NC Courage successful playing style driven through young ‘buy in’ from players

Even in the heat of June, when NC Courage is in the its dog days of the season, assistant coach Nathan Thackeray occasionally tries to prank his players. He found a “perfect hiding spot” in the bushes near the entrance of Field 6 at WakeMed Soccer Park, where occasionally he’ll try and scare the players to keep things light and fun.

Well, the day before the Courage’s first home game since May, he wasn’t trying to pull many pranks. He instead was focused on what the team needs to take care of before Saturday’s home game. The Courage still found ways to have fun during practice with little hugs and cheers throughout the two-hour affair.

But even then, each player was just as focused as Thackeray was, knowing their next opponent is right around the corner and they have home field advantage to protect.

Returning home for the first time in a month, the Courage are three points out of first place. Most recently, they put on a come-from-behind win against Washington Spirit in the Challenge Cup to end the near-perfect road swing. The only loss in its last nine games came against Kansas City on June 3, falling 1-0.

The offensive efficiency put on by the Courage stems from their growing list of attackers finding the back of the net, including Olivia Wingate, who scored the game-winner against Washington Spirit Wednesday night. The extra time goal was the first goal of her young career, and Haley Hopkins notched her first career assist setting up Wingate.

In the last two matches alone, the Courage have scored seven goals, and now hold the longest unbeaten run (seven wins, six draws) in Challenge Cup history.

“I mean, it just shows that there’s proof that we can do it, And they know they can do it,” Thackeray said. “It was just, how do we take what we’ve been working on in training and adapting that to the game. And for the first time, I think we got a good blend of work ethic, making sure the quality on the field. And it helps you know we’re refreshing some things open players that got given a chance to make a difference.”

The Courage’s roster is filled with a large group of young and mature players that’s gelled together, though still searching for a complete identity. Heading into this season, the team opted for some younger faces to mesh alongside some longtime veterans. And in over the last three weeks, it’s paid off.

Seeing what they’ve accomplished throughout the road trip, the team has slowly started realizing what their potential could be, Courage midfielder Frankie Tagliaferri said. There’s still much more she expects her teammates to accomplish together, but they’re moving in the right direction.

“I think the way we play, whether it’s people that start most games or people that are getting some chances, we’re still being true to who we are,” Tagliaferri said. “It’s still playing the way that we have been challenged and taught to play this whole year.”

More importantly for Thackeray, he continues pushing everyone to stay ‘grounded,’ knowing that it’s still early in the season, and this streak can disappear just as quickly as it’s appeared.

“We want them to be grounded with the way that they maintain their standards and their discipline and not getting too ahead of themselves,” he said. “And thinking that early success means just success, it doesn’t really success means that we keep producing, and we keep pushing our expectations for them.”

Thankfully, Thackeray said he rarely has to emphasize it himself, since the Courage reinforce that concept themselves, both during games and in practice. It starts from the seniors leaders down, including Brittany Ratcliffe, and it’s regularly discussed before, during and after practice — stay focused and play sophisticated soccer.

“When you look at the leadership that we’ve put together, and the leadership group that we have in the locker room, and they’re all the same,” Thackeray said. “They all want to keep standards ... they push the standards more than we do, to be honest.”

He said he’s not surprised at how much the Courage have come together this season, but likes that the quality of soccer they’re playing has improved over the last nine matches, too. Thackeray tries to keep the team’s confidence up, while simultaneously focusing on extending their strong play more than just those nine games so far. He described the team having a lot of “buy in,” and using that to completely trust the coaches and themselves while supporting one another. And going back to the team’s young energy, that buy in is because new faces are coming in and getting ingrained in the Courage’s style.

“We needed to make a few changes and increase the belief in each other and push a group forward with a new style of play,” he explained. “And I think that the group has bought into the style of play. And I think sometimes, you need some new faces and some young people to come in and say, ‘Yeah, you know what, I’m fully behind this.’ And they are from top to bottom, everybody is involved and wants to push this and wants to improve on on our style and, and be different to the rest of the league to in some in some standards.”

So while they haven’t played a perfect match, the last nine matches have placed the Courage in a prime position for their home stand, beginning against Orlando. The Pride are another team still learning what type of team they hope to be, but the Courage’s confidence is up and ready to be back comfortable on their own field.

“I think, right now our focus is to just rest to enjoy being home to utilize everything we have here at home,” Tagliaferri said, “and utilize being comfortable at home, which gives us, and any team, an advantage being at home.”