North Carolina Courage 1 – 0 Orlando Pride

CARY, NC— “Let it rip!”

That is how North Carolina Courage defender Merritt Mathias summed up her process for burying the penalty kick that broke a scoreless deadlock.

In a game that saw the Courage get the better of possession but struggle to find their finish, the tally in the 61^st minute gave them the breathing room they needed to see out the game.

North Carolina started the game pretty much where they left off a week ago against Gotham. They forced Orlando to chase them around their end of the field with quick one-touch passing looking to spring a teammate for an opportunity on goal. But the Pride found a way to get bodies on the Courage as they got into the 18-yard box which kept North Carolina from seriously challenging goalkeeper Erin McLeod.

Taylor Smith, in her second start for the Courage, put in another strong shift, getting behind the Pride defense and frustrating the back line. It was Smith with the two best opportunities for North Carolina in the first half. In the 27^th minute, Kiki Pickett found Smith with a nearly perfect through ball. McLeod was able to make the stop on Smith’s shot, but the flag was up for offside.

In the 38^th minute, Smith played the ball through the legs of Mikayla Cluff and then launched a left-footed rocket only to see the ball skiff over the top of the crossbar.

The evening took a bad turn for Orlando in the 20^th minute when Marta appeared to go down awkwardly and injured her leg. She was in considerable pain as the training staff and teammates tended to her. After several minutes, she was able to get up and returned to the game, only to have the injury force a substitution in the 31^st minute.

There were positives for both teams to take from the scoreless first half. For Orlando, they managed to withstand pressure from North Carolina, who outshot them 11-2 and had 66% possession through the first 45 minutes.

And for the Courage, Kiki Pickett stepped in for Debinha and showed plenty of creativity in midfield. “I thought she did a really good job of solving spaces,” Courage head coach Sean Nahas said of Pickett’s performance. “In those moments to have Kiki step onto the field and do what she did in that moment in a new position; I mean, you tip your hat to her.”

North Carolina continued to press Orlando early in the second half, forcing the Pride into conceding set pieces.

In the 59th minute off of a corner kick, Smith tapped the ball back to Carson Pickett in the middle of the box. Pickett’s screaming left-footer forced McLeod to tip the ball wide. Off the ensuing corner, Gunny Jónsdóttir blocked a shot with her arm in the penalty area and referee Joshua Encarnacion immediately pointed to the penalty spot.

With Debinha out of market, it was Mathias taking over penalty kick duties for the Courage. She ripped her shot into the top of the net giving the home team the lead 61 minutes in.

On the strength of another strong performance from goalkeeper Katelyn Rowland and centerbacks Abby Erceg and Kaleigh Kurtz, North Carolina was able to hold off pressure from Orlando to earn their second clean sheet.

It wasn’t the decisive performance we saw against Gotham FC last week, but it was enough to earn the Courage another 3 points, putting them in a familiar position at the top of the table.

“I thought it was an up and down performance,” Nahas noted in his post-game press conference. “In possession I thought we gave the ball away too carelessly and too freely at times and gave three possessions away when we didn’t necessarily have to.”

With a quick turnaround playing up I-95 in Washington on Wednesday night and in New Jersey on Sunday, the Courage hope to ride the momentum of their 6-point start to the 2022 NWSL Challenge Cup.

Last Words from Nahas About Taylor Smith: “Taylor has been exceptional…I know she went through a tough spell with the injury and coming back and went through a hard spell just, you know, on and off the field. For her to be at the level she’s at, I couldn’t be any more proud of her.”

Final Notes

• North Carolina Courage head coach Sean Nahas said he is hoping to have Brazilian players Debinha and Kerolin Nicoli in market next week.
• Besides losing Marta to injury, Orlando forward Darian Jenkins had to leave the game with an injury in the second half.
• Next up for the North Carolina Courage is a trip to DC to take on the Washington Spirit on Wednesday. Then they travel to New York/New Jersey to take on Gotham FC on Sunday.

Lineups

North Carolina Courage: K. Rowland; K. Kurtz, A. Erceg ©, M. Mathias, M. Berkely; O’Sullivan, C. Pickett, K. Pickett (M. Speck 78’); B. Pinto, T. Smith (R. Williams 85’), J. Daniels (D. Ordoñez 71’)

NJ/NY Orlando Pride: E. McLeod; C. Lawrence (K. Strom 46’), T. Pressley, M. Montefusco, C. Petersen; G. Jónsdóttir (E. Tymrak 77’), M. Dougherty Howard, P. Roberts (A. James 46’), Marta © (M. Cluff 30’); S. Leroux, D. Jenkins (L. Pruitt 62’)

Score:
North Carolina Courage: 1
NJ/NY Orlando Pride: 0

Goals:
North Carolina Courage: M. Mathias 61’ (PK)

NJ/NY Orlando Pride: none

Discipline:

North Carolina Courage: T. Smith (YC 23’)

NJ/NY Orlando Pride: G. Jónsdóttir (YC 53’); C. Petersen (YC 69’)