Gotham FC, the reigning NWSL champions, will be the first NWSL team to visit the White House for a championship celebration. President Joe Biden will welcome the team on Monday and reunite most of last season’s roster — including Ali Krieger, who retired at the end of the year.
“This is such a monumental moment for the NWSL,” Krieger said The Athletics. “I am so excited that the NWSL is receiving recognition at the White House and that we are the first-ever NWSL Championship team to celebrate. This will be a great moment for the team and for us as a whole.”
While the White House has previously honored the U.S. Women’s National Team for winning the World Cup, only one professional women’s soccer team has been honored by the White House with a celebration: Sky Blue FC in 2010 for their 2009 championship victory during former President Barack Obama’s first term. Although it took place in a different professional league – Women’s Professional Soccer, which ran from 2009 to 2011 – the same franchise will earn the same honor fourteen years later.
Krieger and Gotham investor Carolyn Tisch Blodgett pointed to the team’s first storyline and the way Gotham narrowly made the 2023 playoffs and needed the final day of the regular season as the worst.
“We really look at this as a moment to recognize the work that went into winning that championship,” Tisch Blodgett said. She also said the team does not view their visit as a political statement. “We were invited by the White House. We were invited by President Biden to celebrate this team.”
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But Krieger and Tisch Blodgett also see the invitation to the White House as something much bigger — not just an image of an NWSL team standing next to the president, but a moment that could help put the NWSL in the same conversation as other major sports leagues like the NFL, MLB and WNBA. Last week, Biden hosted the undefeated South Carolina women’s basketball program, led by head coach Dawn Staley, for their NCAA March Madness victory.
“However, it is a broader statement. This should be the standard,” said Tisch Blodgett. “First of all, I hope it is us who win the championship again. If not, I hope whoever wins the championship makes that part of what they do because we have now set the standard. This is the treatment our players deserve when they win a championship as the best athletes in the world.”
Krieger said Monday will be historic for the NWSL, but she also wants to balance her excitement with taking full advantage of this platform.
“I want to acknowledge the lack of historical coverage of women’s sports while we’re out there and just say, ‘Thank you for your support, and continue to highlight women’s sports,’” she said, noting that there is still much work to be done. shop was. be ready.
“This is really going to be a great platform to take the team and the players, and women’s sports in general, to the next level,” Krieger said. “The reporting about this day will also mean a lot. I think there’s a balance between saying, “Thank you, we appreciate it” and “The work isn’t done yet.” We need your help to keep going and we need your support.”
Krieger retired after the 2023 season (Ben Nichols/Getty Images)
In February the The Biden-Harris administration has announced this that the NWSL and the NWSL Players Association would work with the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition to leverage community events to promote healthy eating and physical activity. But the Gotham front office’s efforts to coordinate a championship celebration predated that agreement, having been in contact with relevant White House people since winning the finale in November 2023.
Gotham FC are also heading into a hectic period in the calendar as they juggle battle for play-off qualification (they just climbed to third place this week) and qualification for the new FIFA Club World Cup.
“This wasn’t like we woke up in September and said, ‘We have nothing to do in September, let’s go to the White House!’” Tisch Blodgett joked. “Obviously the president’s schedule is very busy and fluid. Our agenda is very busy.”
The team played against the Reign in Seattle on Monday and flew back the same evening after winning. They host CF Monterrey Femenil on Thursday as part of the CONCACAF W Champions Cup, after which they should quickly return to regular season action, hosting the Utah Royals at Red Bull Arena in New Jersey on Sunday at 1pm before the 2023 members. of the team heads to Washington, D.C., for Monday’s event.
“It would have been easier to say no and say we’re focused on 2024, we’re focused on winning the championship again and moving on,” Tisch Blodgett said. “But we all felt like this was really important.”
Krieger can’t wait to reunite with her teammates and relive the 2023 victory — a victory she said she still enjoys all these months later. Although Krieger was previously part of a celebration at the White House with the USWNT after their 2015 World Cup win, she couldn’t help but laugh when asked if she gave any advice on what to expect.
“Listen, I’ve only been there once and we were all nerding out,” she said. “I don’t even know if I was in my body.”
(Top photo: Robyn Beck/Getty Images)