Subaru Park will host two NWSL games in July, including one with champions Gotham FC

For the third time in four years, Subaru Park will host teams from the National Women’s Soccer League this summer. But this time, it won’t just be one game — and it won’t just be Gotham FC, the team that has visited before.

The Union’s home will host two games in a new summer tournament that the NWSL is launching with Mexico’s Liga MX Femenil: the Washington Spirit’s home game vs. Mexico’s Chivas on July 21 at 5 p.m., and Gotham’s home game vs. Washington on July 28 at 6 p.m.

If the tournament sounds familiar to Union fans, that’s because it is. The MLS-Liga MX Leagues Cup takes place at the same time of year, with the Union hosting Charlotte FC on July 27. But this event isn’t quite like the men’s leagues’ cash grab. The women’s event will mostly take place during the Olympics, when many NWSL stars will be away. So pausing the regular season makes sense.

Fortunately for Philadelphia-area fans, the Gotham and Spirit players with local ties won’t be abroad. Gotham has Havertown’s Sinead Farrelly, and Washington has Williamstown’s Brittany Ratcliffe and Pottstown’s Nicole Barnhart.

Tickets go on sale May 6 at noon to season-ticket holders of Gotham, the Spirit, and the Union. General sales start May 9 at noon.

» READ MORE: Sinead Farrelly looks back at playing for Ireland in last year's World Cup

“As the stadium was being built, I remember driving over the bridge on the way to soccer games and practices thinking, ‘Wow, how cool would it be to play in that stadium one day?” Ratcliffe told The Inquirer. “So to come back to Philadelphia, one of the best sports cities in the world, and also have it be your hometown stadium is a dream come true.”

But Farrelly’s return will be the biggest deal, 13 years after her last game Subaru Park.

In 2011, she was a rookie with the old Philadelphia Independence, which moved a playoff game — coincidentally against the then-Washington Freedom — to the Union’s home. It was a rare day in the stadium for a team that typically played at Widener’s and West Chester’s small college football venues, with artificial turf and gridiron lines.

It was also the next-to-last game of the Independence’s existence. The team beat Washington, then lost the championship game, and a few months later Women’s Professional Soccer, went under.

The NWSL started in 2013, and Farrelly played for the Portland Thorns and Boston Breakers. She hung up her cleats after the 2016 season, which she missed because of injuries suffered in a car crash.

In 2021, Farrelly helped expose major sexual abuse allegations against Paul Riley, the disgraced manager who coached her here and briefly in Portland. He subsequently was banned from the sport. Two years later, Farrelly surprisingly returned to play, joining Gotham. And after just three months in action, she made the Republic of Ireland’s World Cup team.

» READ MORE: With Crystal Dunn, Rose Lavelle, and more, Gotham FC is the NWSL’s new superteam

When the NWSL launched, it brought over the North Jersey team from WPS that was then called Sky Blue FC. Its home was Rutgers’ Yurcak Field soccer venue in Piscataway from 2009 to 2019, and enough fans went from the Philly area that the front office paid attention.

Sky Blue moved to Red Bull Arena in Harrison, N.J., just before the pandemic struck, and rebranded to Gotham FC in 2021. That ended up being Delran native Carli Lloyd’s last year playing, and Gotham moved a late-season game to Subaru Park to honor her.

It was also at the height of the scandal that Farrelly’s abuse allegations against Riley sparked. The league’s players stopped playing for a span because of it, and the game in Chester resumed the season.

With all those factors at play, the crowd that Wednesday night was 9,532, with a lead-up time of just under a month.

In 2022, Gotham moved a game against the Orlando Pride to Chester because of a venue conflict at Red Bull Arena. That time, there was a four-month lead-up for a Saturday game, but no Lloyd (or Brazilian legend Marta, Orlando’s biggest star) to top the marquee. The crowd was 4,107.

This time, there’s a three-month lead-up and more overall interest.

» READ MORE: Rose Lavelle waits to return from an injury as the USWNT races toward the Olympics

Gotham is the reigning NWSL champion, though many of its stars could go to the Olympics. The Bats have six candidates for the U.S. team: Crystal Dunn, Tierna Davidson, Rose Lavelle, Emily Sonnett, Lynn Williams, and last year’s rookie of the year Jenna Nighswonger. (It would be seven if Midge Purce wasn’t out with a torn ACL.) They also have Spanish World Cup champion Esther González and Brazil’s Bruninha, and just signed veteran German goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger.

Washington has Trinity Rodman and Casey Krueger in the U.S.’ running.

Because Olympic squads are just 18 players with four on-site alternates, it’s hard to say anyone is an absolute lock, even those who practically are. But even if all the above names are in France, there will be familiar faces playing here.

Gotham’s should include veteran U.S. defender Kelley O’Hara, midfield creator Yazmeen Ryan, and striker Katie Stengel. Washington’s U.S. veterans include Aubrey Kingsbury in net, Andi Sullivan in midfield, and Ashley Hatch up top. Playmaker Croix Bethune is a dynamic rookie, and Colombian national team star forward Leicy Santos will arrive from Spain’s Atlético Madrid in the summer.

The Spirit will also get a new manager in the summer, Barcelona’s Jonatan Giráldez. He led Spain’s dominant club to the 2023 Champions League, and kicked off a semifinal showdown with soon-to-be-U.S. manager Emma Hayes’ Chelsea on Saturday morning.

Spirit general manager Mark Krikorian also has a Philadelphia tie. He was the old Charge’s manager for their entire existence, from 2001 to 2003.

» READ MORE: Looking back at the Philadelphia Charge’s first season, over 20 years after pro women’s soccer’s arrival here

Union president Tim McDermott will take all of this in as he considers the team’s role in the women’s soccer world. The Union don’t have the cash on hand to run a second professional operation, but would be happy to help a separately owned outfit play at Subaru Park.

The new indoor facility that will be built across the practice fields from the stadium also will have room for a women’s team. It could come from the NWSL, or it could come from the new USL Super League if former U.S. star Heather Mitts is able to bring her campaign to fruition.

There’s no sign right now of a Philadelphia NWSL expansion bid, though many local soccer fans would like there to be one.

“Big picture, we continue to evaluate the women’s pro soccer landscape and are trying to figure out where it’s best for us to participate in that entire ecosystem,” McDermott said. “Credit to the both the NWSL and the USL, who’ve done have a nice job creating important and very good, well-established properties in women’s pro sports [and] women’s pro soccer.”

For now, McDermott said, the Union are “very thankful for the partnership we have” with Gotham.

“We get to play in the backyard of fans who travel to Red Bull Arena to watch us,” Gotham general manager Yael Averbuch West said, “and hopefully, we can gain some new Gotham FC fans in the process.”

» READ MORE: There’s a Philadelphia WNBA expansion bid, but no one’s saying who’s involved