Fresh Off NWSL Title, Gotham’s Rose Lavelle Is Ready to Lead the Next Generation

The USWNT star is hoping to take the younger generation under her wing, just like the veterans of old did for her both on the club and international stage.

Rose Lavelle scored the match-winner for Gotham in last year’s NWSL final. | Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

Rose Lavelle is feeling good, which is a very welcome feeling for the 30-year-old midfielder. After missing the first half of last season while recovering from an ankle surgery, Lavelle is recovered, rested, and ready to take on a big year for both club and country. 

For Gotham FC, she has already helped lead her team to a third place finish in the inaugural FIFA Women’s Champions Cup tournament, which came just months after scoring the only goal in the club’s NWSL championship triumph. For the U.S women’s national team, she’ll don the stars and stripes for the 11th iteration of U.S. Soccer’s SheBelieves Cup, the first set of international friendlies before World Cup qualifiers start at the end of the year. 

“Last year was a reflective year for, going through my first surgery and then coming back and getting to play with a really, really good club like Gotham and getting back in with the national team,” Lavelle says. “It was a lot harder than I anticipated, and I will never take my health for granted.”

Although ankle surgery over a year ago marked the first surgery in her career, she has struggled with persistent injuries throughout her career. But now, for the first time in a long time, she starts the year healthy—something that will have a positive impact on her career for both Gotham FC and the national team. 

“Last year was a little rough [with my ankle recovery], but I feel like I turned a corner and it’s been feeling good,” Lavelle says.

Lavelle was on the bench for Sunday’s 2–0 win against Argentina, and one can only assume that USWNT manager Emma Hayes is saving her for the next matchup against Canada on March 4. The final match against Colombia on March 7 will be a bit of a homecoming for Lavelle at Sports Illustrated Stadium, which is not only the home of Gotham FC but the place where Lavelle first made her USWNT debut at the 2017 SheBelieves Cup. 

Lavelle (center) is right at home with Gotham after winning the NWSL championship MVP. | John Hefti-Imagn Images

“It’s always like fun whenever we’ve gotten to come and play at [Sports Illustrated Stadium], and it’s even more special now that I play for Gotham and it’s my home stadium,” Lavelle says. “Obviously, it’s also somewhat of a full circle moment, knowing that’s kind of where I kicked off my national team career. It’s kind of crazy because I obviously would have never suspected then that I would later be playing club in that stadium.”

In 2017, the state of the National Women’s Soccer League was quite different. Gotham FC, then Sky Blue FC, played at Rutgers University’s Yurcak Field with a capacity of only 5,000. Just a couple years later, when Lavelle played for the Washington Spirit, the away game against Sky Blue that year fell right after she returned from winning the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup in front of record crowds. 

Rose Lavelle having the final say in 2019. 💫@USWNT | #FIFAWWC pic.twitter.com/HlvoATukbG

— FIFA Women's World Cup (@FIFAWWC) July 7, 2025

“I think it was the first game post-2019 World Cup that was against Sky Blue at Rutgers, and it was so crazy, just the disparity of going from playing in Paris, in front of like sold-out crowds, to a stadium that fits only 5,000,” she says. “It’s really cool to see how this club and women’s soccer as a whole has evolved.”

Today, Lavelle sees a radically different landscape for women’s soccer in the United States and around the world. From her first pro year playing at a college facility to now sold-out arenas with tens of thousands of fans, it’s been nearly a decade but feels like a blink of an eye. Although she is humble about her own involvement in that evolution, Lavelle credits her teammates and peers, and those that came before her, for paving the way for this exponential growth.

“I feel really lucky to have gotten to be ushered in during a time when there were those trailblazers and people pushing the game forward,” Lavelle says of many of her former teammates, including players like Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan and Becky Sauerbrunn. “There are always trailblazers [in every generation], but I feel so grateful for the veterans I had at that time because I had such great leaders and role models to look up to, to help show me what it’s like and what it means to be a veteran —not just for Gotham or for the national team, but within the sport.”

Lavelle (16) was a standout performer at the 2019 Women’s World Cup, along with Golden Ball winner Megan Rapinoe (15). | Michael Chow-Imagn Images

Lavelle takes seriously her role as a veteran. Although it still baffles her how quickly the time has passed, she is ready, hungry to compete and looking forward to a strong season for both club and country in what she considers to be an extremely exciting time for soccer in the United States.

“It’s been such a long journey to get here, and definitely something like, I don’t take lightly—I have huge shoes to fill and I hope I can do them justice,” Lavelle says. “I hope I can help usher in this new generation of young, really, really talented, incredible players coming up. I feel so lucky to have gotten to be a young player with the veteran group that I got to learn from, and now I feel so lucky to be a veteran with the younger group that’s coming up.”

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