PREVIEW: Surging Courage host Louisville Saturday

23 June 2023By: nc-forge-converter-client

Coverage:

Broadcast: Bally Sports South (Dean Linke, Heather O’Reilly) and Paramount+ (Josh Eastern, Saskia Webber)

CARY, N.C. (June 23, 2023) — The North Carolina Courage surging offense will be tested by one of the top defensive teams in the league when they host Racing Louisville FC this Saturday, June 24, at 7:00 p.m. ET at WakeMed Soccer Park. The Courage are unbeaten in seven of their last eight league contests and enter the weekend in third place in the NWSL standings while Louisville is unbeaten in five straight overall competitions.

The Courage’s last two league matches have been a 5-0 win over Chicago and a 3-0 win over Orlando. It’s the third time in league history a team has scored eight or more goals while allowing none in a two-game span, along with Orlando (8-0) in August 2017 and Portland (10-0) in June 2022. The Courage now have 18 goals on the season, which ranks third, and a +7-goal differential, good for second-best in the league. Kerolin followed up her hat-trick in Chicago with the game-winner against Orlando while also forcing the late own-goal that sealed the victory. Her eight goals lead the Golden Boot race while Narumi is tied for third-most assists with three. Tess Boade has been a real spark for the offense in her return from injury, posting two assists in just three matches played. She and Midge Purce are the only two players in the league with multiple assists in fewer than five matches played this season, both having two in three. Goalkeeper Casey Murphy and the Courage back line continues to impress, posting their league-best sixth clean sheet last Saturday. Murphy, the all-time club leader with 23 clean sheets, now has 29 for her career. At just 27 years old, Murphy is on the cusp of becoming just the fourth keeper in NWSL history to reach the 30-mark.

All-Time NWSL Shutout Leaders

Nicole Barnhart (WAS) – 52
Adrianna Franch (KC) – 41
Alyssa Naeher (CHI) – 41
Casey Murphy (NC) – 29
Aubrey Kingsbury (WAS) – 29 The Courage lead the NWSL in passing accuracy (81.4), successful passes (4,965), and possession (59.4). The team’s 87.4 pass accuracy against Orlando was the highest this season and eighth time in league play above 80%. Each of the last two weeks have seen the Courage set a new season record for passing accuracy. As it stands, the Courage are on pace to break their own record – set last year – for single-season passing accuracy and set the single-season possession record. (NOTE: Opta only tracks possession statistics back to 2016)

Single season Passing Accuracy

2023 North Carolina Courage – 81.42
2022 North Carolina Courage – 79.99
2021 Gotham FC – 79.68
2021 Washington Spirit – 78.93
2019 Washington Spirit – 78.85

Single season Possession

2023 North Carolina Courage – 59.36
2016 OL Reign – 57.36
2019 North Carolina Courage – 55.87
2022 North Carolina Courage – 55.30
2021 Gotham FC – 54.70

The Matchup

The Courage are a perfect 7-0-0 lifetime against Racing Louisville, including a 2-1 win at Lynn Family Stadium last month. No other fixture between two NWSL teams with more than five games played has seen one team win 100 percent of the matches. The Courage beat Racing 5-1 the last time Louisville visited WakeMed Soccer Park in September of 2022.

Scouting Louisville

Racing Louisville is unbeaten in five straight matches in all competitions (W3 D2), allowing just one goal in that span. Prior to its last five games, Racing had never conceded fewer than four goals in any span of five matches in all competitions. Thembi Kgatlana scored 28 seconds after halftime in Louisville’s win on Sunday for Kgatlana’s first NWSL goal since scoring in August 2018. It was the second time this season that Louisville has scored in the first minute of the second half with all other teams combining for two such goals in league play in 2023. On the defensive side, Katie Lund leads the league with 54 saves.

Up Next

The Courage wrap up a three-match home stand as they host the Houston Dash on Saturday, July 1, at 7:30 p.m. ET. The match will air regionally on Bally Sports South and the Bally Sports App, stream on Paramount+ in the United States and internationally on nwslsoccer.com.