Havertown’s Sinead Farrelly caps ‘a dream’ year in the NWSL title game with Gotham FC

This year has already been the comeback story of a lifetime for Sinead Farrelly.

It started with the Havertown native’s return to professional soccer in March with Gotham FC. Then playing time in the NWSL — quite a bit, it would turn out, over 1,000 minutes across 22 games.

April brought an invitation to the Republic of Ireland’s national team. Early June brought a podcast series with Brianna Scurry, her first major public remarks since her revelation two years ago of abuse allegations against famed coach Paul Riley.

Late June brought an extraordinary triumph: a ticket to Ireland’s World Cup squad, for the Irish program’s first-ever appearance on women’s soccer’s biggest stage.

Late summer and early fall brought a front-row seat to Gotham’s transformation into a title contender. And now, this weekend brings another grand chapter: a berth in the NWSL championship game Saturday night in San Diego, against Seattle’s OL Reign (8 p.m., CBS3, Paramount+).

“It’s just been a dream,” Farrelly told The Inquirer in an interview on Friday. “I haven’t even had time to process, but it just keeps being the best-case scenario that I could have ever dreamed of — that I didn’t even think was possible. So it’s just incredible.”

» READ MORE: Sinead Farrelly looks back at playing in the World Cup for Ireland

She knows how big a story her comeback has been, especially for those who’ve been there from the start. For this reporter and others, memories remain vivid of the day the old Philadelphia Independence called her name with the No. 2 pick of the 2011 Women’s Professional Soccer draft.

No one could know then what was to come. And in the depths of the scandal, not to mention the horrific car crash that halted her playing days in late 2015, no one could know Farrelly ultimately would claim victory.

She has now, loud and clear.

“I genuinely have no words, and I haven’t had the time to even process that this is really happening,” the 33-year-old midfielder said. “I feel like I’m just riding the wave. Once the season ends, I’m going to be like, ‘What the heck just happened in the last year, like, honestly?’ It’s almost comical, but it’s just been incredible.”

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Come Saturday night, Farrelly will be one of many big names in the spotlight. The biggest will be Gotham’s Ali Krieger and the Reign’s Megan Rapinoe, U.S. national team legends who will retire after the game.

But there are others too, including current U.S. stalwarts Lynn Williams (Gotham), Rose Lavelle (Reign), and Alana Cook (Reign); Spanish World Cup winner Esther González (Gotham); and, from a local perspective, West Chester’s Phoebe McClernon (Reign), whom Farrelly and her family have long known.

González’s arrival at Gotham has been as successful as hoped for. Wearing the famed No. 9 shirt, she has scored goals and helped create them for others.

“She’s so flowing with the ball, so confident,” Farrelly said. “You can tell playing football and being around football at a young age and in the culture of being in Spain, they just play football differently than we do. And just to have that different kind of energy, it’s just been so amazing — and it makes the people around her better, and move off the ball better, and look for more combinations and little touches.”

» READ MORE: Spain wins the women’s World Cup and arrives as a women’s soccer superpower

While Gotham prides itself on a high-pressing game, they also have a fleet of players who can possess the ball well in Farrelly, González, and Spanish midfielder Maitane López. The playbook comes from another Spaniard, manager Juan Carlos Amorós, who just won the NWSL’s Coach of the Year award.

“The Spanish style of soccer is something that I love so much,” Farrelly said. “Maitane has brought so much as well. … I love that we have some new Spaniards on our team, because they’re just bringing so much football intelligence to this team.”

It all came together in a superb semifinal at the perennial power Portland Thorns, a 1-0 with a dazzling goal from Katie Stengel.

The day after the game, Gotham’s social media team posted a photo on social media of Farrelly embracing fellow veteran Mana Shim with the caption “Victory in Portland” and a black heart.

If you only knew of the game score, you would have thought it another moment of celebration. But it was much, much more. Farrelly and Shim played in Portland for Riley in 2014 and ‘15. Years later, their courage made them the chief accusers.

» READ MORE: Spain’s Esther González brings a World Cup champion’s shine to the NWSL

Shim quit the field at the end of 2018, becoming a lawyer and later becoming chair of the U.S. Soccer Federation’s task force on abuse in the sport. This past June, she signed a short-term injury replacement contract with Gotham. She ended up staying for the rest of the season, and scored a game-tying goal in August.

That social post floored countless people who saw it, and Farrelly knew it.

“It’s an amazing photo,” she said. “It means more than just being a good photo, obviously, to me and Mana. I think it’s this full-circle moment of, like, reclaiming back what we felt like we lost and the difficulties and things we’ve been through in the past with that club [Portland] particularly, but also just with this league.”

It wasn’t their first trip back to Portland together. That came in early October, when Gotham played a regular-season game there. Farrelly and Shim gave a heartfelt interview to The Oregonian at the time, then played as substitutes in a 1-0 loss.

On their second trip, they walked out with a 1-0 win. Then they got ready to fly down to San Diego.

» READ MORE: West Chester’s Phoebe McClernon reaches the NWSL title game with OL Reign — and with the Union’s help

“To be able to be back in that stadium that held a lot of like trauma for us, honestly, in a lot of ways — and to be able to be with this new team, in this new scenario, feeling so supported, so safe, with each other on the same team, and getting to celebrate that win — was just so special,” Farrelly said. “And so the fact that someone captured that picture, that candid moment, was just so amazing. There’s so much underneath that photo, and I think the people that know the most about it are Mana and I, so I think we just hold it really dear to our hearts.”

That was as powerful of a way to cap an interview as there could be. And it was time, anyway. Farrelly, Shim, and the rest of Gotham had a championship game to get ready for.

“We still just can’t believe it honestly,” Farrelly said. “It still has yet to process. But that was a very, very special personal moment for sure.”

There could be one more yet this year.