Lynn Williams continues to make her case for an expanded role with the USWNT at the World Cup

HARRISON, N.J. ― Lynn Williams already had very good odds to make the U.S. women’s World Cup team when the NWSL season started. But if there were any questions left, Williams has demolished them over the last few weeks.

Gotham FC’s new star signing has lived up to the billing and then some. Williams, who turns 30 next week, has scored six goals in her first nine games in all competitions, including a stretch when she wore a splint on her right arm due to an injury in March. She also started the year with a goal for the national team in her first U.S. game after a nearly 10-month injury absence.

With regular starter Mallory Swanson out long-term because of a torn patella tendon, Williams seems to not just have a plane ticket to New Zealand awaiting her, but potentially a starting spot.

“I’m excited, obviously,” Williams told The Inquirer on Sunday after a 0-0 draw against the Orlando Pride. “I try not to think about it — obviously it’s hard not to, it’s coming up. But I’ve just got to keep doing what I’m doing and just stay in the moment. I really believe that.”

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Williams has given that same answer many times this year. She plans to keep doing it right up to when U.S. manager Vlatko Andonovski announces the roster next month.

But as repetitive as it is, it’s also an insight into her mentality as an attacker: keep going, keep putting the ball in the net, and don’t let up.

“Hopefully it’s a consistent answer because I really do believe it deep in my heart,” she said. “You just have to do what you’re doing on the day, and hopefully the World Cup comes, hopefully you make the team, hopefully you win. But if you skip steps, then you’re looking ahead and it might not happen.”

Williams’ scoring hot streak isn’t the only reason she’d make a quality addition to the roster. Her high-pressing acumen is arguably the best of any U.S. forward. And she has the versatility to play multiple positions: She plays left wing for her country, and Sunday she played at center-forward and out wide.

“For us, she’s a key player,” said first-year Gotham manager Juan Carlos Amorós. “She helps us a lot, wherever it is, whether it’s centrally or wide. It depends which teammates are playing and how we’re trying to attack, and we not only look at the opposition and the player, but also the people around that player to make decisions.”

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That will be music to Andonovki’s ears since there are big differences in how Alex Morgan and Catarina Macario play as central strikers. And if Macario can’t make it back from a torn ACL in time for the World Cup, Williams’ ability to play a spell in the middle could provide a big late-game boost.

Williams hasn’t just had an effect on opponents’ nets. Sunday’s result moved Gotham into third place in the league, heights rarely ever reached by the Bats — a nickname bestowed by fans on a brand that can only dream of Bruce Wayne’s immortality. (Many of those fans were a long way from born when the original Batman TV show debuted 55 years ago.)

Whether as Gotham or under its previous name Sky Blue FC, the team has made the playoffs just three times in its previous 14 seasons: the 2009 debut of Women’s Professional Soccer, the 2013 debut of the NWSL, and 2021. This year, the team finally has the depth of talent to achieve consistent success in a league where stars often rule the day.

“When I found out that we traded for her in the draft, I flipped out and was so excited,” said veteran right back Kelley O’Hara, a two-time World Cup champion with the U.S. and Gotham’s other marquee offseason signing. The 34-year-old is likely to make her seventh straight major-tournament roster this summer, having been to every World Cup and Olympics since 2011.

“She’s a gamer; she’s a baller,” O’Hara said of Williams. “For her to not score is an anomaly at this point.”

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Gotham could have three players on the U.S. squad if Kristie Mewis wins the race for one of the final midfield spots. She, Williams, and O’Hara were teammates on the 2021 Olympic team, and now Mewis is once again helping to launch attacks for Williams to finish. She has 18 chance-creating passes and one assist in nine games so far this year.

“I think that some people doubted how she was going to come back, but she absolutely just put them on their [rear ends],” said Mewis. “She has been so good in practice, so good in the games, and it’s honestly an honor to play with her. I feel so lucky that we got her in the offseason — it was probably Gotham’s best move.”

And Mewis knows that joining Williams in New Zealand requires carrying the same mindset as her teammate.

“Obviously it is stressful — I mean, I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t,” Mewis said. “But I think that the strong ones will make it, so I think that I just have to prove that I’m one of the strong ones and that I can be on that roster. And that’s what I’m trying to do each and every day.”

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