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Gotham FC, the reigning NWSL champion, will be the first NWSL team to visit the White House for a championship celebration. President Joe Biden will welcome the team on Monday, reuniting most of last season's squad — including Ali Krieger, who retired at the end of the year. "This is such a monumental moment for the NWSL," Krieger told The Athletic.
"I'm so excited the NWSL is getting recognition at the White House and that we're the very first NWSL championship team to celebrate. This is going to be such a great moment for the team and for us as a whole." Advertisement While the White House has previously honored the U.
S. women's national team for winning the World Cup, only one women's professional soccer team has been honored by the White House with a celebration: Sky Blue FC in 2010 for their 2009 championship win during former President Barack Obama's first term. While it was in a different professional league — Women's Professional Soccer, which ran from 2009 to 2011 — the same franchise will earn the same honor 14 years later.
Krieger and Gotham investor Carolyn Tisch Blodgett referenced the team's worst-to-first storyline and the way Gotham barely made it into the 2023 playoffs, needing the final day of the regular season. "We're really thinking of this as a moment to recognize the work that went into winning that championship," Tisch Blodgett said. She also said the team does not view their visit as a political statement.
"We were invited by the White House. We were invited by President Biden to celebrate this team." GO DEEPER The Athletic's American soccer team of 2023: NJ/NY Gotham FC But Krieger and Tisch Blodgett also view the White House invite as something much larger — not just an image of an NWSL team next.
.. Meg Linehan.
