The 2018 NWSL Champions, the North Carolina Courage, are greeted at the airport by loyal supporters celebrating their victory (photo by Victoria Klum).
Call it historic, or phenomenal, or unprecedented.
Whatever you call it, the North Carolina Courage have had quite a year. Among their accomplishments:
- A league record 17 wins
- A league record 57 points
- A league record 53 goals
- A league record 17 goals allowed
- A league record for the largest goal differential, +36
- Undefeated on the road
- Winning the inaugural Women’s International Champions Cup
- Being feted by North Carolina governor Roy Cooper
- Counting Portland Thorns forward Lindsey Horan among their fans
*record scratch*
Lindsey Horan? A COURAGE fan? It must be fake news!
The NWSL MVP commented on North Carolina’s run in the ICC tournament a few weeks ago, “I think it was the first time I was a Courage fan, cheering them on. I think that’s awesome for our league and everyone in the NWSL is so proud to see one of our teams doing well…it just shows how great this league is and how well we’re doing and how we can match up against some of the best teams in the world.”
Now, where were we? Oh, right:
- Winning the NWSL Shield for the second year in a row
- Overcoming a hurricane to win their semifinal playoff game in a hostile environment
- Winning the NWSL Championship, thus driving a stake through the “curse of the shield”
For anyone paying attention, the North Carolina Courage gave a master class on The Culture of Success.
“SUCCESS LEAVES CLUES”
Jessica McDonald of the North Carolina courage wins the ball from Andressinha of the Thorns during the 2018 NWSL Championship (photo by Jeff Wong).
For the North Carolina Courage, the story of the 2018 National Women’s Soccer League season may well have started on October 14, 2017.
While the Portland Thorns were celebrating their 1-0 victory over the Courage in the 2017 NWSL Championship, a few yards away, Courage midfielder Samantha Mewis was asked what she most looked forward to in the next season.
There was no hesitation in her response: “Winning. Next year I think that we’re gonna be back with a vengeance. It starts now; I’m ready to get prepared for next season already.”
The pain of losing the 2017 final, as well as frustration over how that game played out, makes for great interview and Twitter fodder. But head coach Paul Riley knows that’s the kind of fuel that burns away quickly.
To find the next level of success, the Courage needed to rely on renewable resources: effort, growth, and faith (also, Panera pancakes).
“No finish line,” was how Riley put it when looking forward to the 2018 campaign. Although #NoFinishLine became the most widely-used mantra surrounding the club, there is another one that describes them even better:
“Grit today, growth tomorrow.”
As individuals, and as a club, the Courage have something to prove every time they step onto the pitch. But they also understand that playing with a chip on their shoulders would eventually become a burden, rather than motivation.
Training session after training session, game after game, Paul Riley’s club focuses on effort and accountability. It is rare for Riley and his players to give a post-game interview without running through a list of things they think they could improve on.
Expectations are the same, no matter where the player falls on the depth chart. Whether it’s tactical, fitness, or getting enough sleep, the players are fully supported by the coaching and training staff to develop.
As the regular season was winding down, Mike Young, the team’s Performance Director, took to Twitter to report, “Today, we ran a ‘suicide mile’ conditioning assessment with just 3 weeks left in the regular season. About half the team ran seasonal bests. Success leaves clues.”
The individual accountability and faith players and coaches have in each other saw the club through some serious challenges. During the ICC tournament, the Courage were missing most of their starting eleven to national team duty as the Tournament of Nations was played concurrently. Although there were some nervy moments, particularly in the championship match against Olympique Lyonnais, North Carolina found a way to win.
North Carolina endured another major setback in the final week of the regular season when their midfield general, McCall Zerboni, suffered a broken elbow during a USWNT friendly match. The injury ended Zerboni’s season and Riley called on the rest of the team to give a few percentages more to make up for her absence. Midfielders Mewis and Irish national Denise O’Sullivan leveled their defensive game up with support from the Courage back line. Though there is no doubt that Zerboni was missed, her teammates absorbed the blow and carried on.
AND THEN CAME FLORENCE
North Carolina head coach Paul Riley is sung Happy Birthday at the airport when greeted by loyal supporters (photo by Victoria Klum).
As the NWSL regular season was coming to a close, clouds began to gather off the coast of Africa. By the time the Courage dispatched the Houston Dash 5-0 in their final match of the regular season, those clouds developed into Tropical Storm Florence. Forecast models predicted the storm might land in North Carolina, or shift south toward South Carolina, or possibly turn north back into the Atlantic. The one thing those forecast models agreed on was that it was going to be a major hurricane.
The uncertainty of Florence’s path created a storm of controversy between the league, the Courage, and their semifinal opponent, the Chicago Red Stars. The next several days saw a substantial uptick in arguing among fans, media, and team officials. Finally, less than 48 hours before the scheduled kickoff in Cary, the league decided that the semifinal match would be rescheduled to Tuesday and moved to Portland, where the championship game would be played. The decision, unsurprisingly, was met with an outburst of raw emotion from Courage supporters. Not only had the rug been pulled from under them by moving the game out of the area, but it also ended up in the most hostile environment possible.
In the end, the Cary/Raleigh area was largely spared Florence’s wrath. The airport remained open and the Courage trained in a downpour and heavy winds before flying across the country Sunday evening.
However the players might have felt about the turn of events, they stuck with the focus on effort and accountability that got them this far. On the strength of Jessica McDonald’s goal, after she outran Chicago’s Julie Ertz, the Courage weathered what amounted to a 75-minute Maalox Moment, clinging to a 1-0 lead. With the Red Stars having to chase the game in the second half, Mewis’ rocket in the 85th minute extended North Carolina’s stay in the Rose City.
Coming into the championship game on Saturday, the Courage found themselves in the odd position of being the visiting “home” team, as well as being both the favorite and the underdog, playing on only three days of rest.
Soon after the kickoff, it became clear to the 21,144 in attendance (including a small contingent of Courage fans who made the trip to Portland) that North Carolina had decided exactly how their 2018 season would end.
Aside from a 10-minute stretch early in the second half, the Thorns were unable to unravel the Courage defense as Debinha opened the scoring and Jessica McDonald netted a brace to bring the championship home to the Triangle.
WHY SO GOOD?
The success of the Courage this year has brought comparisons to the Golden State Warriors and local sports podcasts have regular segments called, “Courage: Why So Good?”
When you look at the North Carolina Courage it might be tempting to chalk their accomplishments up to the talent on the team. After all, they have many players on the roster who make regular appearances for their national teams, as well as others who get called to camp occasionally.
The reality is, this is the same core group of players that Paul Riley took on three years ago, and there wasn’t a national team player among them.
The team culture that Riley and his players have built from a base of accountability and faith has created phenomenal success for the club while developing a group of players capable of cracking the starting lineup for their national teams.
While some argued that North Carolina’s ICC victory may not be the best measuring stick to compare the Courage to the best women’s teams in Europe (the ICC tournament took place during pre-season for European clubs), there can be no arguing the fact that North Carolina’s success raised the profile of the NWSL around the world.
The Courage may have crossed the finish line for 2018, but something tells me they are far from done.
It will be exciting to watch how the team and the league evolve in 2019.
A FINAL NOTE: A COURAGE DOCUMENTARY IN THE WORKS
A documentary film crew followed the team throughout the season. The documentary, a joint project between NWSL Media, Verizon, and Film 45, is expected to be released as eight episodes in early 2019. A platform for the docuseries to appear on has not yet been announced.
NC Courage
