Road draw against the Thorns, international break

I’ve said it before, but it’s impossible to explain to those who don’t love soccer that a 0-0 draw can be exciting.

But thankfully, you and I? We are savvy. We know the score (0-0). We understand the pure, wholesome joy of a high intensity match, without worrying about a silly scoreboard.

The Courage played perhaps their fiercest match of the season so far. We undoubtedly needs some wins soon, but it’s helpful to look at this match in context. Historically, the team hasn’t performed well on the West Coast. Last year, we faced an away game slump regardless of location, with a lot of matches looking disorganized and low energy, including a 1-0 loss to the Thorns. In that light, seeing the team play with some fire in a late game and walking out with a point on the table really isn’t so bad.

Provided, of course, that we start notching some wins soon.

Let’s take a look at the breakdown.

Recap: Courage v. Portland Thorns

The starting XI included a massive shakeup. Hannah Betfort, Meredith Speck and Shinomi Koyama got their first starts of the season. Natalia Staude also receive her club / NWSL debut, starting at left back.

Speck is rostered as a midfielder, but illnesses are affecting availability, with Tyler Lussi and Cortnee Vine out this week. Feli Rauch was perhaps recovering still (she was listed as a sub and not used). Defender Charlotte McClean was also unavailable.

Play started with some fire out of the gate. The backs and midfield played unusually high, allowing the Courage to set the pace and keep pressure on Portland.

After a nasty looking collision between Betfort and Portland keeper Mackenzie Arnold, both players recovered. Betfort was playing so well she had two shots off of the woodwork within a few minutes of each other. The first nearly chipped Arnold, sailing over her but hitting the top bar. The second came from a great series of passes, with Speck connecting with Koyama, who lobbed a nice high pass into traffic. Jaedyn Shaw repositioned it and Betfort took a shot that hit the left side.

Shaw had another good look about 30 minutes in.

Portland got a couple of good looks as well, but keeper Casey Murphy had two terrific saves (one in each half). In one of the more exciting moments of an already intense match, Portland forward Caiya Hanks was moving fast for a strike. But defender Ryan Williams closed about ten yards of distance for a clean tackle.

After the half, a VAR review ended with a penalty for a foul on Ashley Sanchez. Shaw took the kick, but Arnold saved it.

Midfielder and team captain Denise O’Sullivan was outstanding in this match, forcing 5/6 tackles, an interception and a shot on target.

Koyama was another highlight, creating several great opportunities for the Courage. The club put together a mini highlight reel:

Manaka Matsukubo subbed in at the 62’ mark for Speck. Riley Jackson, who previously started in midfield, came in for Koyama at the 71’ mark. And toward the end of the match, Brianna Pinto relieved Shaw, and rookie defender Brooklyn Courtnall came in for her debut, relieving Betfort.

In all it was a great match, and hopefully with a week to rest and a match against a very disorganized Gotham FC, we’ll see more points soon.

Standout stats

I was focused on two things this week, both of which saw progress. First, we closed the gap in earning the ball with interceptions and tackles, and outright won the ground duel game with 62%, according to Fotmob.

The second was whether we’d get the ball into the opponents’ third consistently. NWSL Analytics has a great breakdown illustrating how many offensive passes were happening in and around the Portland box, so you can see the pressure illustrated well (and the whole thread is worth a quick look):

Look ahead: Courage v. The Gothams

Phew. Gotham FC. It’s been a wild two years. Last year, the strategy was to buy every USWNT player in existence and attempt to field them together. They were off to a rocky start, dropping 0-1 to the Courage in March. By May, they were pulling it together, beating us 1-0, and ultimately earning third on the table. Still, with the 💵💵💵 outlay, I think the team expected to do better.

They had a fair size exodus of talent in the offseason:

• Sam Hiatt, of course, went to Portland

• Lynn Biyendolo went to the Reign

• Yazmeen Ryan went to Houston

• Jenna Nighswonger went to Arsenal

• Crystal Dunn went to Paris Saint-Germain

• Kelly O’Hara retired

They’ve also had their fair share of injuries, though as of publication time Rose Lavelle (ankle) and Midge Purce (knee) were not put on the 45-day list. Also, last week Tierna Davidson had a nasty-looking knee injury.

Still, the team was so stacked, and had some great incoming players, that it’s still a formidable group, including keeper Ann-Katrin Berger, Jaelin Howell (incoming from the deal with Seattle), Esther and Emily Sonnett.

It’s a defense-oriented squad, with breakout rookie star Lilly Reale lining up in a sort of dropped back midfield role (similar to how we played Sully and Jackson in the first two matches), and ahead of a solid back line. They’ve also been switching a bit between Taryn Torres and Nealy Martin starting in the midfield.

So, at long last, we will have a match that perhaps isn’t bogged down in the midfield, instead relying on scoring opportunities for both sides.

Around the league and beyond

• The USWNT plays Brazil in a friendly at 5p on Saturday, streaming on TNT | TruTV | Telemundo | Universo. We’ll do a quick rundown on how all of the players who have been called up do in this break.

• Boston’s expansion side has a new name: Boston Legacy FC. Crest and colors will be forthcoming. After a disastrous initial rollout of their brand, this seems to be largely met with an, “All right, we can work with this!” from fans and supporters. I’m glad the club took more time to engage with the community and get a solid name.

• After announcing plans for a fantastic stadium for 2028, Denver’s new expansion team also announced a temporary, 12,000 seat stadium for the ‘26 and ‘27 campaigns.

That’s it for this week!

We have a podcast coming out tomorrow, then will take a week off along with the team, and will be back to break down the Gotham match.

As always, you can get in touch with tips, suggestions, corrections and more: [email protected].

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