North Carolina Courage 3 – 1 Racing Louisville
CARY, NC— It seems like it was months ago that the North Carolina Courage was focused on righting their scoring woes and competing for one of the top playoff spots in the NWSL.
But that was only last week.
A lot has happened in the Courage organization and the league since last Wednesday’s pre-match press conference was suddenly canceled minutes before it was scheduled to begin.
To briefly recap: in a shocking investigative report in The Athletic, two former Portland Thorns players, Sinead Farrelly and Mana Shim, alleged that former coach Paul Riley sexually harassed the players and made inappropriate comments about players’ sexuality and bodies. The report also alleges that his misconduct was reported to the Thorns organization. Portland management claims to have investigated the allegations and shared their findings with the league. Rather than terminating Riley, however, the Thorns declined to renew his contract. It was generally thought that the reason for this was the team’s poor record.
Months later, Riley was hired by the Western New York Flash and was kept on as head coach when Steve Malik bought the team and moved them to North Carolina.
Courage principal owner Steve Malik released a statement Wednesday morning, acknowledging that the club was “made aware of an investigation into Mr. Riley’s behavior in 2015 and were subsequently assured that he was in good standing.”
Malik went on to say, “During [Riley’s] employment with the Courage, we had no knowledge of allegations of sexual harassment or coercion. When we learned of the horrific allegations in last week’s reporting, we took those seriously and immediately terminated Mr. Riley.”
Before the game, Courage players had requested space and time to process the past week’s events. The Uproar, North Carolina’s primary supporters’ group, called on fans to wear black to support the players and made supplies available before the game for fans to make their own signs.
Against this backdrop, the North Carolina Courage took the field to play Racing Louisville (who had fired their coach, Christy Holly, just a few weeks ago for undisclosed reasons).
The Courage were looking to end a scoring drought that saw them put up only one tally in their last four games.
It took North Carolina only 14 minutes to break through on a scrappy play from Lynn Williams. Katie Lund, getting her first start in goal for Racing Louisville, punched away a long shot from Debinha. Angharad James got the ball about 30 yards out and chipped it right to the foot of Amy Rodriguez. Rodriguez’s shot was saved by Lund, but she couldn’t control the rebound. Williams jumped on the loose ball and scored the opening goal of the game.
Five minutes later, Jessica McDonald picked up the ball at the center circle and was alert to Rodriguez making an overlapping run. McDonald played a stunning no-look ball to her linemate, and Rodgriguez finished the play with a strong run and solid left-footed blast past Lund.
Savannah McCaskill would answer for Racing Louisville in the 24th minute with a rocket of a shot that looked to take a slight deflection that made it dip just below the crossbar to beat Courage keeper Casey Murphy.
The Courage would close out the scoring in the game in the 30th minute. Carson Pickett lobbed a perfect cross across the box to McDonald. But instead of trying to score with a header, McDonald read Lund’s movement and directed the ball back across the goal. The ball glanced off the Louisville defender’s head right to the Brazilian, who took the ball off her thigh and volleyed it past Lund to restore North Carolina’s two-goal lead.
As the teams went in at halftime, North Carolina held a decisive edge in shots (8-2) and passing accuracy (83% to 56%).
The Courage would continue to dominate the visitors throughout the second half. Debinha nearly netted herself a brace just moments into the second half, but Lund parried the shot away for a corner. And in the 54th minute, Pickett again found McDonald climbing the ladder in the six-yard box. Lund knocked down McDonald’s header attempt but again was unable to grab the ball. McDonald picked up the rebound and pushed it over to Rodriguez, who tried to thread the needle near post, but Lund slid back across the goal to knock the shot out of bounds.
North Carolina bagged all three points at the final whistle, keeping them in third place in the NWSL table. They had outshot Racing Louisville 24-5 and held nearly 70% of the possession in the game.
Final Notes
- Play stopped at the 6’ mark in every league match Wednesday night. Players and game officials gathered at the center circle for a minute of silence and solidarity in recognition of the six years that it took for abused players to be heard.
- Midfielder Denise O’Sullivan played her 100th NWSL game Wednesday night.
- Lynn Williams had two shots in the game, tying her with Sam Kerr for most career shots (410).
- At the request of Courage players, there was no media availability of players or staff after the game.
- Next up for the Courage is a trip to Houston to take on the Dash on October 10 and then back to WakeMed Soccer Park to face the Washington Spirit on October 13. The teams were originally scheduled to play last Friday, October 1st before the NWSL postponed all weekend matches in the fallout of the Riley revelations.
Lineups
North Carolina Courage: C. Murphy; K. Kurtz, C. Pickett, A. Erceg ©; M. Mathias (R. Williams 68’), D. O’Sullivan (C. Roccaro 76’), Debinha (H. Solaun 85’), A. James, L. Williams, A. Rodriguez (M. Speck 76’), J. McDonald (T. Smith 85’)
Racing Louisville: K. Lund; E. Simon, K. Riehl, B. Hendrix (S. Miramontez 66’), J. Ashley (N. Martin 66’); F. Olofsson (T. Otto 58’), S. McCaskill ©, L. Milliet (K. McClure 82’); E. Salmon, E. Fox, C. Mathews (E. Ekic 58’)
Score:
North Carolina Courage: 3
Racing Louisville: 1
Goals:
North Carolina Courage: L. Williams 14’ (unassisted); A. Rodriguez 19’ (J. McDonald); Debinha 30’ (unassisted)
Racing Louisville: S. McCaskill 24’ (unassisted)
Discipline
North Carolina Courage: none
Racing Louisville: none
Attendance: 3,523
