The North Carolina Football Club and North Carolina Courage, two of North Carolina’s professional soccer clubs, are off to exceptional starts in their 2017 campaigns.
NCFC, formerly known as the Carolina Railhawks, has accumulated a record of 6-2-3 on the season, good for third place in the North American Soccer League. The team trails the second-place Jacksonville Armada Football Club by two points and the first-place Miami Football Club by four points.
The squad is 4-1 over the course of its last five matches, and 5-2 over the last seven, with one of those wins coming against the Carolina Dynamo in the U.S. Open Cup. Jacksonville Armada FC halted the team’s three-game winning streak May 28, as NCFC fell 2-1 after managing an extra time goal.
The team recently picked up a victory against Puerto Rico FC, the last-place club in the NASL. After going down a goal early, NCFC’s Matthew Fondy connected on a goal in the 73rd minute to tie the match, and then assisted teammate Billy Schuler on a goal in the 91st minute to pull ahead of Puerto Rico.
Nazmi Albadawi, a former player of NC State, has started all nine regular-season matches for NCFC while playing every minute, connecting on one goal and racking up 12 shots.
NCFC defeated the Charlotte Independence 4-1 Wednesdayat WakeMed Soccer Park in the U.S. Open Cup. The team will next take on the New York Cosmos Sunday June 4 in a NASL regular season matchup, also at WakeMed.
The North Carolina Courage, who play in the National Women’s Soccer League, currently own a record of 5-0-3, good for first place in the NWSL with a total of 15 points, two points ahead of the second-place Chicago Red Stars.
The Courage most recently fell to the Red Stars in Illinois by a score of 3-2 on Saturday. After tying the match just before halftime, the Courage surrendered two consecutive goals to the Red Stars. Debinha de Oliveira of the Courage tallied an 82nd minute-goal to cut the deficit to 3-2, but it was ultimately not enough.
The Courage will look to remain in first place when they take on FC Kansas City at home at WakeMed Soccer Park on Saturday. FC Kansas City owns a record of 3-2-2 and is in sixth place in the NWSL.
