North Carolina Courage 3 – 2 Sky Blue FC

Cary, NC—Overall, it was a performance North Carolina Courage head coach Paul Riley might have swiped left on. But his club jumped out to a lead and held off Sky Blue FC 3-2 to close out the 2019 NWSL regular season.

“It wasn’t one of our better performances,” Riley noted after the game.

The Courage opened the scoring in the 16^th minute off of a sequence that started with a Sky Blue throw-in at midfield. McCall Zerboni stole the ball and lofted it forward into Jessica McDonald’s path. McDonald pushed the ball into space running into the Sky Blue 18-yard box before cutting to the middle of the field. She took a shot that was blocked by the defense, but the ball bounced right back to her and this time her right-footed shot curled around the defense past goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan.

Carli Lloyd, who Riley singled out for her dominating play in the game, answered back for Sky Blue in the 26^th minute. Raquel Rodriguez brought the ball down the flank and slipped it back to Lloyd near the top of the 18-yard box. Lloyd uncorked a shot so stunning goalkeeper Katelyn Rowland could only watch the ball sail by.

“In all fairness, Carli Lloyd was out of her mind tonight. Holy moly! I gotta take my hat off to Carli,” Riley effused. “I’ve known Carli for a long time [and]seen her play for a long long time and she was unbelievable tonight. What a performance…She was almost unmarkable tonight. She was taking players on on her own and I thought without her it would have been a different game.”

It only took two minutes for Debinha to break the deadlock. It began with Heather O’Reilly taking a corner kick. Sheridan came out to knock the ball away but in the scramble in front of the goal, Imani Dorsey went down with an injury. Play continued and the ball came out to the top of the box. With Dorsey still down in considerable pain, Cari Roccaro got the ball over to Debinha, who chipped a shot over Sheridan into the net to put North Carolina back in the lead.

Dorsey remained down following the goal and training staff was summoned. After several minutes, she was able to leave the field under her own power and she returned to the game a few moments later. Dominique Richardson replaced Dorsey at halftime.

Riley had been resting several of his regular starters who had recently been on international duty. In the 59^th minute captain Abby Erceg got tangled up with Lloyd and went down with an injury. Midfielder Sam Mewis had been warming up on the sideline and was tapped to come on for Erceg.

The Courage pressured Sky Blue and had several opportunities to build on their lead in the second half. They outshot the visitors 23-11 and finished with a 10-2 advantage on corner kicks. Lynn Williams, Kristen Hamilton, McDonald and Debinha all had quality looks at goal as the game ticked away.

Finally, in the 81^st minute, McDonald scored her second goal of the match when Williams brought the ball down the left side and found Debinha at the arc of the penalty area. Debinha took a shot but it squibbed through the box to McDonald at the top of the six-yard box. McDonald redirected the ball past Sheridan to give the Courage a two-goal lead.

But Sky Blue wasn’t about to go quietly into the night. As the game went into the 86^th minute, Nahomi Kawasumi cleared the ball upfield to Lloyd. With five Courage players surrounding her, the veteran forward worked the ball out of trouble and switched over to Rodriguez. She sent a pass toward the penalty area where it pinged off of Lloyd and Elizabeth Eddy before falling to Richardson, whose wonder strike pulled Sky Blue within a goal with three minutes plus stoppage time to go.

North Carolina went back on the press to close out the game—and the regular season—on a positive note. To get his players in the proper mindset, Riley had been calling this a quarter-final game all week. “As I said to them, ‘We don’t talk about results too much,’ but this was a quarter-final game. It was about the result tonight. Even with ten, fifteen to go, we wanted to play like we would play next week in preparation, and that’s what we did.”

Next up for the Courage is a semifinal matchup with Reign FC on Sunday, October 20^th in Cary, NC. North Carolina won the regular season series against them with two wins and one loss.

 

Final Notes

• Jessica McDonald’s goal in the 81^st minute gave the Courage their 54^th goal of the regular season, breaking the NWSL record that the club set in 2018.
• Following the game NWSL President Amanda Duffy presented the Supporters Shield to Courage captain Abby Erceg. This is the third consecutive year the Courage have earned the shield.
• The Courage announced their Team Awards on Friday. Denise O’Sullivan was voted the team MVP by her teammates. Captain Abby Erceg earned the team’s Leadership Award; Jaelene Hinkle was voted Defensive Player of the Year; Kristen Hamilton was voted the Offensive Player of the Year; Lynn Williams was recognized with the team’s Community Service Award; McCall Zerboni was awarded the Select PT Comeback Player of the Year following her return after shattering her elbow while playing for the USWNT a year ago.

Lineups

North Carolina Courage: K. Rowland; J. Hinkle, A. Erceg © (S. Mewis 65’), A. Dahlkemper, H. O’Reilly; Debinha (M. Speck 83’), M. Zerboni, C. Roccaro, K. Hamilton (D. O’Sullivan 74’); L. Williams. J. McDonald

Sky Blue FC: K. Sheridan; C. Dydasco, J. Doyle, E. Johnson, E. Skroski; S. Killian ©, R. Rodriguez, N. Kawasumi; I. Dorsey (D. Richardson 46’), C. Lloyd, E. Eddy

Score:
North Carolina Courage: 3
Sky Blue FC: 2

Goals:
North Carolina Courage: J. McDonald (16’ unassisted), Debinha (28’ C. Roccaro), J. McDonald (82’ Debinha)

Sky Blue FC: C. Lloyd (26’ R. Rodriguez), D. Richardson (86’ unassisted)

Discipline
North Carolina Courage: none
Sky Blue FC: none

Attendance: 9,195

Photo gallery: North Carolina Courage v Sky Blue FC

All photos by Victoria Klum