Lavelle Eyes Potential Season Debut vs. Kansas City

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NWSL NJ/NY Gotham FC

Lavelle Eyes Potential Season Debut vs. Kansas City

June 7, 2025 - National Women's Soccer League (NWSL)
NJ/NY Gotham FC News Release


One of the best creative midfielders on the planet is available on the substitutes bench for the first time this season when Gotham FC faces off today against the league-leading Kansas City Current at Sports Illustrated Stadium.

World Cup winner and Olympic gold medalist Rose Lavelle could make her much-anticipated 2025 season debut as one of the nine players named as reserves in coach Juan Carlos Amorós's team. The 30-year-old Cincinnati native missed the first 10 matches of the campaign - and the two-month preseason - while recovering from ankle surgery.

Amorós's starting lineup otherwise includes two changes from the Gotham FC XI that helped deliver the inaugural Concacaf W Champions Cup title in Monterrey, Mexico, on May 24, with Nealy Martin and Ella Stevens re-entering the frame after coming off the bench in both matches at Estadio Universitario.

Today's match will be nationally broadcast on CBS. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m.

Returning to league play for its first game since May 16, Gotham FC (3-4-3, 12 points) is aiming for its first win since April 26 at Washington - and its first win ever against the Current. To get there, Amorós kept a familiar setup across his front line, with the in-form Spanish striker Esther González leading the line with an NWSL-best seven goals.

Wingers Geyse and Midge Purce will partner up front with González, two weeks after the trio accounted for three of Gotham's four goals at the Concacaf W Champions Cup semifinals and final (and González's shot ricocheted in for an own goal and the team's fourth goal in Mexico).

Stevens joins Jaelin Howell and Taryn Torres in the midfield, with Howell working toward her 11th consecutive 90-minute performance. This marks a seventh start this season for Stevens and 22nd in a Gotham FC shirt, looking for her second career goal against the Current.

The reworked back line accounts for Jess Carter's absence. Mandy Freeman will wear the captain's arm band again after becoming the third captain in club history to win a trophy, joining elite company in Ali Krieger and Christie Rampone. Martin, Lilly Reale and Emily Sonnett round out the grouping.

German goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger has the chance to register her third shutout in the last five matches in making her 33rd consecutive start for Gotham FC.

The substitutes bench includes goalkeepers Ryan Campbell; defenders Bruninha and Emerson Elgin; midfielders Sofia Cook, Rose Lavelle, Stella Nyamekye and Sarah Schupansky; and forwards Khyah Harper and Mak Whitham.

Goalkeeper Shelby Hogan; defenders Jess Carter and Tierna Davidson; and forwards Gabi Portilho were previously listed as out on the NWSL player availability report.

Gotham FC lineup vs. Kansas City Current

30 - Ann-Katrin Berger (GK)

22 - Mandy Freeman (c)

14 - Nealy Martin

6 - Emily Sonnett

4 - Lilly Reale

7 - Jaelin Howell

8 - Taryn Torres

13 - Ella Stevens

23 - Midge Purce

9 - Esther González

10 - Geyse

Substitutes: 12 - Ryan Campbell (GK); 3 - Bruninha, 11 - Sarah Schupansky, 16 - Rose Lavelle, 17 - Mak Whitham, 21 - Sofia Cook, 24 - Emerson Elgin, 34 - Khyah Harper, 90 - Stella Nyamekye

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