Coach Juan Carlos Amorós says Gotham FC already has a league trophy and a confederation title, so, naturally, the next step is an intercontinental championship.
The National Women's Soccer League club is vying to win the first Women's Champions Cup in England this week, starting Wednesday when the team will face Brazil's Corinthians in a semifinal.
"The hunger they have to win is unbelievable. It’s in their nature,” Amorós said about Gotham. “They win one competition and they’re already thinking about the next one.”
UEFA Champions League winner Arsenal plays Morocco's ASFAR in the late semifinal at London's Gtech Community Stadium. The championship and a third-place match will take place Sunday at Emirates Stadium with $2.3 million going to the winner. The runner-up takes home $1 million.
Gotham was the surprising winner of the NWSL championship as the eighth seed heading into the playoffs, knocking off No. 1 Kansas City and defending champion Orlando before beating the Washington Spirit 1-0 for the championship.
Gotham qualified for the inaugural FIFA event by winning the first CONCACAF Champions Cup, with a 1-0 victory over Mexico’s Tigres last May.
“This is where we want to be: Competing in the semifinals, competing in the finals, competing to raise another trophy. That’s the standard here at Gotham,” Gotham defender Mandy Freeman said as the team held preseason training in Spain. “We want to not only be the first to win these types of competitions, but to continue that legacy and keep coming back to fight for championships.”
The six-team women's Champions Cup was created as an intercontinental championship for women's club teams. It builds on a growing number of regional club competitions, led by the success of the UEFA Women's Champions League.
It also capitalizes on the growth of women's soccer globally. The 2025 Women's European Championship in Switzerland set a tournament record in attendance and viewership. At the club level, Barcelona's victory over Real Madrid in the Champions League final in 2022 at Camp Nou drew a world record crowd of over 91,000.
But the launch of the new tournament has been bumpy. A global broadcast partner for the final stage wasn't announced until two weeks ago, when DAZN stepped in. Sky Sports will broadcast the matches in England.
FIFA is also introducing a 16-team Women's Club World Cup, which will launch in 2028 and be played every four years. The new Champions Cup will be held every year, except years when the Club World Cup takes place.
The competition includes one representative from each of the six confederations: UEFA (Europe), CONCACAF (North and Central America and the Caribbean), CONMEBOL (South America), CAF (Africa), OFC (Oceania) and AFC (Asia).
In addition to Arsenal's qualification through the UEFA Champions League and Gotham's qualification via CONCACAF's Champions Cup, Corinthians won the CONMEBOL Copa Libertadores Femenina to earn a spot and ASFAR won the CAF Champions League.
Two continental champions were eliminated in earlier rounds: Auckland United from Oceania and Wuhan Chegu Jiangda representing Asia.
The UEFA, CONCACAF and CONMEBOL competition winners advance to the semifinals directly, while the Africa, Asia and Oceania winners play a knockout round.
The NWSL had offered to host, and there were rumors that a West Coast location was considered for the final stage, but Arsenal's league match against Chelsea on Sunday made that problematic. So London was ultimately chosen.
The total prize pool to be distributed among the six continental champions is $3.9 million. In contrast, Arsenal got some $1.8 million in prize money for winning the Women’s Champions League last season.
The prize money is “a clear statement of the belief in women’s club football and the players, teams and competitions driving its continued rise,” FIFA secretary general Mattias Grafström said in a statement.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
FILE - NJ/NY Gotham FC defender Emily Sonnett, center, lifts the NWSL championship trophy after defeating the Washington Spirit in an NWSL women's championship soccer match Nov. 22, 2025, in San Jose, Calif. (AP Photo/Justine Willard, File)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — President Donald Trump softened his tone Monday on the immigration crackdown in Minnesota, touting productive conversations with the governor and Minneapolis mayor as he sent the border czar to take charge of much of the enforcement effort. Some federal agents were expected to leave as soon as Tuesday.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said he spoke by phone with Trump, who praised the discussion and declared that “lots of progress is being made." Frey said he asked Trump in a phone call to end the immigration enforcement surge and that Trump agreed the present situation cannot continue.
The mayor said some agents would soon leave and that he would keep pushing for others involved in Operation Metro Surge to go.
Among those who are expected to depart was senior Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. The person was not authorized to publicly discuss details of the operation and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.
Bovino has been at the center of the administration’s aggressive enforcement surge in cities nationwide. His departure marks a significant public shift in federal law enforcement posture amid mounting outrage over the fatal shooting of 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti by Border Patrol agents, the second fatal shooting by federal immigration officers this month.
Bovino's leadership of highly visible federal crackdowns, including operations that sparked mass demonstrations in Los Angeles, Chicago, Charlotte and Minneapolis, has drawn fierce criticism from local officials, civil rights advocates and congressional Democrats.
Criticism increased around Bovino in the last few days after his public defense of the Pretti shooting and disputed claims about the confrontation that led to his death.
The border czar, Tom Homan, will take charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in Minnesota. Frey said he planned to meet Homan on Tuesday.
Trump and Democratic Gov. Tim Walz spoke in a phone call and later offered comments that were a marked change from the critical statements they have exchanged in the past. Their conversation happened on the same day a federal judge heard arguments in a lawsuit aimed at halting the federal immigration enforcement surge in the state.
“We, actually, seemed to be on a similar wavelength,” the president wrote in a social media post.
Walz, in a statement, said the call was “productive" and that impartial investigations into the shootings were needed. Trump said his administration was looking for “any and all” criminals the state has in their custody. Walz said the state Department of Corrections honors federal requests for people in its custody.
Meanwhile, attorneys for the administration, the state and the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul appeared Monday before U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez, who is considering whether to grant requests to temporarily halt the immigration operation.
She said the case was a priority, but in an order later Monday, she told the federal government’s attorneys to file an additional brief by 6 p.m. Wednesday. She told them to address, among other things, the assertion by the state and cities that the purpose of Operation Metro Surge is to punish them for their sanctuary laws and policies.
Lawyers for the state and the Twin Cities argued the situation on the street is so dire it requires the court to halt the federal government’s enforcement actions.
“If this is not stopped right here, right now, I don’t think anybody who is seriously looking at this problem can have much faith in how our republic is going to go in the future,” Minnesota Assistant Attorney General Brian Carter said.
The judge questioned the government’s motivation behind the crackdown and expressed skepticism about a letter Attorney General Pam Bondi recently sent to Walz. The letter asked the state to give the federal government access to voter rolls, to turn over state Medicaid and food assistance records, and to repeal sanctuary policies.
“I mean, is there no limit to what the executive can do under the guise of enforcing immigration law?” Menendez asked. She noted that the federal requests are the subject of litigation.
Brantley Mayers, a Justice Department attorney, said the government's goal is to enforce federal law. Mayers said one lawful action should not be used to discredit another lawful action.
Menendez questioned where the line was between violating the Constitution and the executive's power to enforce the law. She also asked whether she was being asked to decide between state and federal policies.
“That begins to feel very much like I am deciding which policy approach is best,” she said.
At one point, while discussing the prospect of federal officers entering residences without a warrant, the judge expressed reluctance to decide issues not yet raised in a lawsuit before her.
Menendez made it clear that she was struggling with how to rule because the case is so unusual, and there are few precedents.
"It’s because this is important that I’m doing everything I can to get it right,” she said.
The state of Minnesota and the cities sued the Department of Homeland Security earlier this month, five days after Renee Good was shot by an Immigration and Customs officer. Pretti's shooting on Saturday added urgency to the case.
Late Monday, a federal appeals court declined to lift a temporary hold on a ruling Menendez issued in a separate case on Jan. 16. She ruled then that federal officers in Minnesota cannot detain or tear gas peaceful protesters who are not obstructing authorities, including people who follow and observe agents. A three-judge panel of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals said that ruling was unlikely to hold up on appeal.
Trump posted Monday on social media that Homan would report directly to him.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Homan would be “the main point of contact on the ground in Minneapolis” during continued operations by federal immigration officers.
In court Monday, an attorney for the administration said about 2,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were on ground, along with at least 1,000 Border Patrol officers.
The lawsuit asks the judge to order a reduction in the number of federal law enforcement officers and agents in Minnesota back to the level before the surge and to limit the scope of the enforcement operation.
The case has implications for other states that have been or could become targets of ramped-up federal immigration enforcement operations. Attorneys general from 19 states plus the District of Columbia, led by California, filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting Minnesota.
In yet another case, a different federal judge, Eric Tostrud, took under advisement a request from the Justice Department to lift an order he issued late Saturday blocking the Trump administration from “destroying or altering evidence” related to Saturday’s shooting.
Attorneys for the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension told the judge they can’t trust the federal government to preserve the evidence, citing the lack of cooperation the state is getting from federal authorities after they said they were blocked from the scene.
But the federal government’s attorneys argued that the temporary restraining order should be dissolved because its investigators are already following proper preservation procedures, and they’d object to “micromanaging” from the court what evidence the state can examine while the federal investigation is ongoing.
Balsamo reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Jack Brook in Minneapolis, Giovanna Dell’Orto in St. Paul, Minnesota, and Mike Catalini in Trenton, New Jersey, contributed to this report.
FILE - U.S. Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino walks through a Target store Jan. 11, 2026, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Adam Gray, File)
A man, center left, next to a Minneapolis police officer grabs a protester in the doorway during a noise demonstration protest in response to federal immigration enforcement operations in the city Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
Federal agents try to clear demonstrators near a hotel, using tear gas during a noise demonstration protest in response to federal immigration enforcement operations in the city Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
A federal agent points a weapon at a person outside a hotel during a noise demonstration protest in response to federal immigration enforcement operations in the city Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
A federal agent stands guard near a hotel during a noise demonstration protest in response to federal immigration enforcement operations in the city Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
Attorney General Keith Ellison speaks during a news conference in Blaine, Minn., Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Attorney General Keith Ellison, right, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz give a news conference in Blaine, Minn., Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
