North Carolina Courage 4 – 1 Reign FC

Cary, NC—It took nearly the full 90 minutes for the North Carolina Courage to finally get one past Reign FC goalkeeper Casey Murphy.

The NWSL semifinal match was typical of the way Vlatko Andonovski’s team played the Courage this season. For a team decimated by injuries and often held together with chewing gum, boot laces, and pure determination, they had a way of frustrating North Carolina’s attack.

Although the Courage dominated in every way on the scoresheet, this game was a chess match from the opening whistle. With Reign hunkering down in their final third, and Murphy having yet another outstanding game at WakeMed Soccer Park, it was up to Paul Riley’s squad to find a way to break through the defense and catch Murphy out of position.

The onslaught of shots at Reign’s goal started within the opening moments of the game. Lynn Williams picked up the ball along the left flank and cut toward the Reign penalty area. She held off defender Stephanie Cox and tried to pick out Crystal Dunn at the top of the six-yard box with a pass. Murphy made the save on Dunn’s shot but Debinha’s shot off of the rebound sailed over the crossbar.

Then it looked like the Courage would take the lead in first half stoppage time when Jaelene Hinkle served a gorgeous lofted ball right to Lynn Williams on the doorstep. But somehow, Williams’ redirection clanged off of the post.

Reign had survived the storm and got to halftime even at 0-0 with the reigning NWSL champions.

Andonovski knew from experience this season that his club needed to play a tight game, if they were going to extend their stay in Cary. “When it comes to North Carolina, we knew that we had to defend, we knew that we had to be organized and disciplined, and that’s the only way we could have had a chance.”

The second half was nearly a full copy and paste of the first half.  Led by Denise O’Sullivan and Samantha Mewis, North Carolina’s midfield corps only allowed Reign to get into the Courage final third a handful of times. But Reign FC was able to disrupt North Carolina’s passing just enough to keep them from finishing off any scoring opportunities they created.

“The midfield was tremendous in the second half and into overtime,” Riley said after the game. “We created a ton of chances but didn’t put the game away and we should have put the game away a lot earlier.”

North Carolina also largely neutralized the FIFA Women’s Player of the Year. With nearly every ball coming out of the back third directed toward Megan Rapinoe, O’Sullivan and Mewis kept her buttoned down through the middle of the park. When she was able to break through midfield, Heather O’Reilly minimized Rapinoe’s ability to create chances.

Although she expected to close out the remaining games in her final season as a substitute, O’Reilly has stepped in at right back following season-ending knee injury to Merritt Mathias, as well as reserves Hailey Harbison and Ryan Williams. O’Reilly’s fitness and versatility have proven valuable to the Courage down the stretch. And she was about to make her biggest contribution.

“[Rapinoe’s] really a savvy and thoughtful player,” O’Reilly said about her approach to defending her. “She has a really good understanding of opening space up not only for herself but for her teammates, so I knew that I really needed to be focused and plugged in for 90 minutes. Because one movement of hers and I’ll pay the price.”

With the game reaching the 80^th minute, and the shot totals extremely lopsided in North Carolina’s favor, it was clear that this game was going to turn on a heartbreak play. That play happened in the 88^th minute when Lauren Barnes slid to block a Lynn Williams cross but the ball hit her hand and referee Tori Penso immediately pointed to the penalty spot.

O’Reilly stepped up to take the penalty kick. The assignment raised some eyebrows, since Mewis has been handling PK duty for the club.

“We’ve been taking penalties for six weeks, eight weeks, now and HAO’s been 16 for 16,” Riley explained. “It was one of those big moments and who better than Heather O’Reilly to step up and take a penalty?”

O’Reilly struck the penalty kick clean and hard, sending Murphy the wrong way and with two minutes, plus stoppage to go, North Carolina was headed to the NWSL fina…

Hold up.

At the death, Celia Jimenez (who came on in the 63^rd minute) whipped a pass into the box for 80^th minute sub Ifeoma Onumonu, who spun around Courage defender Abby Erceg and stunned goalkeeper Stephanie Labbé with a no-angle right-footed shot.

This game was far from over. Now there would be thirty minutes of overtime and, as tight as this game had been through regulation, there was a real possibility of the outcome being decided on penalty kicks.

“We switched formation and we thought we could get over the line (after O’Reilly’s penalty kick) but we didn’t and we had to show a little bit more resilience, a little bit more perseverance but that’s what we’re all about. I said to the players, ‘That’s why you train hard in pre-season, that’s why you do all these things. Because you’ll need to play 120 minutes at some point, some place, some time.”

Riley rallied his troops during the brief break before the first overtime period and they came out of the break on fire.

“When you give up a late goal like that, it an affect the psyche of the team,” he noted. “I told them at the end of the game, ‘This is a mighty challenge, kind of a hole we’ve put ourselves in.’ I think they only get better by being in those type of holes and I thought they showed a lot of character in overtime. Our first fifteen minutes of overtime we were brilliant.”

The oh-so-crafty Brazilian Birthday Girl, Debinha, drew a foul just outside of the Reign penalty area. Earlier in the match, the Courage took a free kick in roughly the same area but got a little too precious with the play and the visitors from Puget Sound easily cleared it away. This time it was Debinha and Hinkle discussing their strategy. Debinha kept it simple and ripped the free kick over the wall and out of Murphy’s reach into the top left corner of the net.

“Jae and I practice free kicks, and that was the moment when I put it in my head that I need to score,” Debinha said about the thought process leading to her goal. “Jae asked me ‘What are you gonna do?’ and she’s a big goalie, so I’m going to wait and see what she’s going to do and she was cheating to the right side so I’m just going to hit to the near post with power.”

Riley was pleased with the creativity of his midfielders in the overtime period. “Debinha took over the game and Crystal was very, very good in overtime and Sammy and Sulli just kept us ticking along,” he said.

Then it all started to fall apart for Murphy and the Reign.  As the first overtime was drawing to a close, Courage forward Kristen Hamilton took a pass from O’Reilly and fired a shot at the net. The ball deflected off of Barnes and went through Murphy’s legs for an own goal to give North Carolina a solid 3-1 lead.

Dunn put the game away in the 104^th minute when she got the ball from Mewis and drew Murphy off of her line. With the Reign goalkeeper vulnerable, Dunn sent a hard left footed shot into the net and NOW we can say the North Carolina Courage are headed to the NWSL final.

“We made it interesting in the first 90 minutes, but we couldn’t hang on,” Andonovski said about his club’s performance before turning his focus on the Courage. “They’re great. They’re awesome, you know, the best team in the league, hands down.”

Though he acknowledged the challenge of dealing with an injury-depleted lineup, Andonovski wasn’t going to point to that as an excuse or to take away from how North Carolina played. “At the same time, I’m very proud of my team. We came here, we knew what we had to do, we battled until the last second and we tied up the game, and at the end, anything could happen.”

 

Final Notes

• Chicago is the one team that has given the Courage problems over the last two seasons. North Carolina is winless against the Red Stars in 2019, having tied one game and dropped two. The last time the Courage beat Chicago was last season’s semifinal game.
• In more post-game commentary, Andonovski was asked about his takeaways from this season. “It was a great learning opportunity. It was a struggle, but it helped us build a character. It was challenging, but it helped us get stronger. It was challenging in a tactical way, but it helped us get better. So, altogether, as hard as it was, we got a lot of positives out of it. And at the end of the day, it was fun. It was so much fun coaching this group. It was very enjoyable.”
• Asked about his future, Andonovski confirmed that he is in talks with the US Soccer Federation. “I’ve had conversations with people in the federation and anything can happen. Now that the season is over, I can focus on the talks with the federation.”
• Casey Murphy’s post-game comments about Andonovski had a bit more between the lines: “Vlatko’s been incredible…very thankful to have played for Vlatko and all the best to him as well.”
• O’Reilly on what makes the Courage stand out: “There’s a mutual love, respect, and work ethic, and I think that that’s really special. I’ve been part of a lot of really special teams in terms of the intangibles, but I think that this group kind of beats all. Everybody works for each other, there’s no egos, it’s all about accountability and doing your part for the team. So it’s really a nice environment to be part of.”
• O’Reilly had more to say about playing against Megan Rapinoe. “I think the most threatening play that we had against us was came a few minutes into the game, with Rapinoe having an opportunity and that just kind of woke me up. One second off of dropping with the line and Megan will make you pay. She’s obviously a world-class player and I think more than anything I just had to keep my mental focus because she’s so good at cutting inside and her speed, fitness, agility, all that has just gotten better and better in her later years. It’s pretty incredible. She’s the fastest and most explosive I’ve ever seen her, so kudos to her for taking care of herself. It was a good, wholesome competition out there.”
• After the Drainage Derby in 2018, when Hurricane Florence caused the Chicago/North Carolina semifinal match to be moved to Portland, the weather forecasts for next Sunday are being closely monitored. So far, there is roughly a 20% chance of rain.

Lineups

North Carolina Courage: S. Labbé; J. Hinkle, A. Erceg ©, A. Dahlkemper, H. O’Reilly; D. O’Sullivan (M. Zerboni 102’), S. Mewis (C. Roccaro 109’), Debinha, C. Dunn; L. Williams (J. Spetsmark 112’), J. McDonald (K. Hamilton 96’)

Reign FC: C. Murphy; S. Cox (S. Groom 90’), K. McNabb, L. Barnes, S. Catley; A. Long, B. Yanez, B. Balcer (C. Jimenez 63’); D. Jenkins (T. Nielsen 105’), J. Taylor (I. Onumonu 80’), M. Rapinoe ©

Score:
North Carolina Courage: 4
Reign FC: 1

Goals:
North Carolina Courage: H. O’Reilly (88’ penalty kick); Debinha (99’ unassisted); L. Barnes (105+1’ own goal); C. Dunn (108’ S. Mewis)
Reign FC: I. Onumonu (90+3’ C. Jimenez)

Discipline
North Carolina Courage: none
Reign FC: A. Long, YC 50’

Attendance: 7,422

Photo gallery: North Carolina Courage v Reign FC

All photos by Victoria Klum.