For the North Carolina Courage, it may not be as easy as “no Manaka, no problem.”
In their second game since star attacking midfielder Manaka Matsukubo left for English side Chelsea, the Courage saw their goals dry up.
Despite some close chances, including a goal that was called back after review, North Carolina finished Saturday’s home match against the Washington Spirit scoreless, losing 2-0.
Ashley Sanchez, currently second in the Golden Boot race behind Orlando’s Barbra Banda’s total of 11 goals, nearly notched her 10th early in the second half. Sanchez put a free kick from just outside the 18-yard box past Washington goalkeeper Sandy MacIver, but a review found that North Carolina’s Shinomi Koyama committed a foul.
“I don’t know what happened with the free kick there,” Courage head coach Mak Lind said after the game. “Maybe it should be a goal for Ashley Sanchez.”
Sanchez notched two goals in last weekend’s matchup against the Seattle Reign, her second brace of the season. And despite being shut out, the Courage’s play Saturday night suggested Sanchez could have had one or more.
After her goal came off the board, she threatened MacIver in the 63rd minute, forcing Washington’s keeper to make an impressive diving stop on a chance that was ruled offside.
The sixth-year forward also found another chance in stoppage time, taking an off-balance shot in the box that was blocked away. At 0.13 xG according to FotMob, it was officially the Courage’s best shot of the night.
Beyond Sanchez, only striker Evelyn Ijeh has more than one goal. Ijeh, who scored in each of the previous three games, saw her streak snapped Saturday. She has three goals and three assists in 12 matches.
Even with a goose egg on the scoreboard on Saturday, North Carolina showed more signs of life, particularly in the second half. After being shut down in the first 45 minutes and taking zero shots, the Courage peppered the Spirit with 13 shots in the second half.
“We got the momentum. Washington had to give the ball away many times. We had many good goal-scoring opportunities. And when we have that momentum and feel like we can score a goal, and we score a goal that maybe should be a goal, then you want to keep that momentum,” Lind said.
The first-year head coach has put an emphasis on offensive firepower since his arrival from Sweden ahead of the season.
In his introductory press conference in March, Lind explicitly set scoring more than two goals per game as an eventual bar for the team to meet, and made clear that “we want to score many goals.”
Courage fullback Ryan Williams, the club’s longest-tenured player, said she felt Saturday’s performance fell short of what the team expects of itself but gives them a chance to keep building their score-first system.
“I think there’s a lot of positives from the night,” Williams said. “I did think that we had some positive moments going forward with the ball, but I think we can definitely be better in possession with the ball, and I think that tonight it wasn’t to our standard. We want to keep combining, keep passing and moving, keep having our principles and doing all the things that we talk about all the time in practice.”
Although she is a defender, she has three assists this season, tied with midfielder Shinomi Koyama for most assists among current Courage players. Only Manaka, with 4 assists, is ahead of them.
Particularly this season, the Courage have pushed her high up the field to play a facilitating role in the attack.
“I think when I am high, I think hopefully we can just capitalize on those chances. Because I did find myself up in higher spots, but the goal with doing that is to score a goal,” Williams said.
It was something the Spirit even baked into their game plan. Washington’s star forward Trinity Rodman said that when the Spirit spent large chunks of the first half with possession, the fact that there were times when Williams stayed back caught them by surprise.
“Going into the game, we were assuming that Williams was going to step high, which she always normally does. She loves to jump. She loves to play higher,” Rodman said. “And seeing that they were a little bit more conservative, obviously that naturally just throws us off a little bit, so it takes us a little bit of time to figure out what to do.”
North Carolina’s upcoming schedule will test just how much the team can score going forward. Next week, they head to Bay FC, whose goalkeeper Jordan Silkowitz leads the league in saves entering play Sunday.
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