At the playoff line; Seattle Reign are next

Hello everyone! With their road win against Orlando this week, the Courage have inched above the playoff line. And the NWSL being the NWSL, that means they’re 3 points away from third place … but also at risk of not making it.

Fall is generally wild for the league. In some ways, this is a more “normal” season. Last year, the Courage ended up locked mid-table surprisingly early, and the end of the season was relatively anticlimactic for everyone, including Racing Louisville claiming their usual 9th-place finish.

This year, Kansas City has run away with the league, clinching the shield, but the remaining teams are all fairly evenly spread, with no teams ruled out of the playoffs just yet. It feels like the type of chaos we can embrace.

Let’s take a look at how things stand.

Recap: Courage v. Orlando Pride

The Courage have made a statement with their depth these past two weeks. Plenty of playmakers are dealing with injuries, notably Ashley Sanchez, Denise O’Sullivan and Feli Rauch. Unfortunately, this week Brianna Pinto, who scored last week’s game-winning goal, was added to the list.

Even with that, the team was prepared. Cortnee Vine got the start for Pinto, and Tyler Lussi continues to play higher on the pitch. With Payton Linnehan also in, it leaves Manaka Matsukubo the freedom to drop back and sit a little deeper, where she continues to display her most threatening work.

The return to more of a four-back stance, with Dani Weatherholt in, has flummoxed teams trying to work their way to goal.

And speaking of that, Orlando didn’t show many threatening looks, with a total of 2 shots on goal in the entire match. The game had a fairly broad back-and-forth play style, with both teams seeming tentative or playing a little deeper on their own side at first. Ally Watt had a good run past the Courage defense early on, but the pass to her didn’t connect well.

The Courage did have a chance to show off their incredible defense a few times, most notably a stunning block by Maycee Bell; Marisa Jordan was out of goal after a save, and Bell was perfectly positioned to clear a second attempt. After the half, Kaleigh Kurtz, initially lagging behind Marta during a run, still managed a great block. There was also some great tag-team defensive work between Weatherholt and Lussi late in the match.

The loan goal was a stunner at 89’ from Shinomi Koyama, her first NWSL goal. During the build, Ryan Williams got a pass to Manaka, who moved it back to Williams, who made another pass to Aline Gomes. Gomes got a good shot off, which was deflected, and Koyama was there to clean up.

Having said that, you will want to watch this. Again. This wasn’t a simple task. She somehow kicked between the legs of defender Emily Sams, keeper Anna Moorehouse and midfielder Angelina to win the match. Forget NWSL votes, this is goal of the week.

And as a final piece of good news, new defender Natalie Jacobs subbed on during extended stoppage time, relieving Manaka and giving Courage fans a glimpse of Jacobs’ defensive chops and leadership abilities in a short span. Check out this head deflection.

Next, the Courage face a tough road match against Seattle.

Look ahead: Courage v. Seattle Reign

West Coast road trips are difficult, and Seattle in particular may pose a challenge for the Courage.

It’s difficult to get a handle on the Seattle’s form at the moment. They recently have had draws against Houston and San Diego, lost to Kansas City and Washington (the top two teams in the league) and beat Louisville 1-0 at home.

Lynn Biyendolo and Ana-Maria Crnogorčević have been out, dealing with knee and ankle injuries, respectively.

Even so, like the Courage, the Reign have a lot of depth. Mia Fishel and Jordan Huitema are threats. And I’m sure we’d all like to forget that absurd, practically-half-the-field-length bomb from Jordyn Bugg in Seattle’s 2-1 victory over the Courage last March.

Seattle is fairly stingy on defense, too, currently sitting at 5th in league in terms of goals (not) conceded.

In short, these two teams look evenly matched, and this should prove a good test for how much of an improvement the Courage have seen in the last few weeks. In any case, it should be more exciting than last week’s slow take down of Orlando.

While a road loss or draw isn’t the end of a playoff run, a win could put the Courage pretty high up the table and in better control of their playoff destiny. It would also make clear that the changes made to the team dynamics lately – namely the additions of Linnehan and Jacobs, as well as Jordan stepping into goal – were the right calls to lead the team into the post season.

Courage news and updates

• For those of you in the area, The Uproar will be hosting a watch party at 7:30p on Sunday at Durham Beer Garden.

Around the league and beyond

• Well, the inevitable happened, and Kansas City won the 2025 shield. Congratulations to them on an absolutely dominant 2025 run.

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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