North Carolina Courage And Chicago Red Stars Split Points On Opening Day

North Carolina Courage 1 – 1 Chicago Red Stars

Cary, NC—After a pre-game ceremony where players and staff for the North Carolina Courage received their Championship rings, National Women’s Soccer League commissioner Amanda Duffy presented Courage head coach Paul Riley with the 2018 Coach Of The Year award, and celebrating their Treble, it was time to get the 2019 National Women’s Soccer League campaign underway.

Saturday night’s game was a rematch of the semi-final (played under what can generously be described as controversial conditions) that saw midfielder Sam Mewis put the Courage on top late in the game to send them to the NWSL Championship.

The Courage–and Mewis–looked like they were picking up where they left off seven months ago, immediately taking control of the game. Fifteen minutes into the match, the Courage had already taken eight shots and four corner kicks and had a couple of wild moments in front of Chicago’s goal.

Mewis’ strong performance earned her player of the game honors and praise from Riley. “Sam’s come a long way since last year. She’s starting to mature into a really good player now and I think you going to see that in the World Cup and from here on I think Sam’s a big part for us.”

In the 15^thminute, off of a short corner, Merritt Mathias sent a long cross into the 18-yard box that sailed over everyone before pinballing on the ground before rolling out to Denise O’Sullivan. Her shot was blocked out of the box and Mathias ran onto the rebound and fired the ball but it went into the gathering in front of the net. Chicago rookie Tierna Davidson tried to control the ball but McCall Zerboni slipped the ball away and attempted a shot that went wide.

The Red Stars opened up the scoring against the run of play in the 26^thminute. Yuki Nagasato picked up the ball just behind the midfield line and sent a brilliant 25-yard pass right into the path of Sam Kerr. Kerr took a couple of touches to get past Courage defender Abby Erceg and got goalkeeper Stephanie Labbé to commit. Kerr’s next touch was a little too heavy, but she managed to corral the ball and slip it past Labbé, who had recovered after nearly going to ground.

“She’s [Nagasato] a gem and always puts everything on a platter,” Kerr said about her goal-scoring play. “I just had to take my chances. Last year when I came here I missed a one-on-one. Glad to finish it [this time].”

Lynn Williams nearly leveled the game for the Courage shortly before halftime when she chest-trapped a long ball from Crystal Dunn and carried it toward the middle of the field, just outside of Chicago’s 18-yard box. After creating a bit of space around the defenders, Williams curled a shot toward the far post, but Alyssa Naeher made the diving save, punching the ball out of bounds.

Although North Carolina dominated the first 30 minutes of the match in every conceivable way, their finish consistently let them down, a factor that led to Kerr’s goal.

“That 25-30 minutes I think early in the game we should have scored during that stretch,” Riley noted after the game. “I think if we scored in that stretch we would have won the game. I think [for the]first game in the season was a terrific performance.”

Chicago recomposed themselves as the first half wore on and came out in the second half looking like they might press for a second goal. In the 60^thminute, Alyssa Mautz lofted a long ball to a wide open Arin Wright, but her attempt went just wide to the right of the goal.

The home crowd finally got to exhale in the 66^thminute, courtesy of Crystal Dunn. In a play that seemed to just spring up out of nothing, Jessica McDonald threw the ball in to Dunn, who took a weighty touch past one Red Star defender before taking a shot through the legs of two more Chicago defenders. It was hard to tell if the ball was deflected, but it seemed to catch Naeher off guard and the game was even at 1-1.

Dunn reflected on her goal after the game. “They left me wide open I think they thought Jess was going to throw a long ball in and I was in some space and I yelled to throw it to me and had some time to turn and get a shot on goal.”

But Kerr and the Red Stars weren’t ready to concede the two points yet. A minute after Dunn’s goal, Kerr, looking for a brace, just missed on a header toward North Carolina’s goal.

North Carolina captain Erceg would follow up with an oh-so-close header of her own in the 79^thminute. Dahlkemper took a corner kick and swung it toward the top of the 18-yard box. Erceg nodded it perfectly and it took a spectacular save from Naeher to keep the Courage from taking the lead.

Rookie Leah Pruitt came on for McDonald in the 71^stminute and started giving the Red Stars defense problems almost immediately. In the 83^rdminute, she nearly got onto a through pass from Williams but ended up in a three-way collision with Naeher and a Chicago defender.

As the game went into stoppage time, Kerr nearly put the game away. Naeher sent a high ball deep in the Courage end. Michele Vasconcelos settled the ball and crossed it to the onrushing Kerr. Her flying, right-footed tap hit the crossbar and bounced straight down but didn’t cross the goal line. Erceg cleared the ball away from the goal line (Chicago players and coaches thought she had committed a handball) and the game ended a few minutes later with the teams sharing points.

“You know I am cursed in that corner, the exact same play last time 92nd minute last game I was here,” Kerr lamented after the game. “Same thing happened but the keeper saved it. It was a perfect ball and it just hit the crossbar and bounced directly on the line. I thought maybe a touch in there but hey, that’s the game and we’ll take a point.”

After the match, Dunn described the game as “Wild.”

“We always knew it was going to be an intense, tough game,” she continued, “and obviously they have little somebody called Sam Kerr that we always have to watch out for. I think we did some really great things. We possessed the ball really well, we got in their defensive third a lot. So, I think our effort and our performance was pretty good.”

When asked if the Red Stars were happy to leave Cary with a point, Kerr was ambivalent. “Not the way it happened,” she said. “You know we definitely think we could have won the game if it wasn’t for that obviously but you know any time you come here with three or four players missing three or four players that come back from injury…we’re mad at the way it happened but we would have taken it if you had said that before the game, probably.”

Final Notes

• Riley talked about preparing his depth players for the increasing role they will have in the coming weeks. “You know our job is to try and keep the 15-26 ready to play. We did a lot before the game, I don’t know if you guys noticed, the players who didn’t get in the 18 tonight, they’re going to be playing in three weeks from now. We had them working for about 25 30 minutes on the other side of the field because we feel that their fitness levels need to be at the highest level to be able to press like we press and do what we want to do. So they got 3500 meters tonight and those players will get another six thousand tomorrow in practice and they’ll be the same as what Sam got for the game or McCall got for the game. We’re trying to keep as equal as we can to make sure that we’re ready to go when everybody leaves.”
• First-round draft pick Hailey Harbison tore her ACL/MCL in training, effectively ending her rookie season.
• The Red Stars were playing with a hobbled lineup, including coach Rory Dames, who was battling a flu bug and had to sit out the match. Assistant coach Craig Harrington took over the coaching duties.
• Next up for the Courage is the Orlando Pride on Wednesday at Sahlen’s Stadium in WakeMed Soccer Park. Both teams will be making a quick turnaround, having played over the weekend.

Lineups

North Carolina Courage: S. Labbé; J. Hinkle, A. Erceg ©, A. Dahlkemper, M. Mathias; M. Zerboni (L. Pruitt, 71’), D. O’Sullivan, S. Mewis, C. Dunn; L. Williams, J. McDonald (K. Hamilton,71’)

Chicago Red Stars: A. Naeher; T. Davidson, K. Naughton, S. Gorden, A. Wright (M. Vasconcelos, 80’); J. Ertz ©, N. Stanton, D. Colaprico; A. Mautz (V. DiBernardo, 86’), Y. Nagasato (M. Brian, 73), S. Kerr

 

Scoring

North Carolina Courage: C. Dunn, 66’ (J. McDonald)
Chicago Red Stars: S. Kerr, 26’ (Y. Nagasato)

Discipline
North Carolina Courage: (none)
Chicago Red Stars: M. Vasconcelos (YC, 89’)

Attendance: 4,053

Photo Gallery: North Carolina Courage v Chicago Red Stars, April 13, 2019

(all photos by Victoria Klum)