A draw in garbage weather; hosting the Reign next

Hey Courage fans.

It was a week of blowouts by the best and draws for the rest … and we pulled a draw.

After watching Orlando trounce Chicago 6-0, followed by Washington and Kansas City turning in dominant performances early in the weekend, I was ready for us to come out of the gate swinging hard. Like two goals each for Sanchez and Shaw ready.

Instead, we faced a delay of several hours before the game start, then played in absolute trash weather conditions to a draw.

Still, there was plenty to like in our season opener. For one, we didn’t fall into the trap of the dreaded away loss, despite the conditions. We’ll take the point, and hope for some quick adjustments ahead of this week’s home opener against Seattle Reign.

Recap: Courage v. Racing Louisville

The starting XI was a point of speculation for NWSL fans last week. We ended up with an interesting mix, with Tyler Lussi taking the left forward spot, Ashley Sanchez on the right, each bracketing Manaka Matsukubo. That made room for Jaedyn Shaw to make her Courage debut at the 10 position, where she and Sanchez are generally most comfortable, and allowed us to have both on the pitch at the same time.

We might have expected this positioning: Lussi statistically is our best forward and a good ball distributer, and I think the entire WoSo universe expects Shaw and Sanchez to remain starters. The team also had a sad surprise in store with their availability report: both Olivia Wingate and Dani Weatherholt are on the 45-day injury list. This takes away two creative forward and defensive options, respectively.

To round out the midfield, Riley Jackson started opposite Denise O’Sullivan, and our back four starters remain unchanged: Ryan Williams, Malia Berkeley, Kaleigh Kurtz and Feli Rauch took up their usual roles, with keeper Casey Murphy delivering a masterful performance under a surprising amount of attacks from Louisville.

Louisville looked strong, starting with some fairly aggressive pressing that led to a lot of takeaways early on. During the first 20 minutes or so, they looked like the dominant team, giving our defense and midfields problems.

At 13’, Louisville did what they do best: scored on a corner set piece. They created just enough chaos by hitting a massive kick toward the back post, where Arin Wright was able to tap a quick pass to Emma Sears, who booted it into the net. Murphy was ready and covering the back post, and our defenders were covering well. Kurtz nearly got to the ball in time, but sometimes that bit of chaos is what works best in soccer.

After that the game settled out a bit, and the Courage were much more dominant in the second half.

Riley Jackson, who scored our 90’ equalizer last July against Racing, was ready for a second round. Jaedyn Shaw had a nice run down the right side, and Williams overtook to give a passing opportunity. Shaw connected with her, and Williams took a shot. Lund hit it away … right to the center of the box where Jackson was waiting. She was set, ready, and scored the goal. Her after-game interview was a delight to watch; she said at the half, the coaches told players they needed to provide more support in the box. Jackson took that to heart, and her focus brought us the equalizer.

There were some obvious challenges for the Courage, including several misreads in the midfield and empty passing lanes in the attacking third. Answering a question from the Equalizer’s Jeff Kassouf in the post-game press conference, Nahas noted that Sanchez and Shaw were working on their dynamic, and left the field discussing observations they had.

If the team can work that out, there were moments of real promise as well, including the aforementioned Williams overtake of Shaw. It felt like the Courage with a capital ‘C’ watching Williams run full-tilt to create a desperately needed passing option.

The Courage debut of forward Hannah Betfort was another bright spot. Lussi gave a strong performance, and we got a completely different look from Betfort at the 66’ minute mark, which threw the Louisville defenders. In some key attack builds, Betfort did a great job of pulling some defenders away with deep runs. With Aline Gomes and Cortnee Vine subbing in at the 81’ mark, it’s clear we have a lot of rotational forwards with varying styles. If they can find ways to keep connections in sync, we have a lot of difficult options for opponents, especially once Wingate returns.

Some other stray notes:

• I think Louisville looked like the strongest version of themselves; if they keep it up, maybe they finally escape the curse of #9?

• Taylor Flint was exceptional: tackling, clearing, making interceptions, etc; her “defensive actions” were double anyone else in the match.

• I asked Sean Nahas after the match what progress he’s finding most notable throughout preseason, and he said the team has started to really stretch lines; that came through in the second half.

Standout stats

Look ahead: Courage v. Seattle Reign

Historically a dominant squad in the NWSL, Seattle landed next-to-last on the table last season, in part due to a change of ownership. The new owners, the Carlyle Group plus MLS team the Seattle Sounders, did make some offseason moves, but it’s questionable whether it’s enough to boost the squad up the table.

A few notable players joined the club in the offseason:

• Lynn Biyendolo, acquired from Gotham in a trade that included a departing Jaelin Howell

• Madison Curry joined from ACFC

• Rookie forward Maddie Dahlien (from UNC!)

Dahlien scored Seattle’s lone goal last week in a draw with Gotham. She also scored the team’s lone goal in a 1-1 preseason draw with Angel City, and seems poised for an immediately impactful season.

Seattle brings additional firepower with Ana-Maria Crnogorčević and Jordyn Huitema. They typically line up in a 4-3-3 and rely on a stable of veterans, with a few highlights including midfielders Jess Fishlock and Ji So-Yun, defender Phoebe McClernon and a solid keeper in Claudia Dickey.

Like last week, this promises to be a game won in the midfield. The winning team will need good connections on forward progressions through some tough lines on either side of the pitch.

It will also be interesting to see if Nahas mixes up the starting XI, or goes for consistency in an effort to let the chemistry settle a little.

Courage news and updates

• The Courage announced match themes for 2025. Get your square pants ready.

Around the league and beyond

• Denver announced plans for a 14,500 seat dedicated stadium for their upcoming NWSL team. It looks awesome. The team starts play in 2026, and the stadium is expected to be ready by 2028. It’s the second dedicated women’s soccer pitch in the modern era, after Kansas City’s CPCK stadium.

• NPR is on a roll with NWSL news this week, starting with breaking that NWSL is working to monitor and protect players from online abuse; they are looking for a technology partner and expect to have a tool available later this season.

• NPR also looked into what protections surround McKenna Whitham, the 14-year-old that debuted with Gotham this week. The move was controversial given the league’s history / ongoing issues with abuse. This piece came out after Katie and I briefly discuss this on the pod.

• Boston FC announced they will have a new name for the team in the next few weeks, with new branding rolling out after.

• Bay FC revealed new details about its proposed training facility; for some reason I find all of the training facility news coming out of the West Coast very exciting for the league, perhaps because it’s a mark of real investment at the player level, including recruitment. It’s worth noting the Courage are getting some upgrades to their facility, supported by the town of Cary.

That’s it for this week! As always, you can get in touch with tips, suggestions, corrections and more: [email protected].

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