For Rockville Centre native Meredith Speck, playing for Gotham FC women's soccer is 'an unexpected gift'

The question would be asked like clockwork.

At its core, it was an acknowledgement of the 536-mile gap between Rockville Centre and Raleigh, North Carolina, and the difficulty it caused Meredith Speck to not be able to spend time with her mother. 

And so, when they would find themselves in conversation, invariably at some point Speck would hear: 

Five words. One overriding hope: Was there a possibility that Speck, a Rockville Centre native, could leave North Carolina's capital city to return home and continue her professional soccer career with Gotham FC?

But for Speck, the gap seemed something close to impassable. The midfielder was employed by the North Carolina Courage and there really wasn’t a pathway for her to leave the only National Women’s Soccer League franchise she had ever known to join one of the NWSL’s model franchises.

Nor did Speck really want to leave the Courage. By her own admission, she “was content where I was,” but had also resigned herself to the reality there wasn’t a roster spot available on the team that had claimed the NWSL’s 2023 and 2025 championships.

But the thing about opportunity is that it works on its own timeline. For Speck and Gotham, an occasion presented itself during training camp and following a slight detour, she is now on the team that could potentially win its third NWSL championship in four seasons.

“This is kind of an unexpected gift,” Speck told Newsday in a phone interview. “Being here experiencing the joy of playing for a hometown team, having my family be able to come to games — my family’s texting me they’re going to the park on weekends and they’re seeing kids at the park in Gotham gear — and I just think it’s been a really fun experience that I didn’t plan for.”

Following the end of the 2025 season, the Courage announced in a statement that the organization would not renew the contracts of eight players. Speck was one of them.

The 33-year-old was in limbo. Did she want to still play? Could she still play?

Inside Gotham FC’s C-suite offices, general manager Yael Averbuch West and coach Juan Carlos Amoros trusted that the Sacred Heart Academy graduate would be a net positive to the organization.

“Meredith is a very well-known player in the league in terms of her contributions on winning teams, on-and-off-the-field," Averbuch West said. "She knows what it takes to win. She’s a wonderful teammate. We knew that Meredith is going to be someone who competes, who pushes herself and pushes [teammates] at all times to be their best and is just such a useful member of the team trying to compete and win things.”

Speck’s three NWSL championships — one as a rookie with the Western New York Flash in 2016 and back-to-back titles in 2018 and 2019 with the Courage — speaks to Averbuch West’s praise. As does a career in which Speck has played in 108 matches, starting 41, and recorded 16 points (eight goals and eight assists).

And so, she joined the team in Florida for a week during training camp. It was during that time she had a conversation with Amoros, who offered Speck the possibility of continuing to train with the team and challenge for a spot on the roster when the season began.

Although the proposal “didn’t make sense for me,” as Speck said, her relationship with Amoros and Averbuch West was strong. She stayed in touch with them while competing in the seven-on–seven TST (The Soccer Tournament) in Cary, North Carolina, at the end of May and start of June.

Following the tournament, Speck reached out to Averbuch West and Amoros with a question: I can still play. Is there a place for me on Gotham FC?

The answer was yes.

“It was a no-brainer to add her to the roster,” Amoros said. “We could not be happier because she’s been an integral part of what we’ve achieved so far this season.”

Gotham finished the regular season with the best record in the league (18-5-7, 61 points), and opened the playoffs with a 1-0 win over the Seattle Reign FC last Sunday at Sports Illustrated Stadium in Harrison, New Jersey.

The game was marred by poor field conditions — Amoros apologized about the playing surface in his postgame news conference — and the team was unable to reach an agreement with the New York Red Bulls of Major League Soccer, which operates the stadium, on a plan to remedy the situation.

As a result, this Sunday’s semifinal match against the fourth-seeded Kansas City Current will be played at Icahn Stadium on Randall’s Island.

And while not ideal — Sports Illustrated Stadium seats 25,000 whereas there are only 5,000 seats at Icahn Stadium — the possibility of being on a fourth championship-winning team is enticing for Speck.

“It would be incredible,” said Speck, who has played 39 minutes in two games as a reserve after signing with Gotham in early August. “It’s really amazing to be back in a winning environment and on a club that really emphasizes that kind of success and to be able to lift a trophy for New York, for New Jersey, would be really the best thing in the world.”