Leesburg, VA – The Washington Spirit thought they had the comeback of the season brewing after falling behind two. It would be the NC Courage though, who would go home with the full three points after stoppage time goal from Kaleigh Kurtz.
It didn’t take long for the Courage to get on the board as the Brazilian international Kerolin, would quickly find herself behind the Spirit’s defense and perfectly curl her shot into the top right corner in only the 6th minute. The goal being her first of this NWSL season. Spirit Head Coach Kris ward had this to say on the goal.
“You have to give credit for Korolin for scoring a world class goal, no other player in the league scores that. Not from that angle, not from that window”
The Spirit’s first real chance of the game would come in the 19th minute as Trinity Rodman would cut inside after receiving the ball in the right side of the box and fire off a shot that look destined for the back of the net. It would be Courage goalie Casey Murphy whose fingertips would deflect the ball onto the crossbar and keeping the Courage’s one goal advantage.
The Courage looked to double their lead in the 36th minute after a sublime team move saw right back Merritt Mathias’s cross fall onto the head of Kerolin who directed towards goal, but this time Spirit goalie Aubrey Bledsoe was able to coral the ball and limit any damage before half time.
The second half started the same way the first half started as the Courage were able to find the back of the net only five minutes into the second half. This time they opted for brute strength instead of speed as defender Abby Erceg was able to rise above the entire Spirit team and head the ball home from a corner. There were appeals from the Spirit for goalkeeper interference, but they came to no avail.
The Spirit would finally get a breakthrough in the 74th minute after a poor clearance from the Courage backline saw a quick lofted pass to Ashley Sachez who would make no mistake and quickly fire off a shot to the far post and would draw the Spirit within one.
The Spirit wasted no time and getting the equalizer as it only took 3 minutes for them to win a penalty. It would be the ever-reliable Ashley Hatch who would step up and convert the penalty. Hatch putting the ball in the back of the net in the 79th minute would leave everything to play for in the last ten minutes.
With their backs against the wall and all the momentum on Washington’s side it looked like the Courage were just trying to hold on for a point over the remaining ten minutes. That all changed when in the 92nd minute they won a free kick high up the pitch, it would be Debinha with the delivery and it fell perfectly right in front of the Spirit goal and after a deflection it would be Kaleigh Kurtz’s foot that would pounce first and score the winning goal.
What’s next for the Spirit?
After a run of five games in just sixteen days the Spirit now find themselves 8th in the Eastern standings. The run of games was not kind to the reigning champs as they went winless and only took three points overall. They will now get six days to fully rest up before they go again this time, they invite Racing Louisville to town. That will be on Friday, June 17th at 7:30PM.
What’s next for the Courage?
The Courage now see themselves on a run of three games unbeaten after back-back wins. Standings wise nothing changes yet as they still sit bottom of the Eastern Conference. They will get a chance to change that though as next week they go back home and will host the Houston Dash on Sunday, June 19th at 5:00PM.
