There's a new Roary in town, and it's a long road to Portland

This week we had an electric crowd, gorgeous weather and a tough home opener for the Courage, falling 2-1 to the Seattle Reign. We continue to see flashes of a great team, and hopefully things will settle out in the next few weeks.

And friends, let me ask you. Do we bury ledes here at the Lion’s Pitch? No, we certainly do not. We get right to the critical headlines. And the top story this week is: There’s a new Roary in town.

When New Roary appeared on the jumbotron, my toddler burst into tears, screaming, “I DON’T LIKE THAT!” and I had to walk around the stadium for ten minutes trying to calm her down, desperately wondering if I’d get back to my seat in time for the match to start. She kept pointing to pictures of Old Roary and asking if Old Roary could come to her birthday party, which was several weeks ago.

So perhaps she’s not the best judge of New Roary, and your mileage may vary. And to be even handed, when New Roary actually showed up in the stands later on, my toddler gave her a solid hand wave, so maybe New Roary will grow on us.

Alright, let’s get to the match!

Recap: Courage v. Seattle Reign

While we played a strong, pretty even match against Seattle, two epic goals put them in the lead. We had a great goal in response, but ultimately couldn’t equalize.

Breaking down the match, the Courage fielded Maycee Bell in for left back Feli Rauch, who was recovering from an illness. And Aline Gomes started this week over Tyler Lussi.

The Courage had a couple of good chances right out of the gate, one at around the two minute mark, and another around 22 minutes. Possession was almost exactly 50/50 in the first half, and there was a lot of back-and-forth. Over time, Reign started building momentum. Ana-Maria Crnogorčević had a great through ball to Maddie Mercado, who was at a tough angle on the right side. She got a nice touch on the ball, and then managed a pass to Jess Fishlock.

For her part, Fishlock had managed to sneak past Riley Jackson, putting herself in position directly in front of the goal. Once she had the ball, she had options, and scored the first goal of the match.

Teams seem to be realizing that an aggressive press gives us trouble, and we were often getting caught in corners. While a lot of our defensive stats picked up this week, we still had quite a few interceptions.

Still, Gomes and Jaedyn Shaw had a couple of good chances near the close of the half.

After the half, the Courage settled a bit more into their possession style. It was looking good, but a freak goal put the Reign up 2-0. Following a throw in, Denise O’Sullivan headed it away, and Jackson picked it up, but Fishlock was all over it and nearly got the ball away. Jackson still gave her just enough trouble that the ball rolled to Malia Berkely. With Fishlock continuing persuit, Berkely had to make a quick clear and the ball landed right in front of Jordyn Bugg.

And even though Bugg was near the midfield line, she took a shot. The ball sailed right over Casey Murphy’s head and into the net. The goal sparked a range of emotions in the stadium, a mixture of shock, awe, frustration and respect.

From there, the Courage dialed up the intensity, and immediately answered with a goal of their own. With several players crashing the box, Manaka Matsukubo got off a pass to Sully, who tipped it to Gomes, who scored.

There were more good looks for the rest of the match, including from Shinomi Koyama; and another on a nice pass from Ashley Sanchez to Meredith Speck, who’d subbed in for Gomes. But the game wound down without the equalizer, handing the Courage an unusual home loss.

Standout stats

Look ahead: Courage v. Portland Thorns

The Thorns had a rocky season last year. We covered Mike Norris shifting into a technical director role, and Rob Gale taking over head coaching duties, eventually being named to the permanent job. The club also underwent an ownership change. With all that, they made it to the playoffs before losing in the first round, just like the Courage.

They lost a ton of talent in the offseason. Meghan Klingenberg and Kelly Hubly were released; Christine Sinclair and Becky Sauerbrunn retired; Sophia Wilson and Olivia Wade-Katoa announced pregnancies; and Morgan Weaver is out with a knee injury.

Keeper Bella Bixby is back from maternity leave, but hasn’t yet started over Mackenzie Arnold. They gained some notable names, including forward Deyna Castellanos and defender Sam Hiatt.

This year, they faced a 3-1 lost against an amazing Kansas City squad, and a draw with Angel City.

The Thorns have been rotating the start / sub of Alexa Spaanstra and Reilyn Turner, but Turner scored their only goal in the 1-1 draw last week, so she may have earned the spot. Otherwise, expect to see an incredible midfield lineup of Olivia Moultrie, Sam Coffey and Hina Sugita. As Katie notes in this week’s podcast, all three are attack-minded and can put points on the board, so the Courage will have their hands full managing Portland’s midfield.

For the Courage, it’s hard to say whether we keep seeing rotation at the forward position. Sanchez and Shaw seemed to find a little more comfort with Sanchez dropping back a bit in the second half of the Reign match and allowing Manaka to move more center. Otherwise, Rauch should rotate back in before the international break.

Courage News and Updates

• The Courage had a few international call-ups for this break: Jaedyn Shaw received a call-up for the USWNT friendlies against Brazil; Denise O’Sullivan was called up by Ireland for the UEFA Women’s League matches, as was Feli Rauch for Germany.

• Jessica McDonald joins Sam Mewis as the second Courage Ring of Honor recipient, and there was a nice ceremony after the match this week (pics below).

• The Courage have signed two short-term contracts with forward Heather MacNab and midfielder Amber Nguyen. Both trained with the squad as non-roster invitees this spring. Also, both were listed as subs during the Reign match, but weren’t used.

• We missed mentioning a milestone last week: 150 regular season games for Sully!

Around the league and beyond

• The Spirit’s General Manager and President of Soccer Operations, Mark Kirkorian, is finishing up his three year contract, and the team announced he’s stepping down from his role.

• Forbes published a nice profile of former Courage player and USWNT star Sam Mewis.

• The NWSL is investigating a really sad incident at during the Orlando Pride / Gotham FC match last week, in which several Gotham fans were making hateful remarks about Pride forward Barbra Banda. It prompted statements from Gotham, Orlando and the league. Many fans felt Gotham’s response on the spot was insufficient; security talked to at least one offender but nobody was removed. Hopefully, other clubs, including the Courage, are discussing how to handle any similar issues as Orlando travels to their respective cities.

• In happier news: former Courage player Hayley Hopkins was elected new president of the NWSL Players Association, per ESPN’s Jeff Kassouf:

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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