North Carolina Courage 0 – 1 Olympique Lyonnais Fémenin
Cary, NC –The best of women’s club soccer was on display at Sahlen’s Stadium on Sunday when the North Carolina Courage faced off against Olympique Lyonnais in front of over 8,200 fans.
The defending UEFA Women’s champion and defending NWSL champion earned a rematch of last year’s WICC final with stoppage time goals in each of their semi-final games last Thursday.
Although temperatures at kickoff were still warm enough for the officials to call hydration breaks, the cooler evening allowed for both sides to field first-choice lineups and for fans to see the best from the two teams.
The Courage started off hot, pressing Lyon’s defense and getting a few looks behind their back line. By the time the first hydration break was called, Lyon found their feet and took control of the game. OL successfully disrupted North Carolina’s passing lanes while building their own attack and generating one of the best looks on goal. Nikita Parris broke free of her defenders and uncorked a shot at point-blank range but Courage keeper Stephanie Labbé pushed it safely away to keep the scoreline 0-0 going into halftime.
Lyon broke the deadlock in the 58th minute when Lucy Bronze carried the ball through midfield and found Dzsenifer Marozsán making a run. She set up Marozsán whose precision one-timer was the only shot that Lyon would get past Labbé on the night.
As with the semi-final match versus Manchester City, going down a goal turned up the fire under the Courage. The last 30 minutes was a mirror image of last year’s ICCW final, when the Courage went up a goal and held on under a relentless Lyon attack. North Carolina broke through midfield and fired at-will on Lyon’s defense. However, against a defense anchored by Wendie Renard and goalkeeper Sarah Bouhaddi, North Carolina’s finish needed to be on-point or they needed a pre-season-type of mistake from Lyon.
The fans were treated to a heart-pounding final fifteen minutes from both teams, but an equalizer just wasn’t to be for the home side. As the final whistle blew, Olympique Lyonnais held on for the 1-0 win and celebrated their first trophy of the 2019-20 season while the fans celebrated a remarkable evening of soccer from both clubs.
Lineups
North Carolina Courage: Labbé; Hinkle, Erceg (c), Dahlkemper, Mathias; O’Sullivan, Mewis; Debinha, Dunn; Hamilton, Williams
Substitutes: Rowland, Kurtz, Meehan, Zerboni, Pruitt, McDonald, Spetsmark, O’Reilly, Gay, R. Williams, Roccaro, Speck, Milliet, Perea, Horgan, Leshnak
Olympique Lyonnais: Bouhaddi; Bronze, Mbock, Renard (c), Greenwood; Parris, Henry, Marozsán, Majri; Hegerberg, Le Sommer
Substitutes: Weiss, Kumagai, Christiansen, Van de Sanden, Kouache, Silva, Cascarino, Buchanan, Cayman, Laurent, Malard, Talaslahti
All photos by Victoria Klum.
