Gotham FC are dragging.
They have just one win from five games, which came way back in the March 14 season opener.
What’s worse, maybe, they have scored a total of just two goals — or as many as star midfielder Rose Lavelle just had with the USWNT over the two-week international break.
The defending NWSL champions have sunk to 13th place in the now-16-team league.
Their recent history — of patchy regular-season form, which meant narrow playoff qualification and low seeds before their magical title runs — is in danger of repeating.
Enter Guro Reiten.
The standout Norwegian winger, acquired from perennial English champs Chelsea on the eve of the season, has finally joined up with the squad after resolving visa issues and could play as soon as Saturday, when Gotham host Bay FC at Sports Illustrated Stadium (1 p.m. ET).
The hope now is that the 31-year-old can make a rapid adjustment to Gotham’s style of play, as well as her new life — and the lingo — in the States.
“I’m gonna try and do my best and help the team grow and get the best out of everyone here,” Reiten said this week. “I’m just excited to get to know [my teammates] on and off the field. … I already said field. I would never say field.”
Reiten’s recruitment unfolded over the course of months, according to general manager Yael Averbuch West.
“We were looking for generally left-footed, left-sided, attacking-minded players who are incredibly intelligent, technically sound and have played at the highest level of the game and have winning experience,” Averbuch West said this week. “I mean, it’s just inadvertently her bio.”
Reiten said she was attracted to Gotham’s “ambitions” as a club and the “challenge” of a leap to the NWSL.
“I’ve heard a lot about the league and how tough it is and how every game is, you know, everyone can beat everyone,” Reiten said.
Averbuch West was cagey about the use of the league’s new High Impact Player rule, which allows teams to go $1 million over the salary cap to pay certain marquee players, as it concerned Reiten versus other HIP-eligible Gotham players. But she was clear the rule was “very important” for Gotham in the big picture of adding and retaining talent.
“The reality is, we have players from all over the world who want to come play at our club,” Averbuch West said. “And our limiting factor now is our salary cap, not our ability to attract players and recruit.”
There’s also that pesky little question of getting a roster that features the likes of Lavelle, Jaedyn Shaw, Esther González, Midge Purce and now Reiten to produce goals — and get their first win in six weeks.
“Especially as we get into the season and you’re going through the ups and downs of a season, bringing a player of her level, experience and winning pedigree is very important to us,” Averbuch West said of Reiten.
The GM added: “I do like bringing in players in the middle of the season. … Injecting new players in the middle of something does have a unique power to it.”
