Making sense of Gotham FC's 2025 offseason moves
Full Time: A show about women's soccer
The Athletic
4.8 • 808 Ratings
🗓️ 9 January 2025
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Happy 2025! It's a new year and a new season of Full Time with Meg Linehan!
As the NWSL offseason heats up, one of the biggest talking points has been: What has been going on at NJ/NY Gotham FC?
Well, to help answer that question, Gotham general manager Yael Averbuch West joins the podcast to talk about the transfers out of Lynn Williams and Yazmeen Ryan, the major signing of Brazilian international Gabi Portilho, and what it means for Gotham to be in the spotlight as a top club in the league.
Meg Linehan and Theo Lloyd-Hughes also react to Emma Hayes' first U.S. women's national team roster of 2025, and break down the nuances of what it means for the U-23 players to also be joining up for the 'futures' camp in January.
PLUS: Discussion on what to make of the NWSL dropping its schedule 'footprint' for 2025, the built-in summer break, and the return of the Challenge Cup as curtain raiser between the league's Shield and Championship winners.
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Articles mentioned on the show:
USWNT head coach Emma Hayes looks to ‘bridge a gap’ for ‘lost generation’ with Futures Camp
NWSL’s 2025 schedule footprint: Challenge Cup’s return, summer pause and updated roster rules
NWSL expansion adds Denver as 16th team, $110 million fee smashes record: Source
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HOSTS: Meg Linehan, Theo Lloyd-Hughes
GUESTS: Yael Averbuch West
PRODUCER: Theo Lloyd-Hughes
VIDEO PRODUCER: Lia Griffin
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Emily Olsen
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | He's having a blinder. He's clipped the post. He's looking formidable. Then... |
| 0:09.0 | His game might be over, but yours isn't. |
| 0:14.0 | With Betfair's safe so, your bet simply rolls onto the player coming on. |
| 0:18.0 | Playing a different league with BetFair. |
| 0:24.6 | Balladon selected leagues and markets only applies to singles, multiples and bet-builder bets on qualified player outcome selections does not apply to odds, boosts, |
| 0:27.6 | season, exclusions apply 18 plus gamblerware.org. Hello, hello, hello, 2025. Welcome to full time with Meg Lennahan. I'm Meg. We're back. Tamara is not back from vacation yet. God bless. She still gets to keep that |
| 0:56.6 | riding. So today I am joined by Theo Lloyd Hughes back on camera once again. Hi, Theo. How are you? |
| 1:05.0 | I'm very well. Happy New Year. Happy Happy New Year, 2025. I know. Unbelievable. I just, I had to write the date today and I struggled |
| 1:14.4 | for a good 10 seconds of what, I don't know what day it is. I don't know what year it is. |
| 1:20.4 | That's the vibe. Yeah, it's a great grace period, the sort of Bermuda Triangle time between, you know, |
| 1:27.2 | your holidays, your Christmas, your Hanukas, |
| 1:29.1 | your Kwanhas and your New Year's, and then this first week, second week of January, you're just |
| 1:32.7 | kind of like, where am I? What's real? I kind of love it. We don't get enough time where we're |
| 1:38.1 | allowed to be a bit sloppy and unsure of basic things. So I embrace it. I know. |
| 1:47.4 | The NWSL preseason is already around the corner. |
| 1:48.6 | I mean, we're going to get into it. |
| 1:52.6 | But it's like, it's just, we, what's an off season? |
| 1:53.6 | It doesn't exist anymore. |
| 1:54.7 | Yeah, yeah. |
| 1:56.6 | The listener is going to be in for a treat today. |
| 2:03.3 | Got Gotham general manager, Yarl Ava Birch West on the show. |
| 2:09.4 | And yeah, definitely some real shoutouts of there is no offseason. |
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