Photo Credit: Mark Smith-Imagn Images
After a significant weather delay that ate up the game’s entire TV window on ABC, Seattle Reign opened up a two-goal lead at Icahn Stadium in New York, but allowed three NJ/NY Gotham FC goals in the final ten minutes plus stoppage time. As a result of one of the most dramatic comeback wins in club history, Gotham moves into first place in the National Women’s Soccer League standings.
Reign forward Mia Fishel opened the scoring in the 14th minute from the penalty spot after Maddie Mercado drew a foul in the box, marking Fishel’s first NWSL goal since joining Reign FC in August 2025 from Chelsea. Fishel became the 10th Reign FC player to score this season, tying Bay FC for the most players with at least one goal across the NWSL.
Mercado got her name directly on the scoresheet when she scored for the second straight match, doubling Seattle’s lead in the 22nd minute. She leads the Reign with four goals this season. Maddie Dahlien recorded the assist and got a chance to widen the lead with a penalty of her own in the 57th minute, but her effort banged off the post.
Gotham forward Esther González started the comeback in the 81st minute, finishing off a Jaedyn Shaw cross at the back post. The duo would combine again, four minutes into stoppage time, to equalize at two goals apiece, with Shaw chesting the ball down for González to finish at close range.
González’s brace set up a dramatic game-winner from former Reign midfielder Rose Lavelle in the eighth minute of stoppage time. Substitute Sam Kerr carried the ball into the penalty area, and the ball found the onrushing Lavelle, whose left-footed curler beat Seattle goalkeeper Cassie Miller.
Gotham FC rallied from two goals down at halftime to win in the regular season for the first time since August 19, 2017, against Seattle, when Kerr scored four goals in a 5-4 victory. That it came after a two-and-a-half-hour weather delay, three days after a rivalry win at Citi Field and after Seattle’s two-goal first half made it “extremely remarkable,” said Gotham FC coach Juan Carlos Amorós.
Defensively, Seattle were without stalwart veteran captain Sofia Huerta and starting goalkeeper Claudia Dickey. Dickey was available off the bench for the first time since picking up an injury while with the U.S. women’s national team in Brazil, but did not play. Jess Fishlock entered the match in the 83rd minute, making her return after missing seven matches with an injury suffered against Utah Royals FC on April 26.
