Falling to Portland, and putting on our Barbra Banda game face

Hello Courage Country! A relatively light news week is honestly a nice breath of air for me, so this will be a short and sweet newsletter!

Recap: Courage v. Portland Thorns

In what is increasingly becoming the tale of 2024, the Courage put up a quality showing against Portland, but ultimately fell 1-0 in another road loss. And frankly, it was also another match where it felt like we could have just as easily walked out with a draw. But, alas.

In particular, the first half looked favorable for the Courage. The team contained Sophia Smith well, and had a lot of great ball / pass control. Captain Denise O’Sullivan was back in the midfield, coming off an injury, and directing traffic with her usual excellence. It was surprising to see her playing a full 90 minutes, so hopefully it speaks to a rapid recovery. Meredith Speck was also in for more than hour, showing continued progress from her recovery from a torn ACL last season.

Defender Ryan Williams received a yellow card at 26’. Giving her a card was a call that might have gone either way, and was unfortunate as Williams later fouled Hina Sugita. A VAR review resulted in Williams receiving a second yellow card, equivalent to a red, which means she’ll sit out the next match. Then, Sophia Smith took the penalty kick for the match’s only goal. Double whammy.

In the second half, Portland looked a bit more in control. The Courage had one nice chance with a terrific cross from Feli Rauch to Ashley Sanchez, but the ball hit the post.

The Courage put up 52% possession, keeping our streak alive. But Portland ended with three points for the table, and we still have some questions to answer.

What else is there to say? Onward!

Look ahead: Courage v. Orlando Pride

This will be a tough test for our Courage squad. On the one hand, we’ll be on our home turf (just kidding, we don’t have turf). On the other … Orlando has been a terrifying force since Barbra Banda came into the picture. Which was, in case you’ve blocked it out, in our last match against them.

Banda isn’t the whole story; Orlando’s entire side has been playing well, but she seems to be the galvanizing piece, and is involved in most of their goals.

We played a midfield-heavy squad against Portland. With Williams out, Sully recovering, and the sort-of-unknown status of Manaka Matsukubo and Dani Weatherholt (they were listed as subs last match but didn’t play), it will be interesting to see what mix we throw at Orlando.

Orlando is not invincible – they walked out with a draw last week against San Diego and it seems like teams are finding some ways to contain them a bit. But it will take all of our prowess and our home field luck holding to pull out a full win here.

Courage news and updates

• The Courage made it all the way to the final of The Soccer Tournament, competing for $1m against the USWNT! Katie and I split our time watching the matches, and had a blast. Ultimately, the Courage lost to the USWNT in the final, but considering this was the first year in which we fielded a squad – and all of the incredible energy Jessica McDonald brought to organizing them – it was a win in our hearts. And you know what? It was fun seeing Ali Krieger on the pitch again for the USWNT one more time.

Around the league and beyond

• TST has already announced they are coming back to Cary in 2025, with a hold of May 31 to June 9. As Katie points out in this week’s podcast (spoiler alert!), there was a lot of interest in the women’s matchups this year, so perhaps we’ll see some expanded competition next year.

• The biggest news this week is that NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman said that bids are in, and the league is set to select its 16th team. The chosen city will join Boston as an expansion side in 2026. Jeff Kassouf at ESPN reports Denver, Cleveland and Minnesota are among teams who’ve publicly acknowledged applying.

• And for some pure joy, Chicago played their historic match at Wrigley Field over the weekend against Bay FC, setting an NWSL record of 35,038 attendees.

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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