— Last year, the Chicago Red Stars proved the burr in the North Carolina Courage’s saddle, winning all three regular season contests between the teams. The Courage had the last celebration, however, defeating the Red Stars in the league semifinals.

It was a different constellation of Red Stars Sunday at WakeMed Soccer Park, with Julie Ertz on the bench and Christen Press gone to Sweden. But Chicago also added Sam Kerr, the NWSL’s reigning MVP and Golden Boot winner. Kerr opened her 2018 account Sunday against the Courage, but a late equalizer by McCall Zerboni gave North Carolina a 1-1 draw to remain undefeated on the season.

The Courage dominated play for most of the opening half, but as so often happens, a moment of brilliance coupled with a defensive lapse gave the road team the initial lead. Off a Chicago throw-in, Alyssa Mautz fed Sam Kerr making a run through the area. Kerr bodied away from center back Abby Dahlkemper, then slotted her shot past Courage keeper Sabrina D’Angelo to give the Red Stars a 1-0 advantage they took into intermission.

For the first 45, the Courage outshot the Red Stars 23-6, 7-1 on frame, and forced Chicago goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher into six first-half saves. North Carolina earned seven corner kicks to just one for Chicago. Yet, the Courage trailed on the scoreboard heading into halftime.

The Courage kept up relentless pressure throughout the second stanza, forcing Naeher into six more saves. Just as it appeared the Red Stars keeper had firmly gotten into her opponents collective heads, the Courage finally found a goal on their 40th shot of the match. Abby Erceg volleyed the Courage’s 12th corner kick back into the goalmouth, where McCall Zerboni volleyed into the net to equalize at 1-1.

“It was a great delivery by Dahlkemper, then Jessica McDonald challenged for the ball, which I think drew their players in,” Zerboni said. “A beautiful, delicate touch by Erceg, and I was able to get on the end of it.”

“We always know that North Carolina is good at corner kicks and set pieces; that’s how our season ended last year,” Naeher said. “We held them for 81 minutes, and unfortunately what’s frustrating is that we had spoken beforehand to make sure we knew that [Zerboni] sits in that pocket and she’s scored on us from there before.”

Zerboni admits that she found the match and result frustrating.

“We could have put them away in the first half,” Zerboni said. “We pounded on them and controlled the game. There was one moment that got out of our control, and they were able to capitalize on it. Obviously, Sam Kerr is a world-class player and you can’t give her any opportunities. But those things are going to happen, and we had 45 minutes to try to pull it back.”

The Courage finished with a whopping 42 shots, 14 of them on goal, but Naeher countered with 12 acrobatic saves. As Naeher stood on her head, she left them many onlookers shaking and slapping their own.

“I didn’t really come into today with a different mindset,” Naeher modestly said. “That’s what I try to do every game, is keep the ball out of the back of the net … We’re at the end of a long stretch of games in a short period of time. North Carolina is always a good, attacking team, a competitive team, and a dangerous team. We knew we were going to deal with a lot today. We would have liked three points, but anytime you come down here to North Carolina and take a point on the road, we’ll take that and go back to Chicago.”

“I think Naeher played the best game of her life today,” Zerboni added. “She had magic with her today; she was awesome.”

“That was the best goalkeeping display I’ve seen in professional women’s soccer in a long, long time, going back to the Hope Solo days,” said Courage manager Paul Riley. “Naeher was brilliant today.”

“Today, [Naeher] showed why she’s the best goalkeeper in the world,” added Red Stars manager Rory Dames. “I don’t think that’s complicated. We’ve been trying to play out of the back, and we’ve been asking her to do a lot of things with her feet and play that a lot of the other goalkeepers in the league aren’t asked to do.”

Despite earning a point on the road against the top team in the NWSL table on four days rest whilst surrendering 42 shots, Dames said he was equally unhappy with the result, his team’s performance, and a play in the 61st minute when Chicago’s Michele Vasconcelos was taken down by North Carolina Jaelene Hinkle.

“The play where Michele’s [Vasconcelos] in behind, that’s a clear foul and a red card,” Dames fumed. “She’s in on goal and [Hinkle] runs straight through her back—that’s not shoulder-to-shoulder. It should have been a free kick and she should have been sent off.”

“Sam [Kerr] obviously got in behind at 1-0 and got a great chance,” Dames continued. “And, we specifically talked about McCall in that space on the corner kicks—there was somebody assigned to deal with McCall in that space, and we didn’t deal with McCall in that space … We put ourselves under pressure because some of the players we had on the field made poor choices in important areas of the field."

Dames cobbled together a jerry-rigged backline on Sunday, a consequence playing the back end of their second three-game week this season. Dames said he had 14 available field players, seven of whom were in the red zone [physically], and he played those of the seven who were at the least risk of getting hurt.

“We were obviously second-best for a large part of the game, and we were on our back foot,” Dames admitted. “But North Carolina, per the standings, is the best team in the league. We played on Wednesday, they didn’t play on Wednesday, so it is what it is. I look forward to playing them fresh.”

Besides their ongoing offensive onslaught, North Carolina also enjoyed the return of Sam Mewis to the starting XI for the first time this season. The Courage (5-0-2, 17 pts.) remains undefeated and seven points clear of the Red Stars and Seattle Reign atop the NWSL table. North Carolina hosts the Washington Spirit next Saturday, May 12 in Cary. In the meantime, Riley said he hopes his team begins to convert its bounty of shots into goals, with or without the impediment of a world-class goalkeeper.

“When you look at the amount of shots we’ve had all season, I think we’re almost double everybody else in the league,” Riley said. “We need to start taking advantage of these chances we’re creating.

“In the end, everyone will go home happy with the point. I felt like we won because of our performance.”

BOX SCORE

LINEUPS

NC: D'Angelo, Hinkle, Erceg, Dahlkemper, Mathias, Zerboni, Mewis (McDonald, 62’), O'Sullivan (Hamilton, 79’), Debinha (Jenkins, 90’), L. Williams, Dunn

CHI: Naeher, Gorden, Johnson, Huerta, Mautz (Gilliland, 46’), Stanton, Kaskie (Colaprico, 58’), Nagasato, Green (Comeau, 58’), Vasconcelos, Kerr

GOALS

NC: Zerboni, 82’ (Erceg)

CHI: Kerr, 37’ (Mautz)

CAUTIONS

NC: Mewis, 45’; Zerboni, 74’

CHI: Nagasato, 45 + 2’; Vasconcelos, 73’

EJECTIONS

NC: ---

CHI: ---

ATTENDANCE: 4,068