s game spanning the last 40 years, it is still possible for a determined opponent to come in and defeat the best team in one of the world’s most prominent leagues.
Perhaps this is the wakeup call the NWSL needs to end the salary cap and allow teams to spend as much as they wish?