The North Carolina Courage extended its unbeaten start to the 2022 NWSL Challenge cup to four, drawing 1-1 with NJ/NY Gotham FC on Sunday, April 3 in Red Bull Arena.
The Courage (2-0-2, 8 pts) took a 1-0 lead into the 84th minute, but a late header from Ifeoma Onumonu gave Gotham (1-1-2, 5 pts) a share of the points. Dominating for most of the game, North Carolina held 58.2% of the possession and outshot NJ/NY 19-9.
“I thought we were brilliant,” said head coach Sean Nahas. “Thought it was a really, really good performance by us, especially on the back end of a long trip. I’m just looking at the stats again, I mean, passing accuracy 84%, 466 passes. I was really proud of the group and how they did everything we asked of them in terms of the changes we wanted to make from the last game. … Still a little bit slow in our decision making in the final third, but I think that will come.”
With a long regular season still to come after the Challenge Cup, the Courage are more concerned with how they are playing than the results they are getting.
“As a whole, we’re really pleased with the performance,” said goalkeeper Katelyn Rowland. “To be honest, I thought it was pretty dominating. Obviously, coming off a long road trip. Obviously, we’re not focused on the points. We’re focused on performance and performance wise, we’re really, really happy with the progress we’ve been making. So we go home, we rest up and we go at it again, but we’re really pleased.”
Debinha gave the Courage their lone goal, placing a free kick from the edge of the box perfectly into the side netting in the 25th minute.
Gotham’s equalizer came from a Kristie Mewis corner, with Onumonu beating Abby Erceg to the ball and heading the ball past Rowland.
Onumonu’s goal set up a tense final few minutes, but neither team could break the tie.
One of four changes from the Courage’s midweek lineup, Meredith Speck made her first start of the season and played very well next to Denise O’Sullivan. The duo formed the base of the Courage’s midfield, which ran circles around Gotham for much of the match.
“Looking at the game video from the last game, I just felt that, making the changes, the player that we want to put in, we had to make sure that we really had someone disciplined in there in that role to protect the spaces and work off of[O’Sullivan],” Nahas said. “I thought [Speck] did a great job of clogging that space, the transition areas. She has a good mind. Great energy, closes things down well, reads the game in front of her.”
Nahas went on to praise Speck’s growth and professionalism during her time with the Courage.
“[Speck] has come a long way,” Nahas said. “One thing I love about Meri is, for six years, Meri didn’t get a lot of time and never complained, was a great teammate, was the first person cheering the team on, was a great practice player in terms of the role she had. She’s a true pro. And I feel like so often you hear stories, but every team needs a Meri Speck, because I think she sets the tempo and I think that type of attitude, where a lot of people [say]. ‘ I want time, I deserve time, I want time.’ She never once said that. Ever.
“She just got it when she got it and now she’s earning it. It’s not given to her. She’s earning it. And I give her a ton of credit for that. And hopefully a lot of the team can see that how she carried herself and handled herself, it pays off. She never wanted anything. She just wanted to earn it and she has.”
Coming off the bench in the 66th minute, Kerolin Nicoli made her debut in the win. The Courage signed Kerolin in January, but the forward’s arrival was delayed until this week due to the Visa process.
Despite the limited minutes, Kerolin showed exactly what she can do and why the Courage brought her in.
“She’s brilliant on the ball,” Nahas said. She’s comfortable. She’s dynamic, her ability to draw opponents in and create spaces, I think she’ll adjust to the speed of the game. But I felt that it was important to get her on the field, just to sort of break the ice a little bit and let her just sort of get a taste of it before she heads over to camp.”
The Courage are off next weekend, with multiple players heading off to join up with their respective national teams, but will return on Saturday, April 16 with a road game against the Orlando Pride.
“[The break] is huge, especially, with numbers gone, it gives a lot of other people more chances for reps, more chances for minutes in training,” Rowland said. “It’s another chance for us to reset and go at it and I think it’s huge for us. We take advantage of it and we keep working.”
