It’s a matchup between the defending NWSL champions and the only team in the league with a perfect record from the start.
It’s a matchup between Gotham FC’s large U.S. Women’s National Team squad and former captain Vlatko Andonovski, who is returning to the NWSL as head coach of the Kansas City Current.
And Eli Manning vs. Patrick Mahomes.
Yes, on Sunday night at Red Bull Arena during Gotham’s regular-season home opener (6 p.m., MSG), the NFL quarterbacks will be bragging about each other — Manning is a Gotham investor. Mahomes and his wife Brittany are co-owners of Current.
“Hey Mahomes! You might have this one more than me,” Manning said in a video posted to social media this week while flashing two Giants Super Bowl rings. i don’t think so. “
He then flashed the rings that Gotham’s players will receive during the post-game ceremony to commemorate the 2023 title.
Ali Krieger, who retired after winning a trophy as team captain, will also be joining in the celebrations.
“It’s important to know where we’re going, and we need to know where we’re coming from,” Gotham head coach Juan Carlos Amoros said Friday. “We come from being champions of this league and we want to be there next year.” [for] This season. ”
Gotham’s campaign got off to a shaky start after a lot of turnover in the offseason.
Two 1-0 draws before last weekend’s international break, with Amoros unable to play in a star-studded first-choice line-up due to injury (Rose Lovell and Lynn Williams remain sidelined on Sunday). .
That’s as well as Gotham’s free agent additions of Crystal Dunn, Teanna Davidson and Emily Sonnette, who coached them with the USWNT from 2019 to the failed 2023 World Cup. This will be a reunion with Mr. Andonovsky.
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“I’m actually very happy for them,” Andonovski said Friday. “They are there.” [a] Good environment. I know that that environment will help them grow going forward and I wish them success in every game they play, with the exception of Sunday’s game.”
Compared to Gotham’s two low-scoring games, the Currents (3-0-0) were a fireworks show, scoring 11 goals (by nine different players) and allowing seven goals.
“I know they were very effective offensively, but they had some problems at the back and conceded some goals,” Amoros said. “But they obviously play an aggressive style and so do we.”
Sunday’s game will be the first of nine to be broadcast locally on the MSG Network this season. And for Gotham, which adopted a 4-3-4 at home en route to conquering the hardware a year ago, this is the first chance “to make this year’s Red Bull Arena into a fortress,” as Amoros puts it. is.
“We’re going to get that ring one way or another. We’ve already won,” Amoros said. “We’ve got to try to take it with a bigger smile on our faces. That’s going to happen if we can be ourselves, play our style and beat Kansas City.”