— On the old TV show The A-Team, leader Hannibal Smith was fond of saying, “I love it when a plan comes together.” The Utah Royals came to WakeMed Soccer Park Saturday night with a plan for their match against the undefeated North Carolina Courage: defend hard, and go for the win. The payoff proved handsome: Utah’s Brittany Ratcliffe scored a shock added-time goal as the Royals won 1-0, handing the Courage its first loss this year.

“We spoke last Thursday, when everyone was back together,” said Utah manager Laura Harvey. “I said to the girls, ‘Right, we going to match them, we’re going to go for it. We’re going two forwards, we’re gonna go against their box.’ And the girls were, OK, cool. We’ve never done that before, so I was really proud of them, because they believed in it and tried to execute it.”

“It’s a big confidence booster when your coach is saying you we’re not going here just to eek out a tie; we’re going to try to win this sucker,” said Utah captain Becky Sauerbrunn. “I don’t think a lot of teams do come [to Cary] and are like, we’re going to take it to them, we’re going to defend them up high.”

An uneventful first half saw the Courage control large portions of possession, but while the two teams combined for nine shots (5-4 Carolina), only three were on target (and only technically). North Carolina struggled to crack the Royals’ disciplined defense, which came into Saturday conceding a NWSL-low eight goals this season. With the speedy Lynn Williams on the bench, the Courage lacked their go-to safety valve for balls over the top. Meanwhile, Utah was initially content to hunker down and look for a miscue to trigger the counterattack.

“In the first half, we struggled a little bit,” said Courage manager Paul Riley. “[Utah] slowed the tempo down at every moment: throw-ins, goal kicks. They tried to slow us down, and they did a good job of it in the first half.”

The Royals came out more aggressive for the second stanza, applying more pressure on the Courage’s back line. In the 59th minute, North Carolina subbed out Kristen Hamilton and moved Crystal Dunn to striker in an effort to put more pace up top. The Courage’s offense quickly responded. Crystal Dunn uncorked a left-footer from 18 yards in the 64th minute out that grazed the crossbar. In the 70th minute, Debinha delivered a deft cross far post to an onrushing Denise O’Sullivan, whose volley clanged off that pesky crossbar.

Just as it appeared the Courage would at least manage to extend their 12-match undefeated streak, the Royals snagged a game-winner deep into four minutes of added time. A free kick off the left wing by Diana Matheson was headed out and fell to Ratcliffe. When North Carolina’s Jaelene Hinkle whiffed on a tackle, Matheson readied and fired a looping shot that cleared Courage goalkeeper Katelyn Rowland and rippled the far netting.

“It was great on our team’s part getting the free kick” said Ratcliffe. “It was a great ball by Diana, they cleared it, and I got the ricochet. I just kind of shut my eyes and shot it, and it went in.”

“You give away late free kicks because you’re tired and a little complacent,” Riley said. “Then you pay the price ultimately. It’s poor a clearance, a poor tackle, just three or four things that happened.”

Saturday’s loss not only snapped the Courage’s undefeated streak, but it’s the first time the Courage has gone scoreless in a regular season match since July 15, 2017, at the Portland Thorns.

“Really?” Sauerbrunn replied when informed of that trivia. “It was a little bit of luck, and also everybody on the field put in a shift tonight defensively … And Britt Ratcliffe in the run of play scores an amazing goal, and sometimes that’s soccer. So, we’ll take it. I’m rarely part of a team where we score in the last two minutes of the game, so I’m going to enjoy this for all it’s worth."

Sauerbrunn coyly admitted that Utah’s already stingy defense tweaked their approach for the Courage’s potent attack.

“We minimized their attack a little bit more than they’re normally used to,” Sauerbrunn said. “They’re used to getting a lot of shots on goal and a lot of balls into the box. I think we minimized that a little more tonight, and that means our defense can bend but it won’t break.

“We work on being one line in particular, and we definitely want to protect the space behind us, because we knows that’s dangerous because [the Courage] have a lot of speedy players. If we had to give up anything, we wanted to give up the wide spaces.”

Harvey said the seeds of Utah’s approach Saturday were sewn back on April 21, when the Royals came to Cary and drew the Courage 2-2.

“When we came here before, in the second half, when we were aggressive in our defending, we did really well against them,” Harvey said. “We forced them into some mistakes. They’re so dominant as a team that sometimes you can show them too much respect, and often when teams come here you end up doing that. We decided we were going to do that opposite.”

The Courage (9-3-1, 30 pts.) remains firmly atop the NWSL table as it opens the second half of the regular season. North Carolina hits the road for their next two games, at the Seattle Reign and the Orlando Pride. The Courage returns to WakeMed Soccer Park on Independence Day against the Chicago Red Stars.

North Carolina looks to feature a rested squad. O’Sullivan and Debinha only arrived back in Cary from their respective national camps on Friday. The five other Courage players called into the U.S. national camp didn’t return to training until Thursday. Riley said Abby Dahlkemper, who missed Saturday’s match with a knee knock, hopes to return to action next week.

“It’s good to have adversity,” Riley said. “You have to have it at some point. We have great character in the group. We’re going on the road now for two really tough games, and we’ll see what we’re made of now. It’s not a blessing, but you have to lose at some point. I told them just feel this moment; this moment hurts, and it’s gotta hurt. You have to know what everybody feels like in the first half of the season when you’ve been playing them, and now we feel it. It hurts, and it’s how you react.”

The term “attractive soccer” is almost always applied to offensive prowess. As Sauerbrunn departed her post-match interview, I observed that tonight, the Royals played “attractive defensive soccer.”

“Defense isn’t dead,” Sauerbrunn called back.

LINEUPS

NC: Rowland, Erceg, Kurtz, Hinkle, Mathias, Mewis, Zerboni, Debinha, Hamilton (O’Sullivan, 59’), McDonald (L. Williams, 72’), Dunn

UTA: A. Smith, Corsie, Moros, Corsie, Sauerbrunn, Scott, Gorry (Ratcliffe, 77’), Jonsdottir, Stengel (LaBonta, 68’), Matheson, Rodriguez (Thornses, 84’)

GOALS

NC: ---

UTA: --- Ratcliffe, 94'

CAUTIONS

NC: ---

UTA: Scott, 26’

EJECTIONS

NC: ---

UTA: ---

ATTENDANCE: 5,164