![]() In addition to winning the battles in midfield, their attack just looked and felt efficient. The possession breakdown for this match is actually surprisingly even at nearly 50-50, which is wild considering how dominant the Courage looked, especially in midfield. Alyssa Naeher came up big to save a ball from Williams (and even with four glaring concessions to the Courage, had multiple heroics on the day) Kerr found enough space to make a run and then rocketed it right into the arms of a waiting Labbé. The next 10 minutes saw some more near misses from both sides. The Courage quickly responded with their first goal less than two minutes later on a brutally fast counterattack from the top three who have been their firepower all season – Lynn Williams to Jess McDonald to the Best XI Snub Heard 'Round the World, Debinha. ![]() It's so easy to forget after the haze of four goals, but it was actually the Red Stars who got the first good look in this match, as Vanessa DiBernardo got a strong foot on an Abby Erceg deflection that Stephanie Labbé was just able to punch out of the corner. They were, sadly, without centerback Tierna Davidson, who put in some strong performances alongside Julie Ertz toward the end of the season, but had suffered a sprained ankle in training.Īfter the pre-match pageantry, complete with ill-advised on-pitch pyro at the hottest part of the day in an extremely humid, swampy place, both sides came out firing. The Red Stars came in on a wave of momentum, six consecutive wins by confident performances, the announcement of Sam Kerr as the League MVP for 2019 and a 100-strong away support in Cary. The North Carolina Courage went into their third consecutive NWSL final as the most dominant and consistent team in the league, playing at home on the heels of a wild semifinal at home, with no major lineup changes, so the odds were certainly in their favor from the jump, snarky tweets about Paul Riley loving an underdog narrative notwithstanding. North Carolina Courage 4-0 Chicago Red Starsīefore this match even started, my friend Carri turned to me and said, "This is either going into extra time or it's going to be a blowout.
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