Louisville sluggish, and the road to Chicago is paved with questions

Hello Courage Country!

I’d say I’m sorry about the headline, but please clap. It’s all I have this week. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so many mixed emotions about the Courage in a single seven day span. News of a potential sale broke late last week, prompting a special edition of this newsletter. Then the Courage had a difficult (to take) … loss in Louisville. A team they’ve never lost to before in regular season play.

I guess records are made to be broken, including North Korea grabbing their third U-20 title, now tied for the most alongside the U.S. and Germany with three titles.

Let’s take a look at what happened in that Racing match, and talk about what’s ahead for the squad in Chicago.

Recap: Courage v. Racing Louisville

I’m just going to say it. That was the toughest road loss this season. It’s hard to imagine a more difficult one cropping up in the remaining few matches.

It wasn’t just that we lost, it was that we were completely dominant for 75 minutes, leading at the half, and then made some serious errors that resulted not in a draw … but an outright loss. Three points on the table would have helped shore up our playoff position, and they vanished before our eyes in just a few minutes. Final score: Racing 2, Courage 1. Ouch!

The game started with a unique lineup. Forward Aline Gomes made her first NWSL start, and played for 84 minutes! Captain Denise O’Sullivan had to sit this one out due to yellow card accumulation, which meant Dani Weatherholt finally got some serious midfield time, sharing space with Narumi Miura. 2023 League MVP Kerolin Nicoli was finally rostered, but subbed in later, with Brianna Pinto getting the starting nod.

Pinto came out all fire. At 18’, she had a tight shot at a difficult angle that was on goal, but keeper Katie Lund tipped it away.

Toward the end of the first half, Ashley Sanchez S-M-O-K-E-D former Courage defender Abby Erceg (Katie corrects my understatement on the podcast), and connected with Pinto, who put it away.

It’s really worth several more rewatches:

That put the Courage up 1-0, and honestly, most of the second half was “suffer ball,” passing around on the back line and patiently looking for angles and running down the clock.

Except. Except. Emma Sears subbed in at 59’, and Louisville started dialing up the intensity of their play. To me it also looked like when Kerolin came in at minute 73’, Racing dialed it up even more, perhaps in reaction to having Kerolin’s firepower on the field for the first time in the 2024 NWSL season.

And at minute 79’, Racing created enough chaos to equalize. Defender Courtney Peterson found a seam and booted the ball toward some open space, where both Emma Sears and Maddie Porkony were closing in. Courage defender Feli Rauch got to it first, but she could see Sears was closing fast, and botched a pass to keeper Casey Murphy. Sears got to the ball first, quickly sidestepped Murphy, and it’s an easy goal.

Then, at the start of stoppage time, Weatherholt had a handball. That let Bethany Balcer take a penalty kick, more or less a guaranteed goal.

The Courage had a few nice efforts in stoppage time, including Malia Berkely hitting the top crossbar, but couldn’t equalize.

Also, there were so many yellow cards it would have been annoying to summarize them all above, so I’ll just list the Courage ones here:

• Sanchez at 19’ for “stopping a promising attack” – a confusing call because it seemed like she was getting called for a tackle when she managed to touch the ball

• Rauch at 78’

• Narumi at 89’

• Ryan Williams in stoppage time

Underrated play

The buildup to Pinto’s first shot created so much chaos. That dynamic keeps defenders and keepers scrambling, and I think it helped toward the end of the first half when she was back at it, and scored. In the first run, the Courage moved the ball up the right side, drawing a TON of Racing players into the mix. An awkward cross to Hopkins moved the ball to the other side of the pitch.

From there, Hayley Hopkins passed to Rauch, who moved it forward to Pinto, who did incredible work to create space from Erceg and take the shot. The link below should take you to the start of that play, around the 30 second mark:

Standout stats

Look ahead: Courage v. Chicago Red Stars

Well. I said last week the Louisville match was winnable, and here we are. I’m afraid to repeat that sentiment for Chicago, despite our 3-1 victory over the Red Stars in June.

Both teams are now fighting for a spot in the playoffs, with Chicago just behind us on the table in 6th place. A win would put them ahead. A draw or a loss would mean Portland has a shot at overtaking their position. So a lot is at stake.

The biggest threat, as you might guess, is USWNT superstar Mallory Swanson, who scored a goal in just 12’ in our last outing, before we contained her and racked up our three scores. It was also another yellow card frenzy.

Nobody on the Courage side has to sit out a yellow card suspension, but it’s worth noting Kaleigh Kurtz and Narumi both have 4 yellows.

It’s also worth pointing out, as Katie does on the podcast this week, that our starting XI will continue to be inconsistent, as Kerolin builds back her playing time, and with Pinto having been so productive last week. Riley Jackson should be back from the U20 World Cup. I’m not sure at time of publishing about Manaka Matsukubo. Cortnee Vine continued to be out with an excused absence last match, so we will see if she returns and if so, how she works into the lineup.

Courage news and updates

• Well. The big news is the potential team sale, and ESPN points out we’re the last of the 14 teams not to have a major ownership change in the last few years.

• Riley Jackson and team USA won a third-place finish over the Netherlands in the U-20 World Cup. Japan, led by Manaka, won second, and Manaka herself won the Adidas Silver Ball Award for scoring three goals in her nation's campaign, including the brace in their match against the Netherlands, which sent Japan to the final against North Korea.

Around the league and beyond

• Twila Kilgore, who served as interim head coach ahead of Emma Hayes arrival, departed the USWNT to “pursue other coaching opportunities,” sparking speculation around the open positions.

• Gotham defender Kelley O’Hara, who had announced she was retiring at the end of the season, finished her career early after dealing with chronic knee degeneration; last week was her last match.

• In some lighter news, Gotham visited President Biden at the White House, the first NWSL Champion team to do so (previous iterations of the women’s top pro league champions have had the honor, but it’s been a minute, and a first for NWSL!)

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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