North Carolina Courage 1 – 0 Chicago Red Stars
CARY, NC— It wouldn’t be a proper Drainage Derby without a weather delay. As the North Carolina Courage and Chicago Red Stars were getting set to kick off, game officials, coaching staff from both teams, and a league official convened at the center line to talk about an approaching storm. The decision was made to delay the start of the game, and the players returned to the locker rooms. Roughly 51 minutes after the scheduled kick off, the festivities started at Wake Med Soccer Park.
The Red Stars jumped right on the Courage defense right after kickoff with a chance in front of Casey Murphy. But the Courage stormed right back down the field, forcing Emily Boyd to boot the ball out of bounds.
Both teams found plenty of opportunities to get on the board throughout the first half, but it took until the 40th minute to break the deadlock. With the ball bouncing through the 18-yard box, Red Stars defender Kayla Sharples attempted to control the ball, but instead of hitting her in the shoulder, she hit it with her arm, and the referee immediately pointed to the penalty spot.
Amy Rodriguez cooly placed the ball on the penalty spot and moments later buried the spot kick to record her first goal with the Courage.
“It’s such a privilege to play for this club, let alone to score for this club,” Rodriguez said after the game. “To get the lone goal tonight to put my team up three points feels really good. And I have all these guys behind me to thank because they really do just raise my level up and make me a better player out there.”
The second half was much like the first with steady rain and both squads trading some quality chances, but both Emily Boyd and Casey Murphy had strong performances in goal.
With Debinha back in the lineup after playing in the Tokyo Olympics, Riley got his first good look at how the Brazilian’s creativity would open up chances for Rodriguez and Jessica McDonald. With her ability to find space and get the defense back on its heels, Debinha helped McDonald have one of her best games of the year.
“We’re all delighted that she’s back,” midfielder Denise O’Sullivan said Debinha’s return.
Rodriguez had high praise for her new teammate after their first game together. “It is a forward’s dream to play with a player of Debinha’s caliber. And for me to get to play with her out there tonight felt so good. She makes everyone around her better…her vision, her ability to play a final pass, is just phenomenal. It’s on another level, and I feel very fortunate to be able to play with her.”
Meanwhile, Chicago’s attacking line of Kealia Watt, Mal Pugh, and Katie Johnson started poking at North Carolina’s defense with Pugh finding Johnson with a cross that she got her head on in the 59th minute. In the 78th minute, Pugh swiped an errant pass from Havana Solaun and drove toward the goal. Her shot from the top of the box was right at Murphy, who made the easy save.
Then, in the 85th minute, substitute Nikki Stanton slipped an outlet pass to Watt, who swung around and rocketed a shot on goal, but Murphy was not going to be denied her clean sheet, and she dove to make her trickiest save on the evening. When the whistle blew at the end of stoppage time, Murphy and her back four celebrated with hugs and lots of smiles.
Courage head coach Paul Riley noted in his post-game remarks that he and his technical staff needed to make some on-the-fly adjustments when Chicago coach Rory Dames changed up his back line.
“We thought they’d play a back three, so we prepared all week for a back three, and when we saw the lineup sheet come in an hour before kickoff, we realized there was going to be a back four, so we quickly adjusted some things.”
Riley was pleased with his team’s first half performance but felt they lost their way a little in the second half.
“They caused us a lot of trouble in the last 15 minutes, but we were able to hold on. It’s a good result, I think, more so than the performance, and we base most of what we do on performances. I think the group is happy with the points, but back to work tomorrow and try and improve the performance next week against Kansas [City].”
With the victory, North Carolina holds on to second place in the league table as the league looks toward the fall stretch heading for the playoffs.
Final Notes
- With the shutout win over the Red Stars, goalkeeper Casey Murphy recorded her sixth clean sheet of the season.
- Despite some heavy physical play from both teams, the game’s only yellow card was shown to Chicago forward Kealia Watt in the 87th minute after she pulled down Courage midfielder Cari Roccaro.
- Next up for the Courage is a return to Sahlen’s Stadium for Kristen Hamilton, Katelyn Rowland, and Hailie Mace as Kansas City visits Cary on Saturday, August 21st.
Lineups
North Carolina Courage: C. Murphy; K. Kurtz, C. Pickett, A. Erceg ©, M. Mathias; M. Speck (A. James 63’), D. O’Sullivan, Debinha (R. Williams 90+1), H. Solaun; A. Rodriguez (C. Rocarro 80’), J. McDonald
Chicago Red Stars: E. Boyd; T. Milazzo (R. Hill 60’), A. Wright (N. Stanton 83’), K. Sharples, S. Gorden; D. Colaprico (M. Doniak 82’), S. Woldmoe, A. Mautz © (Z. Morse 83’); M. Pugh, K. Watt, K. Johnson
Score:
North Carolina Courage: 1
Chicago Red Stars: 0
Goals:
North Carolina Courage: A. Rodriguez 40’ (penalty kick)
Chicago Red Stars: none
Discipline
North Carolina Courage: none
Chicago Red Stars: K. Watt (YC, 87’)
North Carolina Courage
