Gotham Bats secure first NWSL Shield and top playoff seed

Gotham Football Club clinched its first NWSL regular season title on Sunday night.

The Bats defeated the Utah Royals 2-0 at S.I. Stadium to claim the Shield and enter the postseason as the number one seed.

Gotham posted the league's best defensive record, allowing only 23 goals across 30 matches and recording 14 clean sheets.

The final victory marked the team's first clean sheet in over two months, ending a streak of eight matches where they conceded at least once.

Guro Reiten scored the opening goal from a tight angle inside the first ten minutes.

Midge Purce assisted Jaedyn Shaw for the second goal in the 80th minute, Shaw's first touch since returning from injury.

Goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger made two saves to earn her 11th clean sheet of the season.

The race for the Shield remained tight until the final week, with San Diego Wave FC finishing three points behind Gotham and the Washington Spirit in third with three points fewer than San Diego.

Gotham only needed a draw to win the title after San Diego dropped points in their penultimate match, but the win provided momentum heading into the playoffs.

Kansas City and Angel City, both with 54 goals, finished fourth and fifth respectively, setting up a first round matchup between the two high-scoring teams.

Washington, the third seed, will face the sixth-seeded Portland Thorns in the opening round.

The Utah Royals, who finished seventh, will travel to San Diego for their playoff opener against the fifth seed, avoiding a trip to the Northeast based on a slight goal differential advantage over Seattle Reign FC, who finished with the same 47 points as Utah but a lower goal difference of +4 compared to Utah's +5.