A rainy draw, playoff hopes remain, Vine called up for Matildas

Hello Courage Country!

The Courage survived the rainy weekend with a draw against second-ranked Washington Spirit.

Ordinarily, this would be a solid accomplishment – Washington beat the Courage 3-1 in their matchup earlier this season. And the DC side seems even tougher under new head coach Adrián González, who was elevated to the head coach position after Jonatan Giráldez departed for OL Lyonnes during the summer break.

But the postseason looms near, and the Courage will likely have to win their final two matches to advance.

Let’s break things down.

Recap: Courage v. Washington Spirit

It was a warm, rainy night for a tense match; the unusual kind of weather that makes soccer fun to watch, even if it’s tough to sit through (or play through; I imagine it’s not ideal for players either). It was NCFC youth night, so fans stuck it out for the most part. They were treated to a fairly even-handed game, with Courage showing some great midfield progression, despite the weather.

The Courage fielded a unique lineup, with Meredith Speck getting a start at forward. Acting Head Coach Nathan Thackeray talked about the choice with my colleague Katie, noting the Spirit tend to invert their right back. Speck adds speed and a veteran’s confidence to that side, and the coaching staff felt she fit the profile of what was needed there.

Casey Murphy was in goal over Marisa Jordan. While Jordan made a couple of errors the previous week, the Courage tend to stick with players to continue development. That said, Murphy played brilliantly against a difficult Washington front line, so it’s hard to argue the call. It was great to see her back in form, even as she’s likely to depart to Boston.

Another surprise was Natalie Jacobs starting over Maycee Bell. Once again, I liked what Jacobs brought to the mix, and it was fun to see her shine in her more natural position. I also don’t think this rules out Bell for future starts; I’m guessing the Courage will take a more mix-and-match approach based on opponents’ perceived strengths, or as players deal with minor knocks.

And finally, Ashley Sanchez started in the 10 role, with Manaka Matsukubo getting pushed to forward center. We’ve talked all season about the difficulty of fielding so much depth for this squad, so it seems with a healthy Sanchez, we might see both sharing the field this way.

The Courage had a couple of near-goals that ultimately were ruled offsides. Interestingly, as Katie points out on this week’s pod, the Courage were baiting Washington to run offsides as well, while also keeping defenders high to make aggressive crashes toward the 18-yard box when scoring opportunities arose.

After an even first half, Washington’s goal came when Trinity Rodman took on defender Dani Weatherholt 1:1; with Rodman’s fancy footwork, Weatherholt eventually slipped, giving ground to Rodman, who immediately scored a goal.

The Courage equalizer came at 86’, a well-earned goal after Manaka made a brilliant run past defender Leicy Santos and slipped a pass to Cortnee Vine between two defenders. Vine tried to work the ball to forward Hannah Betfort, but Esme Morgan got a toe on the pass, and it rebounded right to Shinomi, who scored. Keeper Aubrey Kingsbury even got a hand on the ball, but it had a lot of power on it and went into the net.

Also just … AWWWWW:

Unfortunately, even with an extended 8 minutes of stoppage time, the Courage weren’t able to make much of a successful build after that point, and the game ended in a draw.

The Spirit made a ton of early substitutions, likely trying to rest players ahead of the offseason, but it also showed off their depth. Even so, they weren’t able to find much ground in the second half of the match.

The Courage needed a home win before going on the road for a West Coast matchup against Bay FC, but the draw at least keeps the possibility of playoff contention alive.

Look ahead: Courage v. Bay FC

Bay FC has been in a slump, with 4 losses and 3 draws since the summer break. It’s hard to know how the team will show up, especially with their head coach taking a different role at the end of the season.

Historically, clubs struggle traveling for coast-to-coast matches, so that could spell trouble for the Courage. And even with their recent difficulties, Bay did beat the Courage 1-0 last April in Cary.

Still, end-to-end for 90 minutes, the Courage have looked much better lately, and Bay seems to be ground down. The Courage also have more to lose, with Bay already eliminated from the playoffs. Nothing is a given in the NWSL, but an energetic, early-scoring Courage squad could keep the post-season in sight.

The core of Bay’s squad includes a lot of former Courage players, notably center back Sydney Collins and attacking midfielder Tess Boade. Also, center back Brooklyn Courtnall is on loan from the Courage, though it’s unclear whether she will start (this is sometimes prohibited by contractual arrangements). They also have a brilliant defensive midfielder from Duke, Hannah Bebar, who is so good that Bay coaches recently leave her by herself as a loan pivot to shift more attacking players forward.

Up front, Bay has rotated a lot of scoring players, including Racheal Kundananji, Karlie Lema, Rachel Hill and Taylor Huff. This makes it challenging for opponents to know which forwards will initially appear.

The game will be on Friday, followed by a lengthy break for international play.

Courage news and updates

• Vine was called up for Australia for friendlies v. Wales and England. We did not have the USWNT roster at the time of publication.

• Kaleigh Kurtz played an astonishing 10,000 consecutive minutes, yet another record set this season by a Courage player.

Around the league and beyond

• Jeff Kassouf with ESPN did an analysis of how U.S. soccer chooses opponents and venues for friendlies for the USMNT and USWNT.

• League commissioner Jessica Berman received a 3-year contract extension. This Sportico article is an interesting read, implying this was an uncomfortable decision among owners, while also acknowledging other recent controversies surrounding her leadership.

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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