North Carolina Courage 4 – 0 Kansas City
CARY, NC— North Carolina Courage Head Coach Paul Riley teased in his pre-match press conference on Thursday that he had some moves up his sleeve. Sure enough, on Saturday night, he debuted his Power Trio of Jessica McDonald, Lynn Williams, and Amy Rodriguez up front in one of the most potentially lethal attacking front lines Courage fans have seen.
The Courage didn’t hit every right note, but with the likes of Debinha and Carson Pickett serving up some harmony and Casey Murphy never missing a beat, the nearly 5,000 fans at Sahlen’s Stadium were delighted with the result.
“I think we’ll all admit we’ve got a lot of work to do, to play all three together,” Riley noted in his post-game remarks about playing Williams, McDonald and Rodriguez together up front. “So, it’s a work in progress, honestly, and we’ve only had a couple of days to work on it since Lynn’s come back. But I do think there’s some potential in it.”
Kansas City came into the Saturday night tilt, having bagged their first win a week ago against OL Reign. And they came out of the gate looking to continue their winning ways, putting North Carolina’s defense under pressure early on.
Hailie Mace—in her first game back in Cary since the blockbuster trade a month ago that sent her to Kansas City along with Kristen Hamilton and Katelyn Rowland—made it a long evening for the Courage back line.
North Carolina withstood the early pressure and got on the board first. Fresh from winning the bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics, Lynn Williams opened the scoring in the 12th minute off of a flawless pass from Carson Pickett.
Then, in the 21st minute, forward Jessica McDonald’s clinical header off a Carson Pickett corner kick doubled the lead. McDonald had been sitting on 49 regular-season goals for a long time and, she was relieved to have finally netted goal number 50.
“It’s a long time coming, you guys,” McDonald laughed after the game.
But Kansas City kept up the pressure forcing Courage goalkeeper Casey Murphy to make several tough saves. By halftime, KC outshot North Carolina 8-3, yet only 2 of those were on goal, and the Courage took the 2-0 lead into the locker room.
With the Courage taking command on the scoreboard, KC continued to press throughout the second half, with Hamilton and Mace nearly connecting on a goal that would have got the visitors right back in the game.
Moments later, Mace would figure in another dangerous play that saw Lo’eau Labonta fire a rocket that forced Murphy into another great save. Casey Murphy would come up big again in the 62nd minute when Addie McCain lined up a laser shot from distance that forced Murphy to punch it to safety.
With two-thirds of the Power Trio already on the scoreboard, Rodriguez joined the act in the 64th minute. The play was set up by Lynn Williams, who tipped the ball out to Ryan Williams on the wing. Ryan Williams caught A-Rod making a late run through the 18-yard box and timed her pass perfectly so that she was able to slot the ball past Rowland to make it 3-0 for the Courage.
But Kansas City wasn’t going to go quietly into the night. They peppered Murphy with 26 shots, but the Courage goalkeeper wasn’t going to let her seventh shutout of the season slip through her fingers.
Riley talked about the strength of the Courage defense after the game. “We’ve been excellent around the penalty box; Casey Murphy comes up with two or three big moments every game. But I think we defended really well, not just there, but in the midfield too with Havana [Solaun] and [Denise] O’Sullivan; the two of them have done really well and given us some cover.
“I think it’s a whole group thing: you never get clean sheets by just the goalkeeper standing on her head, but she’s had a great season so far. For me, she’s the MVP of our team so far, and maybe the league, to be perfectly honest.”
Meredith Speck ended the game with an incredible solo run that started when she blocked the KC shot attempt at the top of the Courage 18-yard box. She saw Rowland all the way at the center circle and pushed the ball past the Kansas City keeper and, with KC defenders desperately trying to close in on her, pushed the ball into the net from distance, putting the coda on this game.
Even with a decisive-on-the-scoresheet win, the Courage were already writing up their laundry list of improvements they want to make in the coming week.
“The performance wasn’t great. We never really got a grip of the midfield,” Riley said in the post-game press conference. “We have problems sometimes when we go out of the system that we normally play.”
“We played a little differently,” McDonald said after the game. “We had me, Amy, and Lynn up top, sort of like a two-and-a-half-ish; so, pressure-wise, we kind of had to get our act together a little bit in the first half, but I think things kind of came together okay—very average.”
“We weren’t fully satisfied enough with our performance today,” she continued. “It was new, but, winning 4-0 off of a not-so-great performance, I’ll take the three points, but there’s some tweaks we’ll obviously have to fix in the future because against really good teams, or playoffs come, if we make it that far, we’ll have to do a lot better than what we did. It’ll be nice to watch some film this week and see what we can tweak to kind of move forward from now.”
Final Notes
- In a press conference leading up to Saturday’s game, Courage Head Coach Paul Riley revealed that Sam Mewis was not yet back with the team. She is being treated for some injuries she picked up and isn’t expected to be available for the next several weeks.
- With her assist on Lynn Williams’ goal, Carson Picket is the league leader in assists, while Williams is in a three-way tie on goals scored with Washington’s Ashley Hatch and Orlando’s Sydney Leroux.
- After being dismissed from the game for her second yellow card on the night, Havana Solaun will sit out North Carolina’s next game against Washington.
- A lot of jerseys were swapped at the end of the game. Abby Erceg and Kristen Hamilton started things off, followed by Carson Pickett and Victoria Pickett, and later Meredith Speck and Hailie Mace.
- Next up for the Courage is a trip up I-85 to Audi Field to take on the Washington Spirit on Sunday, August 29th.
Lineups
North Carolina Courage: C. Murphy; K. Kurtz, C. Pickett, A. Erceg ©; M. Mathias (R. Williams 59’), D. O’Sullivan, Debinha (B. Ratcliffe 83’), H. Solaun; L. Williams (C. Rocarro 83’), A. Rodriguez (T. Smith 76’), J. McDonald (M. Speck 59’)
Kansas City: K. Rowland; K. Edmonds©, E. Ball (M. Larroquette 79’), M. Weber, K. Pickett; K. Bowen (M. Vasconcelos 79’), L. LaBonta, V. Pickett; H. Mace (D. Jenkins 68’), K. Hamilton, A. McCain (C. Logarzo 68’)
Score:
North Carolina Courage: 4
Kansas City: 0
Goals:
North Carolina Courage: L. Williams 12’ (C. Pickett); J. McDonald 21’ (C. Pickett); A. Rodruguez 64’ (R. Williams); M. Speck 90’ (T. Smith)
Kansas City: none
Discipline
North Carolina Courage: H. Solaun (YC 40’, YC/RC 75’)
Kansas City: A. McCain (YC 44’); K. Pickett (YC 47’)
Attendance: 4,943
