Victory over Angel City, two new players join the team, and Orlando up next

It’s a great week to be a Courage fan, with a convincing victory over Angel City on a glorious day at First Horizon Stadium.

The player shuffle continues, with Malia Berkely being traded to Houston Dash, along with $75,000 of intra-league funds. In exchange, defender Natalie Jacobs will join the Courage; her contract runs through 2028.

Additionally, the Courage brought in midfielder Oli Peña, a former TCU player honored as Big 12 Midfielder of the Year. Her contract runs through the end of the 2026 season.

It’s tough to lose Berkely, especially after also losing Jaedyn Shaw. Still, it’s been a season of relatively little player movement, while other teams throughout the league are continuing to make aggressive player moves.

This type of decisive action from the Courage is hopefully indicative of a long-term plan unfolding. While we didn’t see Jacobs or Peña this week, Payton Linnehan got her first start with the club, and is looking increasingly comfortable in the Courage system. Given the depth of talent already at the Courage, a few strategic moves could make the team competitive again, if not later this season, then heading into 2026.

Recap: Courage v. Angel City FC

Marisa Jordan got the start over Casey Murphy for the second week in a row, with Linnehan added up top. Dani Weatherholt was on as left back, albeit in a role that let her frequently float to midfield, keeping Ryan Williams in a more defensive position.

Riley Jackson returned to play, appearing in good shape, and was joined by Shinomi Koyama in the midfield. Denise O’Sullivan remains out with an injury. Ashley Sanchez was listed as questionable and didn’t end up playing for this match.

Even with continued changes, the Courage played with a deft rapid-but-controlled style at the start of the match, looking like a team should look in late season form. They scored a goal in just 6’, with Linnehan putting a little too much into a pass to Manaka Matsukubo, who beat Angel City defender Sara Doorsoun to retrieve the ball. Manaka took a long shot to the far post. While it was helped along by a header deflection from Sarah Gorden, Manaka was credited with the goal, along with an assist from Linnehan.

The next goal came from Brianna Pinto. Linnehan took a shot inside, deflected by Gisele Thompson … right to the feet of Pinto. It’s exactly the setup Pinto thrives on, and she buried the goal with no hesitation. You can see it in action here:

With the match well in hand at this point, the Courage still played strong. Pinto nearly scored again just three minutes later. There was another good look around 70’ from Jackson.

And while the Courage only had 10 total shots on goal, 7 were on target and 2 (nearly 3) went into the goal. The team was surgical in a way we haven’t seen much this season.

Angel City’s lone goal came at the 88’ mark. Angel City worked their way down to the box, but weren’t finding much space. Until Sveindís Jane Jónsdóttir and Jun Endo made a long arcing run from one side of the pitch to the other, with support from Miyabi Moriya. Together, they worked the ball forward until Jónsdóttir was able to creep in front of the goal. Moriya sent a perfect pass in, and Jónsdóttir managed a strike that avoided both Maycee Bell and Jordan.

The match ended on a nice note (and not just because of the victory), when Heather MacNab subbed on for Manaka at 90+2’, earning her first professional start. MacNab has been on and off as a replacement player, ultimately earning a contract for the remainder of the 2025 season.

Standout stats

• 3/3 shots on target in the first half, 2 resulting in a goal and a third one right on the line; it can’t get more clinical than this.

  • 7/10 total shots on target

• 3 total corners for ACFC, a significant reduction from the 10 Utah took the week before.

• Only 1.2 xG, kind of funny given how lopsided the start of this match was in the Courage’s favor.

Look ahead: Courage v. Orlando Pride

With Barbra Banda out for the season, the Pride have been sliding in form lately. They’ve had 7 draws and losses in a row, not having won a match since June 13 against an also-struggling Bay FC.

But the Pride have plenty of firepower, bringing in Lizbeth Jacqueline Ovalle for a record transfer fee, as well as forward Elyse Bennett. Not to mention … Marta.

The Pride tend to play aggressively forward, which does leave them susceptible to attack, even with Carson Pickett and Emily Sams on defense. McKinley Crone was in goal over Anna Moorhouse last week, with Moorhouse listed as a sub.

If the Courage can build the sort of pressure they brought early against ACFC, and continue their recent excellence in shutting down any transition plays and forcing teams to work through the midfield, they have a good shot at winning this match.

As Katie notes on the podcast, a road victory in Orlando is probably needed. Not just to continue moving up the table, but also to prove the Courage are making the strides they need to as we enter a competitive playoff field.

Courage news and updates

• Kaleigh Kurtz continue to rack up milestones. She previously broke the record for number of career starts in the NWSL, and has now broken the record for total number of games played, standing at 108.

• Manaka is up for NWSL Player of the Week; you can vote on Instagram and X.

• Bill Nottingham wrote an excellent analysis of Jaedyn Shaw’s time with the Courage, which doubles as an excellent summary of the season to date.

• The Uproar will be hosting a watch party this Friday at 7:30p at Durham Beer Garden.

Around the league and beyond

• There was a scary incident in last week’s Racing Louisville / Seattle Reign matchup. Late in the first half, Savannah DeMelo collapsed on the field (note, I intentionally linked to a local news story that doesn’t have photos or video of the incident, in case you’d prefer to avoid it). Thankfully, she seems to be recovering. Notably, the league postponed the rest of the match until last night. Earlier this year, Savy King collapsed during a match between Angel City and Utah, and the the game resumed. The league received heavy criticism, so the decision in DeMelo’s case seems like progress.

• Denver Summit FC announced they sold over 15,000 season ticket deposits, an NWSL record for an expansion side. On this week’s podcast, Katie and I discuss how Denver was slow to get rolling, but has overtaken Boston in terms of hype, between their new facilities announcement and record ticket sales.

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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