NC Courage celebrate a goal against the Portland Thorns (photo by Victoria Klum)
Cary, NC — The North Carolina Courage have had themselves quite a week.
Fresh from the club celebrating their victory in the inaugural International Champions League Women’s tournament, as well as several members of their starting lineup celebrating a USWNT win in the Tournament of Nations, the Courage took to the pitch against the Portland Thorns. A win on Sunday would clinch the NWSL Shield for the second year in a row.
Paul Riley and Mark Parsons had only a couple of days with their full complement of players back from national team duty to get their teams ready to face each other. While the Courage came into the match with a commanding lead in the NWSL Shield race, Portland was hanging on to fourth place in the standings.
From the opening whistle, the Courage played like a team that wanted to leave no doubt about their ability to dominate a game.
But after dropping the first two games against the Courage in 2018, the Thorns had something to prove as well. Lindsey Horan took the ball deep into North Carolina’s end and crossed the ball to Christine Sinclair but the shot went over the crossbar in the game’s opening salvo.
After that, the Courage did what the Courage always does – they smothered Portland’s attack in midfield and used their lethal speed on the counter-attack, with Lynn Williams and Jessica McDonald making the Thorns’ center-backs chase them around Portland’s 18.
The payoff for North Carolina came shortly after the hydration break when Debinha took the ball near the center circle and lobbed a pass deep into Portland’s end. McDonald sent a low cross into the 18-yard box that found Williams running through Portland’s defense for the tap-in at the 37th minute.
“Me and Jess made eye contact, and I just got my little toe on there,” was how Williams described her first goal after the game. “We’ve really been working on crossing and finishing, so I’m really happy I was able to put one away.”
The Courage maintained pressure on the Thorns through the rest of the first half. In the 41st minute, McDonald nodded a corner kick to McCall Zerboni who had stationed herself in front of Portland’s goal but she wasn’t able to get enough power behind her header and Adrianna Franch made the save.
North Carolina doubled their lead just before halftime when Merritt Matthias sent a line drive cross through Portland’s 18-yard box that bounced off of Celeste Bourielle to Williams, who got just enough of the ball to get it past Franch, who was leaning the other way.
Moments later, midfielder Samantha Mewis had a look at a third goal for the Courage with a line drive but Franch was well-positioned to make the save.
Despite a rather spirited history between these two teams, the game play was by and large clean. However, with stoppage time ticking down in the first half, Debinha took possession of the ball just outside of North Carolina’s box and had turned to run upfield when Emily Sonnett made a very hard and late challenge, earning a yellow card while Debinha was attended to.
“Great performance, one of our best performances of the season for me,” Riley said of the first half. “We tore them apart in the first half and we should have gone in 4 or 5 to nothing up.”
At halftime, the Courage had outshot Portland 18-2, having neutralized Tobin Heath and Sinclair, not allowing the Thorns to create viable scoring opportunities.
After a rough first half, Portland came back onto the pitch energized. Hayley Raso earned a free kick just outside of North Carolina’s 18-yard box. Horan slipped past the defense, ran right onto Heath’s free kick and headed it past Katelyn Rowland, which made it look like the visitors might turn the game around.
But after giving up a free kick that cost the defense a clean sheet, North Carolina tightened up their game and kept the Thorns from finding any more scoring opportunities.
When the final whistle blew, the Courage had outshot the Thorns 31-9 and secured the home field advantage in the playoffs.
Portland coach Mark Parsons had an overall positive view of the Thorns’ game, despite the rocky first half. “I thought we slipped away from some of our things that gave them the looks at the end of the first half, and the second half we grew into the game,” he said following the match. “We had to score early, which we did, we just fell short of having another.”
Horan felt that, in spite of the difficulties of having national team players return late and dealing with the humid weather conditions, the Thorns showed good fight and spirit rebounding from the first half of the match. “We just couldn’t get that second one to tie it up, so, unfortunate for us but I congratulate the Courage on such a great season.”
Riley noted after the game, “we just played a very good team with a lot of good players in it. I think you’ll look back on this game and say we beat Portland three times which is not easy to do.”
Final notes
- Midge Purce returned to Portland’s lineup and played 70 minutes after recovering from an ankle injury she suffered a month ago against Utah.
- Lynn Williams, with braces against Portland twice this season, is leading the NWSL with 10 goals on the season.
- Riley noted that having secured home advantage in the NWSL playoffs, the team is in a position to give some of their key players a rest. Zerboni has been battling ankle problems and he can give national team players like Debinha and Mewis a break. Riley pointed out that those players on the Courage who don’t see regular time are still used to playing against top women’s players like Mewis, Dunn, and Zerboni in practice every day, which helped them win the ICC trophy.
- Lindsey Horan had praise for the Courage on their win in the ICC. “I think that’s awesome for our league and everyone in the NWSL is so proud to see one our teams doing well.” Horan said that the USWNT players were following the ICC games during their own Tournament of Nations run. “I think it was the first time I was a Courage fan, cheering them on. It’s one of the coolest things for the NWSL. We want to catch people’s attention, we want people to know about our teams and 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.”
Click here for match photo gallery.
Lineups
North Carolina: K. Rowland; J. Hinkle, A. Erceg ©, A. Dahlkemper, M. Matthias; Debinha (K. Hamilton 85’), M. Zerboni, S. Mewis (C. Dunn 78’), D. O’Sullivan; J. McDonald, L. Williams
Portland: A. Franch; M. Klingenberg, E. Menges, E. Sonnett, M. Purce (E. Ball 70’); L. Horan, C. Sinclair ©, C. Bourielle; T. Heath, A. Crnogorcevic (C. Foord 58’), H. Raso (Andressina 73’)
Scoring
North Carolina: L. Williams 37’ (J. McDonald); L. Williams 45’ (unassisted)
Portland: L. Horan 49’ (T. Heath)
Discipline
North Carolina: none
Portland: E. Sonnett 45+3’; C. Foord 85’
Attendance: 5,379
NC Courage
