SAN JOSE, Calif. — Gotham FC defender Tierna Davidson felt “comfortable” this week in the lead-up to Saturday’s NWSL championship match.
Being back in the Bay Area, the place she first fell in love with the game of soccer, brought Davidson that pleasant warmth that’s been a rarity in her grueling recovery from a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee.
She visited with her parents and friends and returned to her old stomping grounds. She spent some time as the team’s South Bay concierge, sharing restaurant and coffee shop recommendations.
The whole time felt familiar and nice.
It’s been a nice distraction from her reality.
When Gotham FC took the pitch Saturday to play the Washington Spirit with a title on the line, Davidson, who is just seven months removed from knee surgery, was watching from the sidelines.
Davidson tries not to think about it that way. She’s found other ways to contribute to her team, despite being unable to play.
But there’s no getting around it.
“All you do is you just desperately wish that you could be on the field contributing because that’s naturally the way that we know how to best support our team,” Davidson said. “It’s definitely hard when you’re at a tournament in the playoffs and all you want to do is be able to contribute to support and help the girls that are going to be on the field.”
Davidson served as one of Gotham FC’s defensive anchors since she joined the team before the 2024 season. But her left knee betrayed her during a match in early April.
Davidson, a member of the U.S. women’s national team, knew the long road that lay ahead since she tore her ACL in her right knee in 2022.
The familiarity with the process made everything less daunting.
“It does feel less scary,” she said. “There are definitely things that you don’t remember until it happens. You’re like, ‘Oh, I definitely blacked that out.’ But I think generally, also, knowing that your body might not feel perfect or there might be aches and pains in certain places and knowing what’s OK to push through and what you need to flag, I think, is something that you learn from going through it once and then being on the other side of it. So I feel like a bit more comfortable with the process just because I don’t feel as anxious about everything.”
Gotham FC still view Davidson as an integral part of the club’s future. They signed her to a contract extension in July that locks her in through the 2027 season.
The deal helped ensure Gotham’s competitive window remained open. Other players under contract for next season include Esther González, Jaedyn Shaw, Rose Lavelle and Emily Sonnett.
Knowing that the future is bright gives Davidson hope that Gotham will be back in the championship again. It might not be in her backyard like this year’s match but she believes she’ll have the chance to play for more hardware in the future.
The security of being under contract also gave her some peace knowing that the return-to-play process isn’t always linear.
“It’s really a confidence boost for me coming back because I know something that takes a bit of time when you come back from long-term injury is feeling like yourself, feeling super sharp, like that doesn’t always come right away,” Davidson said. “And so to have the confidence of knowing that I have fantastic teammates around me and if I’m not playing my best or if I make an error, I’ll have great people around me to help clean it up is something that brings me peace when I get anxious thinking about being back on the field. But yeah, it’s great that we have a core group of players that like being here and see the value in the future of the team.”
On Saturday, Davidson planned to soak in the moment.
The support she has experienced has been overwhelming. Ticket requests from people from all chapters of her life came her way like letters to Santa.
Her whole crew planned to come to PayPal Stadium, the site of this year’s title match between Gotham and Washington Spirit, to cheer her and her teammates. Davidson’s parents organized a massive tailgate in the stadium parking lot marked with a Batman flag.
“I have grown up knowing and experiencing the Bay’s love for soccer, for women’s soccer,” Davidson told The Post on Saturday. “I’m just so happy that we are able to have a championship here. It’s a place that loves women’s soccer. It has a lot of history, so I’m really happy to be a part of that to have the first NWSL championship here.”
