NC Courage soccer club opens NWSL season with a new look and a win over KC Current
Despite returning 17 players from last season’s roster, much of the anticipation around the North Carolina Courage is centered around how well the team’s newcomers will fare, and how quickly the team can come together against some of the top sides in the National Women’s Soccer League.
Saturday’s season opener was, of course, as small a sample size as you can get, but if that was a harbinger of things to come, the Courage will take it all season long.
Mille Geil, added to the roster this offseason and a mainstay on Denmark’s national team, scored a long-distance goal midway through the first half, Brazilian star Kerolin maintained pressure on the ball on the front line all game long, and Courage defenders blocked seven of Kansas City’s 10 shot attempts from reaching goal in a 1-0 win over the Current at WakeMed Soccer Park.
“For a young group, a new group, to get three points it’s only a small step with where we want to go, but it’s a really good foundation to set,” Courage coach Sean Nahas said after the game.
Despite allowing 10 corner kicks — many in the second half as the Current tried to come from behind — the Courage maintained possession for 59 percent of the match to just 41 percent for Kansas City, an important statistic as the younger Courage work early in the season on coming together as a unit.
“It was a gutsy three points,” Nahas said. “We had some really good spells in what we were doing, and then second half I thought we dropped off a bit, which is normal. Thought we had several, several quality chances, thought we could maybe put the game away. But young players are going to learn.”
A big piece of that defending unit is U.S. Women’s National Team mainstay Emily Fox, who was a big piece of the in-zone protection for the home side.
Those shots that did reach the cage — and there were just three — fell into the hands of Courage keeper Casey Murphy, whose first clean sheet of the season was a welcome sight for the young club in front of her.
Meanwhile, it didn’t take long for Kerolin to make her presence felt for the home side. With a rush up the right side, she drove her defender into the box, deked past her and centered a perfect ball for another newcomer, Narumi Miura. Her shot was labeled for the top right corner before KC keeper Ad Franch got a diving hand on it to keep the match scoreless in the sixth minute.
Just two minutes later, KC’s Michelle Cooper slipped a defender up the left side, crossed to the top of the box and tried to tuck a shot near side, but Murphy dove to her right and kept the sheet clean.
Courage fans caught their first glimpse of a connection they’re hoping to see a lot of this season a bit later in the opening half, when Fox slipped a great feed through the middle line and found Kerolin streaking up the right seam. Kerolin’s shot was right in Franch’s breadbasket.
Murphy’s biggest save of the first half indirectly set up the Courage goal. She got her mitts on a low shot from Lo’Eau Labonta from just inside the 18-yard line.
Shortly after Murphy restarted play, the Courage attacked up the left side of the pitch. Geil beat one defender near the sideline, cut toward the middle and was 30 yards away from the goal when she fired against her path of travel to the near post. The shot appeared to catch Franch off guard. The KC keeper was slow to react, the ball skipped past her and into the cage.
“I received the ball in an isolated situation with the right full back and I tried to go 1 v 1,” Geil said after the match. “I got to the inside of the pitch, I saw the goal and tried to shoot, and it went in.”
Said Nahas: “It was funny, before the game I told Mille — she’s a confidence person, most people are — I told her, ‘When you get the ball wide, I want you to have one thought, I want you to dictate where they defend and I want you to run at them and get them on their heels and have the space inside open up, you’re going to have acres of space.’ And she did it.”
Kerolin had another chance just minutes later, and she tried a short-side shot that just skidded wide.
In the second half, the Courage had a few runs at goal, half of which were whistled offside as they continue to work on establishing timing among all the newcomers. Perhaps the Courage’s best second-half chance again came from Geil, this time from the center of the field just outside the box. Her shot forced Franch to make a diving save.
The Current, to its credit, continued to push, but the Courage tactically shut them down. Murphy made two of her three saves in the final 10 minutes, as well, to preserve the season-opening win for the home side.
Kansas City was playing with three rookies in its lineup due to some early season injury issues. The Current will look to turn things around when it plays its second match of the season on Saturday, April 1, its home opener against the Portland Thorns.
The NC Courage will play its second match of the season on the road, squaring off against the San Diego Wave on Saturday, April 1, at 10 p.m.
This story was originally published March 25, 2023 at 5:54 PM.
