For 86 minutes, the story of this one was a goalkeeper who did not have all that much to do.
Gotham FC came into BMO Stadium sitting on top of the NWSL, riding a four-match winning streak, and holding a record against Angel City that read seven meetings without a loss. On paper it should have been a long night for the home side. Instead, Angel City spent the first half doing the pressing, outshooting Gotham 8-4 and holding a 2-1 edge in shots on target.
Gotham found more of a rhythm after the break, and Sarah Gorden turned in two enormous blocks inside a five minute stretch to keep the visitors off the board. Still, the league leaders were not turning possession into much that scared anybody. Angelina Anderson, in goal for Angel City, was mostly being asked to stay awake and stay ready.
Then came the review.
With about four minutes left in regulation, a video review awarded Gotham a penalty for a handball in the Angel City box. It was not a popular call in the stadium. Guro Reiten stepped up to take it, her first penalty attempt in the NWSL since arriving from Chelsea in March, with a chance to hand Gotham three points.
Anderson dove to her right and got a hand on it. One hand, low and to her right, enough to push the ball away and turn BMO Stadium inside out. It was her second saved penalty of the season and it locked in her sixth clean sheet of 2026.
"My defenders are some freaking dogs," Anderson said afterward. "I feel so lucky to have them as a unit in front of me."
Gotham was not done. They rattled the crossbar in the closing minutes and Sam Kerr got a look at goal right at the 90, but the frame and the clock both went against them. The match finished scoreless.
Interim head coach Leif Smerud has been building toward exactly this kind of result. Angel City has now drawn four straight and is unbeaten in four, and those four points across back-to-back matches against Gotham and the Washington Spirit are the two best teams in the league. "We are difficult to beat right now," Smerud said. "We will win games, I'm sure, if we keep performing and keep playing."
There was also some encouraging roster news for the hosts. Savy King made her second consecutive appearance as she works back from a foot injury, and when she came on at right back in the 68th minute, Alyssa Thompson pushed up into midfield. Smerud called the added versatility a good problem to have.
For Gotham, this was a nine-match unbeaten run, which ties the club record, and another entry in Ann-Katrin Berger's growing ledger. Berger picked up her 10th clean sheet of the season, making her the first goalkeeper in NWSL history with double-digit shutouts in back-to-back years. Savannah McCaskill made her 150th career regular season start, the 32nd player in league history to get there.
Acting head coach Shaun Harris took the second half as the better half. "We definitely created a few more chances and were unfortunate not to put one away with regards to the penalty," he said. "It is what it is, and we trust all our players when they step up and take the penalty, and unfortunately it wasn't our day."
The point moved Gotham to 13-3-5 and 44 points, seven clear of Portland and Washington. Angel City stayed just short of the playoff line, but with three straight road games coming up, nobody is going to enjoy playing them.
Angel City travels to North Carolina on Wednesday. Gotham hosts Portland on Friday.
