How Gotham FC Is Preparing for the FIFA Women’s Champions Cup

Gotham FC likes to make history. They made history by winning the inaugural Concacaf Women’s Champions Cup. They made history by winning the National Women’s Soccer League Championship as the lowest seed twice. Now, they’re looking to make history again by winning the inaugural FIFA Women’s Champions Cup.

The two-game tournament is set to kick off on Jan. 28, and, if all goes well, Gotham FC could potentially face off against WSL’s Arsenal in the championship match scheduled for Feb. 1 at the Arsenal stadium.

But let’s backtrack a bit, because getting Gotham to this point took so much more than just winning games. Staff and players alike need to be on their A game, and with only 41 days between the NWSL final and the team’s Jan. 2 reporting date for preseason, it has taken a concerted effort and collaboration at all levels of the organization to ensure player health and safety are prioritized.

“[Gotham manager] Juan [Carlos Amorós] made it clear right from the start to everyone, this is not preseason, these are really important games that we need to win, and also we need to be conscious of our preparation timeline with player health and safety,” Gotham general manager Yael Averbuch West tells Sports Illustrated. “Once we knew the timing of this event, there were a lot of conversations of how do we do this in the healthiest, safest way, but also where we are ready to compete and be our very best to try and win these games?”

Enter director of operations Ellis Clark, the woman who is quietly orchestrating everything Gotham does off the pitch. The Chesterfield, England native may be young—she’s about the same age as many of the players themselves—but she has an extensive résumé. She leads one of the largest operations teams in the NWSL, and if you ask the players, they’ll tell you why she’s vital to the team’s ongoing success.

“I can’t praise the operations team enough for what they do behind the scenes for us, and I can’t thank them enough for how much they helped me throughout my rookie year,” says Gotham midfielder Sarah Schupansky. “I think Ellis took the time to talk to me, even on the days where she was stacked with probably 400 tasks on her to-do list, she would still pull me aside, check in on me, and make sure I was doing okay as a person, even before as a player. Nothing could be accomplished without them.”

A significant part of Clark’s role involves coordinating the team’s travel. During the NWSL season, this daunting task involves transporting players, staff and equipment across the United States and internationally, including during Gotham’s participation in Concacaf tournaments. This task is no less formidable for Gotham’s quick turnaround from the end of the 2025 season to the beginning of the ’26 season. Clark needs to ensure a seamless transition for the players from a short offseason to the preseason in Spain and get everyone to England ahead of the FIFA Women’s Champions Cup.

“We worked a lot with the [NWSL] Players Association and the league to construct an offseason calendar, to work out what it was that we were going to do,” Clark says. “We made the decision to come over to Europe, and a lot of that was for the time zone and travel. We wanted people to be in a good place, not feel jet-lagged, and be acclimatized. We made the best of what could have been a really tough situation.”

For Clark and Gotham, there is no playbook here. They are the first American team to compete in this type of tournament, and both the players and the staff feel the weight of getting things right both on and off the field.

To assure the players are properly recovered during this tight turnaround, Clark works closely with the medical team and coaches to carve out adequate downtime amid their busy schedules. One way Clark likes to make room for that recovery time is to ensure travel is as optimized as possible.

“We’re making sure travel times and dates allow people to acclimatize and have a good travel experience so they’re sleeping properly,” Clark explains. “We’ve also done a lot of work to focus on players having access to the correct recovery equipment and correct facilities—[conversations] I’ve personally been having with FIFA to make sure we have access to what we need when we’re in London.”

To guarantee Gotham is well-rested and ready for their matches, the team is arriving well ahead of FIFA’s matchday minus-3 arrival date. Gotham touched down in England on Wednesday, giving the team a week to prepare.

Since the beginning of her time with the club, Clark has worked closely with Averbuch West to adequately staff up, divide responsibilities in a way that moved more efficiently, and make the proper contacts to ensure players had access to better facilities in airports and better flight times. The team is also opting to take the train whenever possible to reduce strain on players’ bodies. For the first time, Gotham took the train to Washington, D.C., last season, and this season, they will also take the train to Boston.

During Gotham’s quick offseason, the medical staff curated an individualized offseason program for each player. These programs helped ensure the players got the rest they needed after a long season while also staying active, allowing them to hit the ground running in January.

What dreams are made of 😍

📍 Estadio Municipal de La Línea de la Concepción pic.twitter.com/5KwBHtGYFJ
— Gotham FC (@GothamFC) January 22, 2026

“This is an incredible tournament to be a part of, and the caliber of teams is phenomenal,” Schupansky says. “We want to put our best foot forward, and that means that you don’t really have time to just sit and rest like normal offseasons might include. The team did a great job of making sure we knew what was expected of us and knew where we were expected to be once we reported back as well. It was a super easy transition, and that’s all credit to the team’s work they put in at the end of the season.”

While the physical aspect of a short offseason is among the club’s top priorities, the mental aspect is of equal importance in planning and executing this quick transition to preseason. December and January are typically months for players to hold their big occasions with families, including weddings and other commitments that cannot happen during the season. Even with the importance of the FIFA tournament, Gotham is dedicated to making sure people still have access to their actual lives.

“We spoke directly with all of the players to take any information like that of things people could potentially be missing, and one thing we committed to doing was doing everything we could to allow that player to be there,” Clark says. “For some individuals, they have left Spain for a few days and come back, and the medical and high-performance teams, along with coaches, worked to make sure these players would still be in a good place physically.”

Even with the short offseason, the players are happy to be back. This is the predicament they wanted to be in, competing in these prestigious competitions.

“I’m excited to be back, it’s nice to be with the group,” Schupansky says. “The mental and physical aspect is grueling, but that’s part of the job. Having such a supportive and encouraging staff who puts in just as much work in or more than we do, helps make sure that we feel the most comfortable and prepared for situations like this.”

Gotham will play their semifinal match against Corinthians on Jan. 28, and are expecting a tough matchup against the decorated Brazilian side. If victorious, the team will move on to face the winner of Arsenal and Moroccan side ASFAR, an opportunity Averbuch West considers an unbelievable chance to make history as a club.

“We felt so proud to be the inaugural champions of the Concacaf Women’s Champions Cup, and that’s something that can never be taken away from this club. We could be inaugural champions of this event, which would mean that in this context, we are the club who is recognized around the world as—they’re saying intercontinental champions—but really it’s the top club in the world. So it’s incredibly important to us as a club. Our players know that, our staff knows that, and this is something we hope everyone looks back on one day and can feel really, really proud of.”

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