Kiyoshi Mio-USA TODAY Sports
In theory, opening weekend of the 2023 National Women’s Soccer League season featured the scrumptious, high-profile matchup the league would surely like to promote: New York (but really New Jersey) visited Los Angeles in front of a sellout crowd laced with celebrities.
NJ/NY Gotham FC and Angel City FC feel like they could become rivals, and there are people who want them to be that. Gotham forward Margaret “Midge” Purce first discussed the idea of Gotham being the “villains” to balance out the angelic vibes in LA a year before Angel City first kicked a ball.
Off the field, there have been contributions — again, in theory — to possibly developing a New York-LA rivalry, from Angel City poaching then Gotham head coach Freya Coombe in the middle of the 2021 season, to a tampering fine that soon followed as the LA side tried to acquire Gotham midfielder Allie Long. And from a branding perspective, Gotham certainly seems to be trying the same edgy marketing approach with less success and…
