North Carolina Courage Takes the First 3 Points in the 2023 NWSL Season

North Carolina Courage 1 – 0 Kansas City Current

CARY, NC— The North Carolina Courage kicked off the 2023 NWSL season by taking on the league runners-up Kansas City Current on Saturday afternoon at WakeMed Soccer Park.

Though there were many new faces and names for the nearly 5,000 fans to get to know, there were plenty of returning NC veterans in the starting day lineup, including newly-minted captain Denise O’Sullivan.

It was two new Courage players who combined to give North Carolina the early lead when Mille Geijl got the ball from Narumi Miura and dribbled straight at the Current defense. With Kerolin Nicoli and Tyler Lussi making support runs, Geijl turned defender Kate Del Fava around just enough to clear space in front of her. The Danish national’s strike from 20 yards out skipped past A.D. Franch to put the Courage on top in the 23rd minute.

Head coach Sean Nahas offered Geijl some advice ahead of her debut. “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. The kid’s quality.”

Describing her first NWSL goal, Geijl said, “I received the ball in an isolated situation with the right fullback and I tried to go 1-v-1. I got to the inside of the pitch, I saw the goal and tried to shoot, and it went in.”

Geijl’s goal was all North Carolina would need against a depleted Kansas City lineup that was missing many of their starters to injury.

THE BEST DEFENSE IS…

After a season with injuries resulting from being kicked around a lot, Kerolin has made it known that in 2023 she’s here to kick ass and chew gum—and she’s all out of gum (to borrow the phrase).

With an attack led by the Brazilian star—flanked by Lussi and Geijl—and with Miura threading some incredible passes through midfield, it felt like the Courage could/should have cushioned that goal differential.

There’s no question that the Courage offense will miss the height and poise of Diana Ordóñez and the creativity of Debinha. It’s a reason why Nahas and his staff put a heavy emphasis on offense during training camp.

“We focused a lot on our attacking stuff in all of preseason,” he noted. “And the reason why is I feel with so many new players we have to get our attacking structure right in order for our defending structure to be the way we want it.”

Time will tell if this rookie group will produce a breakout player of the caliber of Ordóñez, but Olivia Wingate certainly made a good first impression in her professional debut. Coming on in the 65th minute, she and Kerolin combined to nearly double the lead in the 82nd minute when the Brazilian forward liberated herself from the defense and slipped the ball through to the rookie forward in the box.

Later, in stoppage time, Wingate slalomed through the Current defense and found Rikke Madsen, but the offside flag kept Madsen from completing a Danish brace.

OKAY, BUT REALLY…WHAT ABOUT THE D?

Given that Kansas City’s heavy artillery is sidelined with a distressing number of knee injuries, North Carolina didn’t face quite as tough a test. But the bottom line is they largely stymied the Current attack, and when KC did break through, Casey Murphy was there to clean up any chances.

Arguably the biggest surprise looking at the starting lineup was seeing Ryan Williams moved from fullback to center back alongside Kaleigh Kurtz. If there were any nerves, they didn’t show as the versatile Williams looked quite comfortable co-anchoring the back line.

“Well, I guess they needed me there,” Williams said in her post-game meet with the media. “I’m used to playing right back but I’ve had a couple conversations with the coaches, and they said they felt like this is what they needed from me.”

She credited linemate Kurtz and the rest of the defense for their constant communication, helping her settle into the role. “K.K. [Kurtz] has helped me a ton, just the communication from her, all the girls on the backline too. We wouldn’t have been as successful as we were today without them kind of walking me through that.”

JUST PLEASE DON’T CALL THEM THAT U-WORD

As long as we’re leaving the past in the past, let’s drive a stake through “underdog,” okay?

That said, it’s only natural that people are going to look at the Who’s Who of players who no longer call Cary home and write 2023 off as a rebuilding year.  And Sean Nahas is pretty much okay with pundits and opponents seeing the Courage as a relatively easy mark.

But the tenacity they showed in Mexico after going down a goal to Rayadas, and the way the team took it upon themselves to problem-solve issues on the fly against Kansas City on Saturday indicates that this is a team who will surprise some folks.

“I told the players [before the game] I’m okay if people want to doubt us,” Nahas said following the win over Kansas City. “But the people we have in these walls are the most important people, and as long as we believe and we know what our goal is and what our objectives are—we want to get better every single day—it doesn’t matter what happens inside the lines because we’re going to compete and try and perform. And because we’re such a new team, I think we have some grace period.

“But, man, the growth of this group since Day One has been unbelievable and I couldn’t be any more proud of it.”

WHAT’S NEXT FOR THE COURAGE

The team will travel to San Diego for their April 1 game against the Alex Morgan-led Wave. Kickoff is set for 10 pm EDT and airs live on Paramount+.

LINEUPS

North Carolina Courage (4-3-3): C. Murphy; K. Pickett, R. Williams, K. Kurtz, E. Fox; M. Speck, D. O’Sullivan©, N. Miura, M. Geijl (O. Wingate 65’); K. Nicoli, T. Lussi (R. Madsen 77’)

Kansas City Current (4-3-3): A. Franch; H. Mace©, K. Del Fava, E. Ball (J. Winebrenner 87’), G. Robinson (A. Merrick 75’); A. Loera, C. Kizer, L. LaBonta, M. Larsson (I. Rodriguez 75’), M. Cooper, A. Spaanstra (C. Curran 75’)

FINAL SCORE

North Carolina Courage: 1

Kansas City Current: 0

GOALS

North Carolina Courage: 23’ M. Geijl (N. Miura);

Kansas City Current: none

DISCIPLINE

North Carolina Courage: K. Kurtz (YC) 31’; K. Pickett (YC) 80’

Kansas City Current: K. Del Fava (YC) 50’;