The North Carolina Courage played their last match of the regular season in front of a record breaking crowd of 7,020 Saturday night against the Orlando Pride. Despite the match going in favor of the Pride in the end, this match was still a blast for all involved.

The evening started off with the presentation of the NWSL Shield. The Courage clinched the best regular season record on Wednesday in Houston, and the celebration got the night off to a great start. But the match itself didn't begin as planned for the Courage: Orlando went up with two goals, one in the 22nd minute from Kristen Edmonds and one from Marta in the 51st.

The starting line up for the game had the usual firepower, but the Pride came to play, and the Courage weren't able to get the spark they needed to score goals. A win for Orlando meant they’d secure the third seed in the playoffs and a trip to Portland: Chicago dropped to fourth and will face NC next Sunday.

Ashley Hatch, Sam Mewis, and Jessica McDonald were all subbed in late during the second half. The Courage haven't been very good this season at coming back from being down, but Lynn Williams was able to get the team rolling with a goal in the 62nd minute. It was definitely a well-earned goal.

Just moments later, before the social media accounts could celebrate, Williams scored another goal, this one off a free kick, to tie the game up at 2–2. That was the first time this season that the team has been able to score two goals after going down two goals.

The Courage got a few more tries at winning the game but fell short several times. And then in the end, they gave up a heartbreakingly late goal in the 90th minute to Alanna Kennedy to lose 3–2.

But the loss wasn’t too heartbreaking in itself. The team already clinched the shield and secured the #1 seed for the playoffs. Some of their top players got some rest, and now they have a full week before the semifinal in Cary.

This team has a lot of work to do against Chicago, a team they’ve struggled with in 2017.

Sunday, October 8th, the Courage will host Chicago in the first Semi-Final match of the postseason. I will be going, and I think a few of our SNST staff are too, so give us a shout out if you’ll be there! I will do a preview before the big match this week, stay tuned for more things Courage here at Soccer ‘n’ Sweet Tea.