May 2, 2023 – National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) – North Carolina Courage News Release
CARY, N.C. – The North Carolina Courage return home to open a four-game home stand as they host NJ/NY Gotham FC in UKG NWSL Challenge Cup group stage action this Wednesday, May 3, at 7:00 p.m. ET. Tickets are on sale now and the game will stream live on Paramount+ with @TheNCCourage providing live updates on social media before, during and after the match. The Courage are the defending Challenge Cup champions after claiming the title in 2022.
The Courage are coming off a weather-shortened 0-1 win in Houston last Friday, snapping a three-game regular season skid and improving to 2-3-0 on the season. Tyler Lussi scored her first goal for the Courage, one-timing home a brilliant cross from Emily Fox a half-hour into the contest. The Courage also held 65% of possession, passed at 85% accuracy and had the advantage in shots and shots on goal for a game that was called after 52 minutes due to lightning.
This is the second group stage game of the 2023 Challenge Cup, with Gotham sitting atop the East Division with three points after a 1-0 win over the Washington Spirit. The Courage got the latest goal in club history when Denise O’Sullivan ripped an equalizer in the 90+9′ to salvage a 1-1 draw in Orlando, despite a stat sheet dominated by North Carolina. The late-game heroics extended the Courage undefeated streak to 11 straight Challenge Cup matches, dating back to 2021, which extended the longest such streak in tournament history.
The Challenge Cup splits the 12 NWSL clubs into three divisions, aligned by location (East, Central, and West), with the groups of four playing each opponent home and away for a total of six matches. With each win worth three points and draw worth one, the team with the most points from each division, plus the team with the next-highest point total, advance to the Challenge Cup playoffs, where single-game semifinals lead to a winner-take-all championship match.
The Matchup
The Courage face Gotham for the second time in two weeks, this time in Challenge Cup action. In a game that was delayed two hours due to weather, the Courage fell in Harrison, 1-0, on a Lynn Williams 80′ goal two Saturdays ago. The Courage are now 11W-5L-3D against Gotham lifetime, with the loss last month the first to Gotham since October 17, 2021.
The Courage do have a slight advantage in rest over Gotham heading into the Wednesday showdown; the Courage played last Friday,…