On a visit to Wilka’s Sports Bar in Manhattan in November to watch a U.S. Women’s National Team friendly, I got to talking with a couple of Angel City fans. In our lively conversation, they mentioned how much they love North Carolina Courage midfielder Ashley Sanchez and were dismayed that she was no longer playing with the national team. I concurred with them, even though I hadn’t heard her name in a long time.
Flash forward to the 2026 NWSL season: She scored her first NWSL career brace on March 14 — two days before her 27th birthday — earning her NWSL Player of the Week and Goal of the Week honors. In the four games since, she’s notched two more goals.
This season, Sanchez has frequently found herself with the ball on the wing, cutting inside past a defender to lob the ball towards the right top corner. A player who is not afraid to take risks, she can both pick up the ball in the pocket or isolate out wide. In the Courage’s game against the Houston Dash on Saturday, Houston defender Paige Nielsen wasn’t giving her the option to cut inside to her right foot, so she just scored with her left. Sanchez is both patient and confident when receiving the ball on offense, making for a deadly combination in front of goal.
With her ability to take on defenders one-v-one, anticipate passes from her teammates and her clinical finishes in the box, Sanchez has showcased her ability both on and off the ball so far this season and throughout her NWSL career.
Drafted by the Washington Spirit in 2020 as the fourth overall pick, Sanchez formed a key part of the 2021 Championship-winning squad in her rookie season. Despite leading the Spirit in assists, shots, and shots on goal in 2022, Sanchez was traded to the Courage during the 2024 NWSL draft, much to her own surprise.
While she had a strong season with the Courage in 2024, she had trouble finding her stride in 2025 with only two goals and two assists on the season. Under head coach Sean Nahas and later interim head coach Nathan Thackeray, Sanchez wasn’t consistently starting, and when she did, it was on her less comfortable right side.
However, things seem to be looking up for the California native. Sanchez has been given lots of freedom under new head coach Mak Lind’s system, which has her playing up top and on the left side in a 3-3-4 formation. Lind sees Sanchez as a key part of his offense, having subbed her off early into the second half on Saturday to ensure she would be available for the subsequent two games this week.
“She is a very important player. Many games in one week — [I was] making sure she can play all of those games,” Lind told reporters after the match on Saturday.
Sanchez seems happy where she is, recently extending her contract with the Courage until 2027.
Similarly to her NWSL career, Sanchez’s national team career has seen its fair share of ups and downs. Having represented the USWNT throughout her youth career, she was first called up under Jill Ellis in 2016 and received her first cap during Vlatko Andonovski’s tenure in 2021. Sanchez was part of the 2023 U.S. World Cup squad yet did not see any playing time in that tournament.
Sanchez missed out on the 2024 Olympic squad but appeared in a friendly against Argentina later that year under current USWNT head coach Emma Hayes. Sanchez hasn’t got a call-up since then.
While Hayes has stressed the importance of performance at the club level and is currently taking a tour around the country to watch NWSL games, it remains to be seen if Sanchez fits within Hayes’ system. There’s a crowded midfield pool already, and Hayes has indicated that the window for roster experimentation is closing as the 2027 World Cup nears. Yet, if Sanchez continues her superb form, she may be impossible to ignore.
Sanchez’s goal in Houston was assisted by none other than Manaka Matsukubo, who recently won the Asian Cup with Japan. It was her beautiful lofting ball behind the Houston defense that Sanchez trapped and buried for the game-winner. Sanchez and Manaka seem to have an intrinsic sense of where each other are going to be, making their movement and passes difficult for defenders to handle. As one commentator put it about the goal against Houston on Saturday, Manaka had “eyes in the back of her head … knowing that Sanchez is going to be there.”
Sanchez and Manaka’s season so far makes any North Carolina game appointment viewing — a spectacular moment can happen at any time. Up next: the Courage will travel to Foxborough on Wednesday to face a struggling Boston Legacy side that has yet to notch a win.
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