The North Carolina Courage currently sit atop the NWSL table with 16 points (5–0–1 record) after six matches. With a quarter of the regular season already complete, I wanted to take a look at how the Courage’s first year in North Carolina, specifically their first six matches, has compared to this year’s hot start.

After a month of play, this year’s Courage might even be better than last year’s team.

(Note: All statistics are taken from the NWSL website’s stats page and are current as of May 1.)

Points

After losing two games in the first quarter of the season last year (two 3–1 defeats at the hands of the Orlando Pride and Chicago Red Stars), the Courage have begun 2018 with a six match unbeaten run.

Much like last year, the club have won their first four matches, but have since extended their unbeaten run with a 2–2 draw against Utah, and a 2–0 win over Houston.

Goals For

Big offensive showcases against the Washington Spirit and Houston Dash have seen the club outpacing last season’s squad by 3 goals.

Currently averaging 1.83 goals a match, the 2018 side is on pace to outscore a 2017 team that averaged 1.58 goals a match throughout all of last season.

Another stat of note: The Courage have seen more goal scorers in 2018, as seven different players have found the back of the net, compared to just five different players in 2017 at the same point in the season.

Goals Against

Defensively, the 2018 side has been a brick wall to start the season.

While last year’s team had two consecutive matches where they allowed three goals — something that happened just four times last year — 2018’s team has seen has earned four shutouts so far, a fourth of last year’s total of 12 shutouts.

This year’s team is also on pace to allow fewer goals (currently averaging 0.66 goals allowed a contest), than last year’s side, who allowed 0.92 goals a match.

Shots

This is where the 2018 team has truly shined. Since their ridiculous 23-shot match against Sky Blue FC in week 2, the Courage have improved upon their shot total with each passing week.

As it stands after six matches, the 2018 Courage have taken more shots 36 more shots than the 2017 side. Furthermore, in the time it took the 2017 side to reach 100 shots, the 2018 club accomplished that same feat in a third of the time.

Offensively, this Courage team is greatly improved.

Shots on target

This is one of the few offensive categories that the 2017 team still has an advantage in, holding a very slight lead in shots on target through the first quarter of the season with 38 compared to 37 from the 2018 side.

One factor that might be of concern going forward is the ratio of shots on target to shots. The 2018 side has just 26.8% of their shots go on target, whereas the 2017 team saw 37.2% of their shots go on target.

The shots on target totals might be similar, but the 2017 side was more efficient in their shot quality.

Fouls

Number of fouls committed by the 2018 side is very much in line to what the fouls conceded from the 2017 team.

While the Courage averaged 10.37 fouls a match last season, this year, the club has managed to take a little over 1.5 fouls off of their average, conceding 8.83 fouls a match.

Yellow Cards

Finally, Courage players have not been booked as often this year as it occurred last season.

In 2017, it took the Courage until the 82nd minute of the third match to get five bookings on the season, the current total for yellow cards in 2018.

The Courage did have the fewest yellow cards in the NWSL last season with 18, and will look to retain that title again this year.

A Look Ahead

The second quarter of the season sees the Courage open the month of May with two home matches (against Chicago Red Stars and the Washington Spirit) before embarking on their longest road trip of the season, a four match swing away from Cary with trips to New Jersey, Orlando, Portland and Houston.

North Carolina will look to continue their good form of play away from home over the next few weeks.

The Courage return to Sahlen’s Stadium on Sunday, May 6 for a top of the table clash against the Chicago Red Stars. Be sure to follow Soccer ‘n’ Sweet Tea for more North Carolina Courage news! And if you’d like to help us bring the Courage to the rest of Carolina, let us know!

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