by Fran Stuchbury
April 16, 2023 – National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) – North Carolina Courage
North Carolina Courage battle the Washington Spirit at WakeMed Soccer Park
(North Carolina Courage, Credit: Fran Stuchbury)
The North Carolina Courage lost its second NWSL game in a row 2-1 to the Washington Spirit in front of 5,160 fans at WakeMed Soccer Park Saturday evening.
“I thought it was good performance from the group to be fair,” said North Carolina Courage head coach Sean Nahas. “We had some moments of adversity and felt we had good moments and spells and possession. I thought, especially in the second half, some of the adjustments we made in the spaces we found created some good chances in the latter part of that half. But, you know, can’t be naïve to think it’s just going to come easy. I was overall pleased with the team performance, just disappointed for them to not get a result.”
The Washington Spirit opened the scoring in the sixth minute on a goal by forward Trinity Rodman, her second of the NWSL season and 12th of her career. At the age of 18 Rodman was taken by the Spirit second overall in the 2021 NWSL College Draft. She was named NWSL Rookie of the Year and selected to the NWSL Best XI that season. She also has played for the United States National Team.
Thanks to a handball by the Spirit, the Courage were able to tie the game with a penalty kick in the 43rd minute by forward Kerolin Nicoli. North Carolina signed Nicoli to a three-year contract on January 10, 2022. The Courage utilized allocation funds to buy out the remainder of her contract with Madrid Club de Fútbol Femenin. She has played with the Brazil National team since 2018.
In the second half a foul in the box by Courage defender Emily Fox against forward Ashley Hatch gave the Spirit a 2-1 lead in the 49th minute after Hatch connected on a penalty kick.
It was Hatch’s third goal of the NWSL season. She was selected second overall by the Courage in the 2017 NWSL College Draft and was named NWSL Rookie of the Year that season. In January 2018, Hatch was traded to the Washington Spirit with teammate Taylor Smith for the rights to Crystal Dunn.
“We’re obviously a little disappointed with the results,” said Emily Fox. “I think not looking at the results, we dominated, and we played really well. I think a lot of the things that we’re trying to do this year, you could really see in terms of like our possession and our aggressiveness to win the ball back and to keep going, going,…