Game 1 Recap: Courage Swim Through the Current

You never completely know what to expect from a new season, and coming out of an offseason where the Courage parted with most of the remaining players from their dominant 2017-19 squads, we perhaps knew less than most of what this particular team would look like.

So what does the Courage look like without Debinha, Abby Erceg, and Merritt Mathias and with a bunch of largely-untested young talent? On Saturday, we found out, and the answer was… perfectly cromulent, I suppose?

The Courage welcomed the Kansas City Current, who came into the match a little banged up, and by “a little banged up,” I mean “the Current injured list could probably challenge for a title.” Debinha and Kristen Hamilton wouldn’t get their big welcome back to Cary. Morgan Gautrat was also unavailable, leaving the KC attack to feature Lo’eau Labonta and a collection of spare parts.

As a result, KC struggled to get any rhythm together on offense against the Courage’s press, and the rebuilding “new-look” Courage came away with a 1-0 victory.

The Match

The Courage started the game in a 4-3-3, with Ryan Williams deputizing at center back alongside Kaleigh Kurtz, Emily Fox, and (sort of) Kiki Pickett as the fullbacks. Newly minted captain Denise O’Sullivan anchored the midfield alongside Miura Narumi and Meredith Speck, and newcomers Mille Gejl and Tyler Lussi joined Kerolin up front.

The Courage hit the ground running, and Kerolin produced a couple of early chances off balls from Lussi, one stopped by Current keeper Adriana Franch, and another turned into a fun little flick on goal from Miura that was well saved by Franch.

The Courage had the run of play in the first half. They broke through in the 23rd minute when Miura played a ball into the path of Mille Gejl, who pushed the Current defenders back before cutting inside to create some space and unleashing a shot that surprised everybody (including the match commentators), but most importantly Franch, who dove too late to save the shot.

While the Current generated a few half-chances off defensive miscalculations by the Courage back line, Kerolin generated the best chance of the half after collecting a header from Fox and charging at everyone. However, it was well saved by Franch.

The Courage seemed to tire in the second half, ceding most of the play to the Current; however, outside of a flurry of corner kicks around the 75th minute, nothing endangered Murphy. Current rookie Michelle Cooper probably had the Current’s best chance, but Murphy comfortably saved it.

The Courage had a few good chances in the second half, two generated by Kerolin that were misplayed by rookie substitute Olivia Wingate, and one that Wingate developed on a brilliant run in the 90th minute that fellow substitute Rikke Madsen sent wide.

…while fellow stat-head Chris Henderson showed the Courage ahead comfortably in xG:

For what it’s worth, those of us who watched the match felt that the Courage had the better of it, so I’m going with Henderson’s numbers here. Also according to Henderson, the Courage had 9 chances to KC’s 3, held 57% of possession, and completed 83% of their passes. Sure, KC was missing lots of key pieces - they especially missed Gautrat’s ability to control midfield - but that’s a good performance against a solid team.

Two More Things

One

Kiki Pickett isn’t going to show up on a stat sheet for that match, but she played incredibly well. Her positioning was as much defensive midfielder as left-back, and she contributed effectively to the Courage’s dominance in midfield. Her position was very narrow and advanced for a left-back:

That gave the Courage effectively 6 midfielders, with Kerolin often dropping back and Fox playing pretty advanced. This meant that the Courage could overwhelm KC with numbers in midfield. And Pickett was at the center of all that, completing 93.3% of attacking half passes:

That’s a solid performance, and we’ll look forward to more of that, please, and thank you.

Two

Wait, where did the subs go?

The Courage are, as mentioned, brimming with young talent, and you’d think that if you were a head coach, you’d want as much of that young talent to get significant minutes as possible, if for no other reason than to see what that talent can do when put into an actual game against strong opponents. 

Instead, coach Sean Nahas only used two subs, both forward-for-forward subs, as Wingate and Madsen came in for Lussi and Gejl. Midfield dynamo Brianna Pinto never saw the pitch; neither did rookie Haley Hopkins. Midfield draft pick Clara Robbins wasn’t even on the match-day roster. 

The Courage midfield absolutely could have used a midfield energy injection in this game, too; their high-energy press affects the team a lot, and their effectiveness wilted midway through the second half, leading to some sustained pressure from KC that a team with better attackers available probably would have turned into a goal. 

This is a troubling echo of some habits that have been with this organization since the days of He Who Shall Not Be Named; let’s hope Nahas gets a good game-by-game rotation going and doesn’t get too stuck on a single team this year and that he learns to use his subs effectively.

Next game: The Courage faces a tough away test on Saturday, April 1, at 10 PM in San Diego. The Beach Waffles hung three on a usually stout Chicago defense, so expect a test for the Courage’s back line.