The last time Sam Kerr donned a Gotham jersey, it was known as Sky Blue FC, and its home games were played at Yurcak Field on the Rutgers campus.
On Wednesday night, Kerr made her second Gotham debut Wednesday, this time at Citi Field in the Queens Classic against the archrival Washington Spirit. She subbed in in the 64th minute and had nine touches in her team’s 1-0 win with one shot on goal.
In two years, Gotham will share a permanent home with NYCFC across the street at Etihad Park, marking Gotham’s move from New Jersey’s Sports Illustrated Stadium to New York City’s first soccer-specific stadium.
Gotham has come a long way since Kerr’s last season here in 2017, when she won the NWSL Golden Boot and MVP award. It now boasts two NWSL championships, and Kerr has been to two more World Cups and one Summer Olympics for Australia since.
Kerr led the NWSL in all-time scoring until 2024. She still holds the regular-season career goals record and remains Australia’s top goal scorer with 73 goals in international play.
So what influenced her decision to come back to the defending NWSL champion?
“Firstly, I always had a desire to come back to the NWSL,” Kerr told reporters after signing. “I’ve loved my time here, I had so much fun here. Played some good football here, so I think I always had a desire to come back, and then with all the change at Chelsea and me wanting something new, I think it was really the only league that I saw myself in.”
The NWSL has seen incredible growth the last several years. Attendance has skyrocketed. The league set a new attendance record this opening weekend, drawing 129,202 fans.
Total season attendance cracked 2 million for the first time in 2024. Hosting matches at MLB stadiums has become a tradition, with Oracle Park welcoming over 40,000 fans for Bay FC against the Spirit last year and Wrigley Field playing host for the Red Stars and Bay FC in 2024. Empower Field, home of the Broncos, hosted the Denver Summit and Spirit in March.
Wednesday’s Queens Classic marked the first NWSL regular-season match ever held in New York City.
“Well, what a game,” Gotham head coach Juan Carlos Amorós said. “We are super excited to have the opportunity to play at Citi Field in New York City in front of so many fans. It’s a day that’s definitely writing history for women’s soccer and women’s sport in the city of New York City and in the United States.”
“It kind of feels like a full-circle moment to me,” Kerr said. “Last time I left Gotham, we were Sky Blue at the time. We were playing down in front of a couple thousand people, and this is the type of stuff we were fighting for … to play in front of sold-out stadiums with the best players with wages that we deserved.
“There’s so many people that have done so many amazing things over the last six years while I’ve been gone that have allowed me to come back and live out my American dream.”
Kerr’s scoring prowess is welcome for a team that scored 15 goals in 13 games going into Wednesday. The star striker returns to a team on the come-up in one of the biggest sports markets in the world and reunites with former Chelsea teammates Jess Carter, Ann-Katrin Berger and Guro Reiten with a chance to reclaim her all-time scoring record.
