No W Champions Cup repeat for Gotham FC after rough loss to Club América

Gotham FC suffered a heavy defeat that ended any hope of repeating as Concacaf W Champions Cup winners, falling 4-1 to Club América in the semifinals.

Club América forward Scarlett Camberos scored a hat trick, while former Gotham player Geyse picked up a hat trick of assists. Esther González did draw Gotham level early in the second half with a well-taken goal following a neat assist from Jaedyn Shaw, but that was only a temporary reprieve, as Gotham conceded Camberos's second just 10 minutes after Esther equalized and América never looked back from there.

This was the most goals Gotham conceded in a match since losing to Portland Thorns FC by this same scoreline on April 22, 2025, in a NWSL regular-season match, a span of 41 competitive games without conceding this many.

A struggle like this does not come along often, especially not during the 2026 season. Gotham kept seven clean sheets across their first 10 league games this season and has only conceded five times across those games, but this loss to Club América was different for many reasons.

The four matches in this final stage of the W Champions Cup are all being played in Pachuca, Mexico, at the Estadio Hidalgo, which is at nearly 8,000 feet above sea level, one of the highest-elevation venues that hosts soccer in Mexico.

Altitude, fatigue, bad breaks

Playing at elevation and playing at midweek, five days after facing Seattle Reign FC in the Pacific Northwest, seemed to all weigh on Gotham. Club América repeatedly found joy on the counterattack and in transition throughout this match, beginning with their opening 21st-minute goal.

Geyse, who made 17 appearances for Gotham in NWSL last season while on loan there from Manchester United, was a constant threat going forward, and her ability to stretch the Gotham backline and find her teammate Camberos with passes to run onto in open space created the first two goals América scored.

The legs and the organization at the back didn't seem to be there for Gotham in this semifinal. Their defenders were too often pulled out of position or caught too far upfield once América regained possession and got out on the counter. Recovery runs for Gotham players looked like a struggle, with fatigue and altitude weighing them down.

The solid defensive structure and stinginess in front of goal that had defined Gotham's early-season performances disappeared in Pachuca, and some bad luck mixed in, too, given that América was awarded a penalty kick to make it a 4-1 lead on a foul by Gotham's Khyah Harper that clearly occurred outside the 18-yard box — yet there is no VAR in this competition, so there was no way for the incorrect call made by referee Marianela Araya to be addressed.

That was a cherry on top of a foul-tasting sundae as far as Gotham was concerned, but just another thing that didn't go right at midweek in Mexico.

AKB injury concern

Bigger than the result might be the worry that now lingers around goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger after she was forced out of the match at halftime following a heavy collision with América's Scarlett Camberos.

Berger took a heavy kick while challenging to make a save to deny Camberos another goal, and the Gotham keeper then remained down for a while receiving treatment as the half ended. Gotham coach Juan Carlos Amorós telling the media after the match that there was no update on Berger's condition, but that the goalkeeper had to go to the hospital to receive further treatment.

Berger is one of the world and league's best, and is a major part of why Gotham leads NWSL in goal prevention, placing second among NWSL goalkeepers with a 82.8% save percentage, second with 0.50 goals against per-90 minutes, and leading all goalkeepers with seven clean sheets.

Gotham has already been operating without start midfielder Rose Lavelle (hamstring), and with multiple defenders — Lilly Reale, Emily Sonnett, Bruninha, Mandy Freeman, Kayla Duran — injured or just now slowly recovering from injuries. Losing their security blanket in goal would be a tough injury to add to a tough performance against Club América.

A quintessentially Concacaf tournament

Gotham won this tournament a year ago in what was its first-ever edition, but the best they can finish this time is Third Place, as they'll now play CF Pachuca on Saturday at 6:00 pm ET in a bronze-medal match.

The way Concacaf approached this tournament in its first two editions created some weirdness, as the last match Gotham played as part of this competition before the loss to Club América was way back on October 1, 2025, when Gotham and Washington Spirit played to a 0-0 draw, enough for each team to qualify for the finals in Pachuca. That's a significant gap in the calendar between W Champions Cup matches, something Concacaf says will be fixed when a revamped version of this tournament debuts in late 2027.

This week will be Gotham's last Concacaf W Champions Cup action for some time, as there will not be another edition of the tournament that begins later in 2026 and finishes in 2027.

Concacaf instead will wait until next August to launch a wholly new format featuring 11 clubs, one that transitions to a decentralized, knockout-only approach, eliminating the group stage and centralized Finals, instead replacing them with single-leg preliminary matches in order to advance to two-legged ties, home and away, in the Quarterfinals and Semifinals, before a single one-off Final crowns a champion. 

After becoming NWSL Champions again in November 2025, you'd think Gotham would qualify automatically for the next tournament, but even that isn't entirely clear-cut. ESPN's Jeff Kassouf reports that the qualification requirements for the new 2027 tournament are not yet clear, with US Soccer needing to "...figure out 3 spots in Concacaf WCC for 2027 from 2025 AND 2026 NWSL Shield + Championship winners, plus factor '26-27 USL Super League winners."

Figuring all those details out is significant, because the Concacaf W Champions Cup is also meant to provide qualification to FIFA's new Women's Club World Cup, which will make its debut sometime in 2028.

Right now, the W Champions Cup feels a little half-baked, played without VAR and with its finals commencing seven months after the competing teams qualified, and requiring United States-based clubs like Gotham and Washington Spirit to deal with extensive international travel at midweek to eventually crown a champion.

That champion won't be Gotham, as América will face Washington Spirit, which beat Pachuca 1-0, to crown a new continental champion.