Waving goodbye to San Diego, and HELLOOOOOOO to the playoffs!

Hello Courage Country! We are in fantastic form at the end of the season. Somehow, as other teams are increasingly banged up, we have more depth than we can field. We’ve clinched our playoff spot with a 2-1 win on Saturday, though we are likely to be on the road for our playoff matches. 😱 

Angel City got punished for being naughty. And Orlando Pride (!!!), who didn’t even make the playoffs last season, won the fancy new shield.

Three games left.

Are you loving the NWSL or what?

Recap: Courage v. San Diego Wave

We made another great showing this week, marked yet again by a fresh mix of forwards. Aline Gomes, Manaka Matsukubo and Kerolin Nicoli made for an exciting start. It was Kerolin’s first start as she works back into the team after her ACL tear last season.

Gomes proved pretty quickly she’s starter material, scoring her first NWSL goal just 30’ into the match. It was a strange setup: Kerolin crossed into Manaka, who caught the ball at an awkward pirouette angle. It bounced forward with barely any momentum, but Gomes saw the opportunity. She hit the top crossbar, but the ball landed in the goal.

The second goal came in first half stoppage time. It also has been replaying in my head for days now. It also was named NWSL’s goal of the week. Ryan Williams made a monster cross in to Manaka, but it was deflected off a defender’s foot. It was traveling at such a velocity it still managed to reach Manaka, who headed it to the far post.

This was an important match for both teams. For San Diego, a win would have kept them in arm’s reach of playoff contention. And for us, the win clinched our spot and probably sealed us into a 5th place finish on the table.

So, a 2-0 lead by the half was critically important.

Riley Jackson subbed in for Narumi Miura, and Cortnee Vine finally returned to play, subbing in for Kerolin, at the 78’ mark. We lost a little steam in the midfield: Narumi had an outstanding match. And Vine made two solid runs at the goal, but neither resulted in a score; one ended with a quick pass to Manaka who got tangled up with Maria Sánchez.

A few minutes later, San Diego scored on a corner kick. Courage keeper Casey Murphy tipped the ball forward, and defender Hanna Lundkvist made a little stutter step tap to earn the goal.

Despite a flurry of subs at the end, stoppage time was short, and we walked away with the playoff spot in hand.

Standout stats

Look ahead: Courage v. Angel City

Angel City has our number. For an underperforming expansion squad, they’ve won 3 of our 5 previous matchups, including in April of this year. We’ve only won 1 match, with the 5th being a draw.

It will be very hard for the ACFC squad to make the playoffs after the league deducted 3 points from their record (more on that below). But they still beat Seattle 1-0 last week, and it’s not impossible for them to make the cut, so they may come to Courage Country with some fire.

Forward Alyssa Thompson is always someone to keep an eye on. And Angel City has a very un-fun but effective habit of collapsing their midfield and defense into perfect lines, which seems to completely disrupt the Courage’s possession-based game because it’s difficult to find passing lanes.

As Katie and I discuss on this week’s podcast, the key will be for the Courage to continue to get the early goals we’ve enjoyed these past few weeks, forcing Angel City to take some risks out of that formation.

And on our end, the eternal question is always who will serve as our starting front three. There’s an advantage to having rotated so many players this season: anyone can and should be ready to go. We’ll see how it plays out, but it sure feel good to have so much depth on the squad.

Courage news and updates

• The biggest news this week was Jess Kassouf at ESPN reporting that if the Courage sale to Marc Lasry is finalized, USWNT veteran Lauren Holiday would have a role with player development. It’s the first news we’ve had about the sale since Lasry’s interest in the team was reported a few weeks ago.

• Theo Lloyd-Hughes published a graphic of total goals per 22 games over the past 3 seasons. The Courage show modest progression over time.

• As expected, the Courage waived defender Victoria Haugen. She’s been on and off the squad throughout the season serving replacement contracts, most recently with Jackson and Manaka playing in the U-20 World Cup.

• Defender Malia Berkely was named to NWSL’s Best XI of September. 

Around the league and beyond

• I have a toddler, which means I read the same book over and over and over again, including Chris Haughton’s Oh No, George! It’s about a lovable dog who constantly gets into mischief. And … all I could think this week was … Oh no, Angel City! They exceeded the salary cap by $50,000 for 4 weeks and did not disclose that to the league. After an investigation, NWSL implemented the following sanctions.

  • $200k fine

  • 3 points deducted from standings

  • Julie Urhman and Angela Hucles Mangano are suspended from conducting player transactions for the remainder of 2024

  • NWSL will audit player spending across all clubs

• The Athletic’s Steph Yang added fuel to the fire reporting a former player reported the violations to the league, prompting Bridgerton-level speculation among NWSL fans as to which player (subscription required).

• Racing Louisville head coach Bev Yanez published an op-ed encouraging people to show up and support the team in The Courier Journal, a Louisville newspaper.

• Orlando Pride remain unbeaten and clinched the shield. I’m honestly happy for them and can’t wait to see how they do in the post season.

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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