Esther González Sets Gotham Regular-Season Goals Record in Stunning 3-2 Comeback Over Seattle Reign

Lightning chased everybody off the field before kickoff. Seattle Reign FC spent the first half acting like the storm had never left. And then, with the clock deep into stoppage time and the rain still falling on Randall's Island, Gotham FC pulled off the kind of comeback that gets its own documentary.

Gotham beat Seattle 3-2 at Icahn Stadium on Saturday afternoon after trailing 2-0 at halftime. Substitute Esther González scored in the 81st minute and again in the fourth minute of stoppage time, and Rose Lavelle curled in the winner three minutes later. González's double made her Gotham's all-time leader in regular-season goals, per the club, with 30, two more than Sam Kerr.

Seattle Strikes Twice

The day started with a two-hour, 35-minute weather delay, according to Gotham, pushing a noon kickoff to 2:35 p.m. in front of 4,738 fans. It came three days after a 1-0 win over the Washington Spirit at Citi Field on Wednesday, and head coach Juan Carlos Amorós said the obstacles kept piling up. "Today we already had a big mountain to climb, but the mountain from the moment the players arrived at 9 a.m. got bigger and bigger," he said.

Seattle took full advantage of a sluggish start. Maddie Mercado drew a foul from Mandy Freeman in the box in the 12th minute, Freeman was booked, and Mia Fishel stepped up two minutes later and sent a right-footed penalty into the bottom right corner.

In the 22nd minute, Cassie Miller saved a long-range effort from Jaedyn Shaw, Seattle broke the other way, and Mercado finished Maddie Dahlien's delivery from the center of the box. Gotham's first-half response was polite at best: Miller saved from Savannah McCaskill and Freeman, and Gotham went into the break down 2-0.

The Turning Point

Amorós threw Guro Reiten and González on at halftime, and González went close almost immediately, heading a Reiten cross at Miller in the 49th minute.

Then came the moment that decided everything, even if nobody knew it yet. In the 50th minute Emily Sonnett was called for a foul on Sally Menti in the box, and VAR confirmed the penalty. A goal there and it is 3-0, with Gotham down three and running out of time. Dahlien took the kick in the 57th minute and hit the left post. Seattle's chance to put it away bounced back into play, and so did Gotham.

Ninety-Plus Minutes of Mayhem

Sam Kerr and Bruninha came on in the 63rd minute, and Kerr forced two saves from Miller inside two minutes. Seattle's back line was bending: the Reign finished with 34 clearances and 20 interceptions, and Gotham piled up 13 shots after halftime, per the club.

The dam finally broke in the 81st minute. González smacked a left-footed shot off the bar, and about 20 seconds later, per the club, she turned in a Shaw cross from the right side of the six-yard box. Both teams had headers fly wide in the 84th, and Kerr had two attempts blocked late in regulation.

The fourth official signaled 10 minutes of stoppage time, and Gotham used them like a cheat code. In the fourth added minute, off a corner sequence, Shaw slipped a through ball to González, who drove it into the bottom left corner to tie the game. Three minutes later Kerr carried into the box, the ball found Lavelle, and Lavelle curled a left-footed shot into the top left corner. Ballgame.

Amorós called the win "extremely remarkable," and then kept going. "These players never give up," he said. "They want to be champions. They want to win."

Star Turns

González came off the bench and put three of her four shots on target, scored twice and hit the bar once in roughly one half of work. The goals were her fifth and sixth of the season, and the club said the second pushed her past Kerr for the most regular-season goals in Gotham history.

Shaw assisted both González goals, the first multi-assist game of her career, per Gotham. Lavelle's winner was her only shot of the day and her second straight game-winner. Kerr added four shots, two on target, and the assist on the winner, which the club said was her 25th regular-season assist, making her the 12th player in league history to reach that mark.

For Seattle, Miller was outstanding in defeat with six saves. Mercado had a hand in both goals, drawing the penalty and scoring the second.

Stats That Matter

• Possession: Gotham 71 percent, Seattle 29.
• Shots: Gotham 18, Seattle 8. Shots on goal: 9-2 Gotham.
• Saves: Miller 6, Ann-Katrin Berger 1.
• Passing: Gotham completed 479 of 581 passes, Seattle 148 of 235.
• Penalties: Seattle was awarded two, scored one and hit the post with the other.

What It Means

Gotham improves to 9-3-3 with 30 points, and the club said the win lifted it into first place in the NWSL at the halfway mark of the regular season. It is three straight wins, after a 3-1 result at Utah and the Citi Field win over Washington. Gotham said it was the first time in nine years it had rallied from a two-goal deficit to win, and the first regular-season comeback from two goals down at halftime since August 19, 2017, against Seattle. Gotham, which also beat the Reign 2-0 in Seattle in May, visits the Portland Thorns on Friday.

"Honestly I'm at a loss for words for the players and the staff behind the scenes," Amorós said.

Seattle drops to 5-2-7 with 17 points, a gut punch after a 2-0 win over Portland the previous weekend. The Reign stay on the road and visit San Diego Wave FC on Sunday, July 26.

Closing Take

Seattle had this one in the bag for 80 minutes, but the bag had a hole in it. One missed penalty, one smacked crossbar and 10 minutes of added time later, Gotham turned a soggy, delayed, exhausting Saturday into a Marvel third act. At this point the Reign might want to check the weather report and the stoppage-time board before celebrating anything in New York.

Stats from ESPN's match data. Postgame quotes and club notes as reported by GothamFC.com.