The Courage and NWSL took a break for a FIFA international break, so it seemed like a good time to quickly check in on the Courage’s season so far. The ladies sit in first place in the league with 18 points, boasting a record of 6–3–0. Here’s my good, bad, and ugly of the inaugural season through nine games.

The Good

The Attack

The Courage possess one of the most lethal attacks in the league, and one that will actually put the ball in the net. Debinha has made the midfield and front line gel, Jess McDonald can rise above the back line, and McCall Zerboni is holding the defensive part together. Combine all of that with super subs Taylor Smith and Ashley Hatch coming off the bench, and it’s proving to be the best in the NWSL this year.

Our Coach

Paul Riley is not afraid to take some risks with the lineup. We saw that with Jess McDonald in the back line one week. Paul also isn’t afraid to admit his mistake and make changes in game to get us more looks on goal. The trust the players have in Paul started in WNY, and has clearly carried on here.

The Bad

Inconsistency

Our defense is touch and go. Abby Erceg and Dalkhemper have been anchoring the back line together for 2 years, but when going against Chicago both times, they were picked apart. To be fair, Christen Press can do that to the best of teams anywhere in the world, but there is no way those struggles should be happening against Orlando.

The Ugly

Start Times

As I publish this story, there is a forecasted high of 91 degrees for Saturday’s home game against the Boston Breakers. The Courage have had 5 home games, and all but one weekend game has started at 4pm. North Carolina gets hot and humid fast. We’ve averaged 80+ degrees for all of our games, and we’re standing in that heat. That hurts attendance, bad. We saw a Houston Dash player faint from heat exhaustion a couple of weeks ago because they played a 4pm game in Houston.

Thankfully, NWSL has worked out a fix: changing times and regulations.

The league saw the problem and is trying to fix it. This weekend’s match is at 7:30pm, so hopefully that helps. Mid-afternoon matches in summer in the south: definitely ugly.

Good on the league for seeing a problem and adapting.

International Duty

Sometimes, the international break can be fun. You get to see some games that normally wouldn’t happen. The USWNT traveled to Europe for 2 friendlies! That hasn’t happened in years. For Courage fans this time though, it was a nightmare: Lynn Williams, and Sabrina D’Angelo went on international duty and both promptly got hurt before their respective games. Both coaches say it’s nothing too serious, but they just didn’t want to chance it. A main team goal scorer and our starting goalkeeper out with small injuries? Tragic.