Courage Earn Important Draw to Stay in Playoff Race
NWSL North Carolina Courage

Courage Earn Important Draw to Stay in Playoff Race

by Fran Stuchbury
Published on October 13, 2025 under National Women's Soccer League (NWSL)
North Carolina Courage


North Carolina Courage vs. the Washington Spirit
North Carolina Courage vs. the Washington Spirit
(North Carolina Courage, Credit: Fran Stuchbury)

Still in the playoff hunt, the North Carolina Courage played the Washington Spirit to a 1-1 draw in front of 8,498 fans at a rainy First Horizon Stadium at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, N.C., Saturday evening. It was the seventh largest regular season crowd in club history.

"I actually thought the performance was pretty excellent, to be honest, arguably against a top two team in the league," said North Carolina Interim Head Coach Nathan Thackeray. "(Washington has an) Abundance of quality in every position; even the changes they make, they bring on international football players that play on a high level. I thought we completely controlled the game. Obviously they are a good team where Casey (Murphy) had to come up big. I thought by far we were the better team. That's a top team. We showcased that we can play with anybody. We just need to take the opportunities when they come to finish teams off and not let them in the game."

North Carolina's record moved to 7-9-8 for 29 points and ninth place in the NWSL standings, while the Spirit is now 12-4-8 for 44 points after extending their unbeaten streak to 12 matches with five wins and seven draws. They locked up second place in the NWSL standings, guaranteeing them home field for the quarterfinal and semifinal matches.

Washington scored the first goal of the game in the 53rd minute by forward Trinity Rodman, her fifth goal of the season.

"We knew that they were going to come out hard," said Rodman, "We wanted to win, obviously. For us I think we're all kind of disappointed in our performance. We had a lot of good moments, but at the same time we were kind of all over the place. We couldn't figure it out defensively in the first half, especially. Think we cleaned it up a little bit in the second, but still there's opportunities even on us that were barely offside. I think all of us as a team could have done better defensively of being more confident stepping to players. I think we were hesitant and that was kind of our downfall."

The Courage almost had a quick response three minutes later, but a goal by forward Payton Linnehan was ruled offside by the Video Assistant Referee.

Deep into the second half at the 86th minute, North Carolina scored the equalizer from midfielder Shinomi Koyama, her second of the season.

"She's rock solid; she's 20 years old; she's unbelievable," Thackeray added. "Between her and Riley (Jackson), completely controlled the game against them, against a really good midfield. She came up big in that moment for us; she's done it twice this year. Delighted for her and her performance. Her parents were also here, over from Japan. They flew in this week. They got to see her play. To see her play and score I'm so happy for her because she's wonderfully gifted."

On January 21st the Courage acquired Koyama from Swedish club Djurgardens IF for a fee and signed her to a three-year contract.

Goalkeeper Casey Murphy made her return to the North Carolina lineup for the first time since August 30th. She made five saves in the game.

"(She) didn't have much to do in long moments of the game, but came up really big in the moments she needed to," Thackeray said. "That's what Casey can do. I made the change the last five games because I felt she she dropped below her performance. Tonight, she highlighted why she is an international goalkeeper. She performed really, really well. That's what I wanted for her. If I wasn't consistent with my message, and I didn't make that change earlier in the season, then I would be a fraud. She proved she can play at this level and train at this level. She deserved to get the job back and showcased to me she was ready to perform up."

"I think we are proud of the way we fought tonight, I think we showed up really well and strong and we never gave up," said Courage defender Ryan Williams. "I think we were a little unfortunate with a few of the calls and offsides. I think we showed a lot of good things and positives. We are happy we got one point, obviously would have liked to get three. We know that we are in every game that we play in the NWSL; every game is close. We are capable of winning games and capable of scoring. We just need to keep the ball out of the back of our net."

"This group has not given up," added Thackeray. "If you look at the performances, they are aligned that they are performing as one of the top teams. Our problem is we are not converting the chances. The team is still believing. As long as we have an opportunity to battle for a playoff spot, we will continue to keep believing. I won't let them fall short. I won't let them stop. I will make sure they keep their foot on the gas until their is nothing left to give. They have been resilient; they keep pushing. We have endured a lot of change this season, a lot of injuries this season. They are still there fighting; that is a credit to the group."

The Courage drew over 8,000 fans for the fourth time which was a single season record.

"It's always so nice to see and hear our fans, they bring so much energy," Williams added. "It changes the whole atmosphere of playing here and to see them all stick around, basically the whole game through the rain, it's really great to see them. We are really appreciative fo all the good energy that can totally change the game for us. You can just feel the momentum swing. If we get a good chance the crowd gets to be a little bit more involved and excited. I think we can really work off of that."

North Carolina defender Kaleigh Kurtz reached 10,000 consecutive minutes in the 48th minute.

North Carolina's next match is on the road Friday, October 17th against Bay FC. Their final home game of the season is on Sunday, November 2nd against Gotham FC.

Check out the North Carolina Courage Statistics

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



Images from this story

North Carolina Courage vs. the Washington Spirit
North Carolina Courage vs. the Washington Spirit
(Fran Stuchbury)		   



National Women's Soccer League Stories from October 13, 2025


The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer(s), and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central