Game 2 Recap

The Courage has scored goals on ten teams in the NWSL. The 11th is the San Diego Wave, who the Courage lost to 1-0 at home before a disappointing 0-0 draw in San Diego at the end of last season sealed the Courage’s playoff fate. The Beach Waffles finished third the previous year. 

The Wave started three US internationals - defender Naomi Girma, towering midfielder Taylor Kornieck, and some other player you probably haven’t heard of named Alex Morgan. The Courage started a similar team to the one that defeated Kansas City at home, with Olivia Wingate starting on the right ahead of Tyler Lussi.

Could the Courage drop a fun little April Fool’s joke on the Wave?

The Match

The Courage started with the 6-midfielder look that gave Kansas City fits, and it worked for a little while, as San Diego struggled to hold possession, but the Courage struggled to generate offense. 

However, San Diego did create chances with their few possessions; a 22nd-minute defensive mistake by Kaleigh Kurtz led to a brilliant chance by Jaedyn Shaw, but Casey Murphy was up to the task.

And after what felt like eons of fruitless Courage possession, it was San Diego who went up Route 1 and took advantage of the Courage’s poor defending, with Shaw beating Kurtz to tally first in the 37th minute:

Another defensive mistake - this time a weak pass from Meredith Speck that was cut off easily by Danielle Colaprico and led to a classic Morgan finish in the 49th minute:

Three 60th-minute subs - Brianna Pinto, Rikke Madsen, and my fellow Commodore Haley Hopkins, tried to remodel the Courage’s stagnant attack. But the Courage sacrificed its numbers in midfield and, as a result, struggled in possession. 

A chaotic free kick off a bad foul call led to everyone’s favorite innovation - a VAR penalty review - and a collapse into the utterly shambolic officiating that the NWSL is notorious for. The result was an absolutely brainless, unbelievably idiotic penalty call that the officials should be ashamed of themselves for awarding. 

Morgan converted:

A couple of minutes later, Kerolin showed the world what an actual penalty looks like as she was taken down authoritatively by Girma. Kerolin converted, somewhat questionably legally, so the Courage didn’t go home empty-handed:

Christina Unkel explained on Twitter why Kerolin’s penalty was ok, despite the, um, hesitation on the run-up:

The rest of the game finished without much incident, except for a funny moment where Wave midfielder Emily van Egmond fouled the official, who totally deserved it. A couple of the youngsters got a run in as Kiki Pickett and Harumi Miura made way for Sydney Collins and Frankie Tagliaferri in the 82nd.

Courage fell 3-1 and looked like the team we expected to see going into this season. But, officiating adventures aside, the Beach Waffles were the better side and deserved the three points. This loss is one of what is sure to be many learning experiences for a young team. 

Growth mindset, y’all.

Three More Things

One

Possession is 9/10ths of the law, as they say, but it’s 0/10ths of winning a soccer game. The Courage have been very good at possession for the most part through two matches but have looked lost when it comes to scoring goals. 

I’m writing this before I get the full statistical analysis, but I’d guess the Courage had about 60% possession, and that led to only a couple of weak attempts on goal from the edge of the box. San Diego’s defense is uncommonly stout, of course, but it seems like we only have one truly creative player on the pitch, and someone needs to step up and help Kerolin out so she’s not constantly taking on four defenders at once.

Two

The partnership between Kaleigh Kurtz and Ryan Williams doesn’t seem to be working. Against a depleted Kansas City team, they were able to paper over their mistakes, but with San Diego’s firepower, they were clearly outclassed. 

Emily Fox, a gifted wide attacker, was forced to stay back and help on defense too much. Williams is playing out of position and it shows; I’m not convinced that veteran Estelle Johnson or rookie Sydney Collins, both natural center backs, wouldn’t be better opposite Kurtz.

Three

Kiki Pickett continues to be a bright spot for the Courage. The bullshit penalty she got called for aside, she had another brilliant 80 minutes - she was calm in possession and has been one of the most creative players on the pitch for the Courage.