soccer
The offseason was full of superteam chatter as a result of reinforcements, but Gotham FC relied on its returning star Saturday night.
Gotham earned its second win of the season despite another quiet showing on offense with a 1-0 victory over the visiting Carolina Courage at Red Bull Stadium.
Star forward Lynn Williams, healthy after missing the first three games of the season with a thigh injury, made a quick throw and scored the only rebound of the game in the 11th minute off an Ella Stevens shot. I scored a goal.
Anne-Katrin Berger, acquired from Chelsea in April, started for the second game in a row and made five saves to protect the win.
Her best stop came in the 27th minute, when Courage's Narumi Miura fired a shot to the left, but Berger made a diving save to deflect it.
After Jenna Neiswonger took a shot from Courage's Ashley Sanchez in the middle, Gotham carried the ball to the back of the field and Stevens found an opening to shoot, but it was blocked but deflected by Williams. He scored his first goal of the season.
Williams had high hopes for Gotham from the beginning, but after scoring just three goals in the first six games of the season, he probably had high hopes for more.
Early on, Esther González's header led to a breakthrough on the left side.
Williams' shot was quickly saved for a corner kick, but Emily Sonnett's header was too high to convert.
Courage had an early scare when Denis O'Sullivan found Ashley Sanchez in the center and took an open shot, but Berger stopped it.
The first few minutes hinted at the rest, with Gotham (2-2-2) scrambling for the ball trying to find a second goal that never came.
More surprising attempts occurred in the second half, with Sanchez firing a right-footed shot from the center in the 57th minute that was caught by Berger.
In the 79th minute, Sanchez's right-handed shot went narrowly wide, then was saved by the post in a late scare, but he ran back to stop Manaka Matsukubo's breakthrough run from 35 yards out from scoring.
The remainder of the match saw several empty attacking chances, including a breakaway chance that Rose Lavelle dribbled in stoppage time.
Gotham had 12 shots, four of which were on target.
Gotham next faces the Houston Dash on Wednesday at Shell Energy Stadium.
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