It's impossible to have laid out a simpler pathway forward to two different trophies than Gotham FC have in front of them right now.

Win or draw on Sunday against Utah Royals, and they are guaranteed the club's first-ever regular season title and NWSL Shield. Win three more after, and they successfully defend their NWSL championship.

Tacked onto last weekend's shorthanded yet critical win over Orlando, that road ahead has created what midfielder Savannah McCaskill referred to as a "five-game playoff" as they run the gauntlet.

"Going into the Orlando we talked about how we have a five-game season where we can win two trophies, and it was really going to come down to us," McCaskill told The Sporting News at the Gotham FC training facility on Thursday.

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"We have to want it more than any other team that we face. Obviously the first step was to win last weekend and we checked that box, and it's the same mentality going forward for this weekend."

Their 2-1 victory against Orlando was an injection of energy into the final stretch of the 2026 season. After a pair of adverse results against Angel City and Washington Spirit to begin October, where they picked up just a single point between the two matches, Gotham were on the brink of slipping from the top spot in the table. To make matters worse, the loss of duo Jordynn Dudley and Bruninha with season-ending injuries plus the short-term absence of Rose Lavelle and Jaedyn Shaw made the situation suddenly bleak.

Yet despite the roadblocks, Gotham came out and got a massive win, behind goals from Midge Purce and Tierna Davidson bracketing halftime.

For McCaskill, the ability for players to come in and do a job in a pinch is what gives Gotham their season-long edge in tough spots like last weekend.

"There's going to be moments in games where someone has to give a little bit extra," McCaskill said. "You saw that with Tierna [Davidson] and Ann[-Katrin Berger] this past game, making incredible tackles and incredible saves. That's what it takes, you have to have those special moments. And even if everyone gave their absolute max, someone's still going to have to give a little bit more. Sharing that load is really important throughout the season, and to win the championship it takes that."

There are players who haven't been called upon often this season who are now being called upon down the business end of a season with tons of potential. Mandy Freeman, who missed the first half of this season with an injury and had exactly two starts before October, has suddenly slotted in for the injured Bruninha and started three consecutive games. Midfielder Guro Reiten has seemingly played a million different positions, from left-back to left-wing to central midfield and beyond. Denise O'Sullivan was signed from Liverpool in July and has slotted in well, starting each of the last five games.

"There's so many players on this team that have been in World Cups, Olympics, have been in club finals, and have won things before, so that mentality isn't new for the group, and I think that will really help us on Sunday and continue on," said McCaskill, who has seen her own playing time shrink with the arrival of O'Sullivan.

"Coming in [this season], I think I slotted in really well. The relationship I was able to build with Tierna [Davidson], Jaelin [Howell], Guro [Reiten], Jaedyn [Shaw], that little area of the field, I think we had a really good run of games through the end of summer. But obviously, Denise [O'Sullivan] has come in, and Denise is a really good player, and I think we push each other really well in training."

At this point in her career, the 30-year-old McCaskill is willing to do whatever she is asked to help the team win. It's a mentality that she says pervades throughout the squad, and why they are so able to chop and change while still keeping the level up.

"I've always said I just want to win. I will do whatever I need to on a team in order to win. For the majority of this season I was called upon to start and play almost 90 minutes, and the last few games I've found myself coming on and closing games. At the end of the day, if we win on Sunday, everyone wins, and that's why I want to continue to get better and why I came here, because I want to be pushed and want to be challenged, and wanted to have to compete, and that's exactly what I've been getting."

Obviously, for this team, the playoff crown is the main goal, just like it was last year when Gotham won its first-ever NWSL title. Yet there's still something to prove by securing the NWSL Shield on Sunday, to show the league that Gotham were more than just a flash in the pan last fall.

"Everyone wants to win everything that we possibly can, this group is a group of winners," said McCaskill. "So even though some people might still hold the championship as a higher trophy than the regular season, we have so many players from Europe where the league is everything, so there's a great balance where nobody's overlooking the Shield to look for the championship, but also no one's just like 'eh, we can just win the Shield and not worry about the championship.' The mentality is that we're now in a four-game season and we want to win everything."

According to McCaskill, she's far from the only one that feels that way. It's that team-wide belief that brought McCaskill back to the club that drafted her after a seven-year journey around the NWSL. First brought in out of South Carolina in 2018, McCaskill left the club, then known as Sky Blue FC, to play for Chicago, Racing Louisville, Angel City, and the San Diego Wave before returning to the northeast at the start of this season.

"The reason I moved from San Diego to come back here is because the roster," she said. "What [president of soccer operations] Yael [Averbuch West] and [head coach] Juan [Carlos Amoros] have done to build out a roster of winners...In order to be the best you have to be surrounded by the best. I've been on some really great rosters...but the ability for young players and very experienced players to blend is rare, because a lot of clubs now are going a lot younger and are missing that experienced piece or missing that depth piece.

"I think where we have gone right throughout this season, and really what they started building last year, is just depth of roster where you have to compete for a spot and compete for playing time. Everyone knows that we are here to win things, and I think that drives the mentality in training, it drives the standards of the club. I want to win."

Now, McCaskill is out to not only win titles for herself and the club, but to establish Gotham as a perennial contender, one that can do more than just fire at a high level for short bursts.

"Obviously they've won two championships, but last year they entered as the eighth-placed team and won. That shows mentality, that shows character, it shows all the things that you can show up and win a three-game playoff. But I think for us to win the Shield this year it would really show the growth of this club. Before I got here, my time with Sky Blue, where the club started to where we are now, I think that would show we are at a place where we can consistently win games, we're not just a playoff team, or a one-game wonder kind of thing where you show up when it matters and that's pretty much it.

"We've shown throughout the season we can continue to build, continue to get better. We're playing really good football. I think it would be a huge moment for us, especially as we continue to move forward as a club into the Queens move in 2028 and take it another step and another step."

It's a credit to the Gotham front office and coaching staff that they are able to keep the level up throughout a long, 30-game season despite so much change from week-to-week on the roster. Yet McCaskill also knows that the players on the field are the ones who make the engine run.

"I think [the standards are] driven a lot by the players," she said. "The staff can sit there or a head coach can be like 'this is the mentality! We need to do this, this, and this!" But if your players don't drive that, it doesn't matter. What I was saying earlier about this team being winners, you see it in training, or small-sided. If 11 v. 11 isn't good enough, people are walking around pissed off, frustrated. It's not good enough to just show up.

"Obviously, everyone has those days where you're just like 'I'm here, that's all I have to give.' But in those moments, you have a whole roster of players to help you through those moments. That's really set up through every single day of winning in small-sided, winning in possession, whatever the thing it is you want to be the best, so when those moments show up [where you're called on], you just slot right in.

"Regardless of what your area of skill is, what you bring to the table, every single that can step on the field for us is going to compete and give every single ounce of energy they possibly have, and at the end of the day the talent is enough on this roster."

On Sunday, Gotham will hope to slam the door on a regular season championship, and prove they were the best club from April through October. Then, they'll turn the page to another three-game sprint, hoping to become the first back-to-back league winners since the North Carolina Courage in 2018 and 2019, and the first team to win three titles in four years ever.

Regardless of what role McCaskill plays, she knows she'll be just as important as every single other player on the roster in closing the deal.