Outlasting Gotham, SheBelieves Cup this weekend

Courage Country! Happy Wednesday, your second favorite day of the week after match day, because it’s time for another edition of The Lion’s Pitch! This week we look at our grinding win against Gotham FC, celebrate Kerolin as league MVP and get ready for the SheBelieves Cup, which will give us a near-final look at the USWNT as time ticks toward the Paris Olympics.

Recap: Courage v. Gotham FC

The Courage had a well-earned 1-0 victory over NWSL Champions Gotham FC thanks to a fantastic heads-up goal by Brianna Pinto. It was an unusually defense-heavy game with very few passes beyond midfield.

We had an early pre-game shock with our unusual starting lineup, which didn’t feature usual starters Hayley Hopkins, Tyler Lussi, Narumi Miura or Manaka Matsukubo, all of whom subbed in late in the match. Olivia Wingate remains out with a knee injury. Katie and I talk about this more in tomorrow’s podcast, but suspect it’s a mix of wanting the physicality of Bianca St-Georges, who got her first start this season against Gotham, and resting players after last week’s heavy travel schedule to Utah. St-Georges was joined up front by Victoria Pickett and Ashley Sanchez.

St-Georges came out swinging, with a few aggressive-but-not-egregious fouls. In the preseason, a lot of analysts noted she would bring a fresh edge to the Courage, and she has a very nuanced attacking style that does just that. Eventually, the ref issued a yellow card that seemed to me mostly a warning to cool it a bit. St-Georges, Sanchez and Pinto in particular were disruptive enough with Gotham to create a few opportunities.

The goal came from a setup from Williams → St-Georges, who crossed to Sanchez for a header that started veering wide. Pinto was able to redirect the ball into the back of the net for our lone score right at the end of the first half.

With such a defensive game in the books, I would be remiss not to shout out the efforts of the entire back line. Malia Berkely (a stealth weapon that doesn’t get talked about nearly enough) and Kaleigh Kurtz were an unbreakable wall. It’s hard to pick a different, non-cliché phrase, especially after this Kurtz header you can feel even watching the replay on a screen.

Ryan Williams was also outstanding in the mix, with a pass accuracy nearly rivaling Berkely and Denise O’Sullivan this week. The defense did a great job all around not getting overwhelmed by a relentless Gotham squad; which was so relentless they nearly broke our possession streak.

Pinto continues to shine for the Courage whenever and wherever she has opportunities to play so far this season. In a previous issue, when talking about Emily Fox’s departure, I noted that it’s hard to hold on to professional players for any length of time. It’s even rarer to have a great player who grew up near their home club. So I find a particular sports fan joy in Pinto becoming increasingly essential to the Courage.

Standout stats

Stats from Fotmob, OptaJack, StatsBomb/André Carlisle and The Athletic

Look ahead

We have a break this week!

I’ll be back next week with a breakdown of the April 13 home match against the Portland Thorns, streaming on … what else? NWSL+

USWNT v. Japan

The USWNT takes on Japan in their first matchup for the SheBelieves Cup. You have a few options to watch:

Saturday, April 6 at 12:30p ET

• English:

  • TNT (cable / streaming package required)

  • truTV (cable / streaming package required)

  • Max (options from $10-$20 / month)

• In Spanish:

  • Peacock ($5.99 / month)

  • Telemundo | Universo (cable / streaming package required)

Canada v. Brazil will be at 3:30p if you want to see Bianca St-Georges!

USWNT v. TBD

Tuesday, April 9 at 7p ET

This will be either the championship or third-place finish match, depending on how Saturday plays out. The USWNT start time will stay the same regardless. This game will have the same viewing options listed above.

Courage news and updates

• The Courage honored star forward Kerolin Nicoli on Saturday night, celebrating her earning the 2023 NWSL league MVP award.

• Courage Country has a nice profile on Sam Mewis’ lasting impact on Courage culture (free subscription required).

• André Carlisle analyzed some fun StatsBomb passing maps from this week's games, including one of the standout stats above. It’s a good read, and he notes this map is likely very much an outlier for this Courage squad.

Around the league and beyond

• It’s official: Midge Purce has an ACL tear, a season ending injury for her time with both Gotham and the USWNT.

• USWNT midfielder Korbin Albert faces intense public criticism this week after her past TikTok reposts of anti-gay, anti-trans messaging surfaced. She also liked an odd meme saying God injured Megan Rapinoe in her final NWSL match, presumably for being gay. It’s hateful speech in a moment when the unity of the USWNT is already being questioned. It also doesn’t sit well with women’s soccer fans worldwide (Albert plays for Paris Saint-Germain), who as a general rule push for more inclusivity among clubs and fans, and tend to support gay and trans issues beyond the pitch. In response, former USWNT star Megan Rapinoe posted a thoughtful message as an Instagram story. Albert issued an apology that many felt lacked any real sense of introspection. It’s hard to recap everything here, but The Athletic does a decent job (subscription required), and the Daily Beast also summarized the controversy well. There hasn’t been much public indication from the USWNT players or leadership as to how they are addressing the issue.

• To end on a lighter note, if you haven’t seen the wild Deyna Castillos goal in Bay FC’s home opener, it’s a lot of (stressful) fun:

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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