HARRISON, N.J. (AP) — Gotham FC punched their ticket to the playoffs Sunday with a 2-2 draw with Racing Louisville – and for a flurry of new faces on the pitch, it will be their very first.
The club has the largest rookie contingent of any team in the league this season, made up of nine newcomers – Sarah Schupansky, Lilly Reale, Khyah Harper, Ryan Campbell, Sofia Cook, Emerson Elgin, Tyler McCamey, Josefine Hasbo, and Kayla Duran. (The number hits 10 if Mak Whitham, the 15-year-old on an under-18 contract, is counted).
They've been making their mark on the club, on and off the field.
“They’ve really been the heartbeat of the team,” said Gotham coach Juan Carlos Amorós. “(They're) bringing energy, commitment and a willingness to learn from the senior players while also being ready to perform when called upon. Every single one of them has started or played games, and they’ve been really important in getting the team to where we are today.”
That high number is quite the change from the past couple years, when Gotham only had one rookie per season in both 2024 and 2023.
And this year’s deep contingent has definitely been making their mark — Schupansky leads the team in assists and Reale, Harper and Schupansky make up three of the team’s top 10 scorers.
“I just think about the amount of experience we have on this roster and how often these experienced players are offering advice and help and support to us younger players who might not have been in these high stakes scenarios,” said Schupansky, referencing the support from the vets as the playoffs near. “We have them to lean on and to kind of replicate how they’re preparing for these games, we can kind of take some things from their regimens and implement them into ours.”
Different connections have grown between the young rookies and their experienced teammates – Amorós said defender Emily Sonnett has worked closely with Campbell and Reale, while forward Esther Gonzalez has really connected with Schupansky.
And the vets, for their part, have been thoroughly impressed with the large set of newcomers.
“On and off the field, they're true teammates," said midfielder Jaelin Howell, who scored in Sunday's draw. “What I've told them all year is that it's a season of ups and downs. ... We just have to keep uplifting them and showing them that even though it's a long season, we've got to lean on each other.”
The group will now take on their first postseason together, waiting to officially find out their playoff seed. In the words of Schupansky, “I think that there's only more to come.”
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
FILE - NJ/NY Gotham FC forward Sarah Schupansky dribbles the ball with Seattle Reign FC midfielder Angharad James-Turner, left, and midfielder Jess Fishlock, right, defending during an NWSL soccer match in Seattle, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP Photo/John Froschauer,File)
NEW YORK (AP) — An emotional plea by Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi and moving words from Ryan Coogler on the violence in Minneapolis stirred a National Board of Review Awards ceremony Tuesday in which Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” was again crowned the best film of the year.
Coming two days after Sunday’s Golden Globes, the annual, untelevised New York gala, held in the cavernous midtown banquet all Cipriani 42nd Street and hosted by Willie Geist, played out as a more intimate and frank-spoken alternative.
The winners themselves were already announced, so the night was always going to belong to “One Battle After Another.” The National Board of review, a group that is made up of film enthusiasts and dates to 1909, not only named it 2025’s best film but awarded the best actor prize to Leonardo DiCaprio, best director to Anderson, best supporting actor to Benicio Del Toro and breakthrough performer to Chase Infiniti.
Yet in an ongoing parade of awards for “One Battle After Another,” its night at the NBRs still stood out. The surprise presenter of the movie’s best film award was Martin Scorsese, who praised “the audacity” of Anderson’s narratives and the accomplishment of his latest.
“Like all great films, it can’t really be compared to anything else,” Scorsese said. “It stands alone. It’s a great American film.”
Anderson, trying to take in the wealth of honors, attempted to describe what “ One Battle After Another,” his father-daughter tale of revolution, might represent. His answer came in pointing out his own daughter, sitting at his table.
“I don’t know what our movie is about, but I do know it’s about loving your kids,” Anderson said.
For many of the honorees, the world outside the starry banquet weighed heavily. Coogler’s speech was among the night’s most poignant. The “Sinners” director was honored for his screenplay for the vampire thriller and was introduced by the film’s star, longtime collaborator Michael B. Jordan.
Both were honored 13 years earlier by the board for their first movie together, “ Fruitvale Station.” Recalling that film, based on the true story of the 2009 killing of Oscar Grant by a Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer in Oakland, California, Coogler turned to the recent fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good by an immigration enforcement agent in Minneapolis.
“I was young and naive, and I thought the movie was going to change the world and make it so you didn’t see people executed by civil service on camera anymore,” Coogler said. “I was proven wrong again and again. And it’s tough to be here and not think about Minnesota.”
“I can’t be here and not think about Renee,” Coogler added.
Still, the ceremony’s most powerful words came from Panahi, the dissident Iranian filmmaker who for nearly two decades worked clandestinely in his native country while being placed under house arrest and jailed. Panahi’s latest, “ It Was Just an Accident,” was awarded best international film.
The movie, inspired by Panahi's own imprisonment, is a revenge drama about stopping the cycle of violence and oppression in Iran. On Tuesday the death toll from a nationwide crackdown on demonstrators in that country surpassed 2,5000, according to activists.
“As we stand here, the state of Iran is gunning down protesters and a savage massacre continues blatantly on the streets of Iran,” Panahi said. “Today the real scene is not on screens but on the streets of Iran. The Islamic Republic has caused a bloodbath to delay its collapse.”
“This is no longer a metaphor,” he continued. “This is not a story. This is not a film. This is a reality written with bullets day after day.”
Panahi called on the film community to speak out and “use any voice and any platform you have.”
“Today, cinema has the power to stand by defenseless people,” Panahi said. “Let’s stand by them.”
Panahi’s remarks, delivered through an interpreter, shook the audience. And when the next award went to Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar, for adapted screenplay for their plaintive Pacific Northwest period drama “Train Dreams,” the filmmakers seemed to cut short their speech, which was partially about how making the movie and then promoting it through awards season meant sacrificing time with their young children.
“When the world is kind of burning down, it can feel frivolous at times,” Bentley said. “I just want to say thank you most of all to Mr. Panahi for reminding us for what we can do with the medium and why it can be worth doing.”
Jafar Panahi attends the National Board of Review Awards gala at Cipriani 42nd Street on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
Leonardo DiCaprio attends the National Board of Review Awards gala at Cipriani 42nd Street on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
Ryan Coogler attends the National Board of Review Awards gala at Cipriani 42nd Street on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
Chase Infiniti attends the National Board of Review Awards gala at Cipriani 42nd Street on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
Michael B. Jordan attends the National Board of Review Awards gala at Cipriani 42nd Street on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
Benicio Del Toro attends the National Board of Review Awards gala at Cipriani 42nd Street on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
Leonardo DiCaprio attends the National Board of Review Awards gala at Cipriani 42nd Street on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
Sara Murphy, from left, Teyana Taylor, Paul Thomas Anderson, and Chase Infiniti pose in the press room with the award for best motion picture – musical or comedy for "One Battle After Another" during the 83rd Golden Globes on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
