Preview: NC Courage at KC Current

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North Carolina Courage

Preview: NC Courage at KC Current

November 9, 2024 - National Women's Soccer League (NWSL)
North Carolina Courage News Release


KANSAS CITY, Mo. (Nov. 9, 2024) - The North Carolina Courage are headed to Kansas City for the NWSL playoff quarterfinals against the fourth-seeded Current on Saturday, November 9, at 12 p.m. ET. The match will be broadcast on CBS and streamed on Paramount+.

The Courage will host a watch party at the Downtown Raleigh Carolina Ale House for the match. Doors will open at 11 a.m. ET and fans planning to attend can RSVP.

Series history

Saturday will be the first ever NWSL playoff meeting between the Courage and Current but knockout games against Kansas City are nothing new. The quarterfinal matchup will be the fourth knockout meeting between the two since 2022, tied for the most between any two NWSL teams in all competitions in that span.

The Courage beat the Current twice in Challenge Cup semifinals en route to the team's back-to-back wins in the competition in 2022 and 2023, while the two also faced off in this year's NWSLxLiga MX Femenil Summer Cup semifinals, where the Current claimed a 2-0 win.

The two sides split the 2024 regular season series, with the home team claiming victory in each match. A second-half equalizer from Cortnee Vine and stoppage-time game winner from Brianna Pinto, who also scored a late stoppage-time winner against Kansas City in the 2023 Challenge Cup semifinal, gave the Courage a crucial 2-1 home victory to kick off September.

Kansas City Current Head Coach Vlatko Andonovski is 3-8-1 against the Courage in all competitions, including his time with FC Kansas City and Seattle Reign, while Courage Head Coach Sean Nahas is 4-5-0 against Kansas City.

The last time an Andonovski-coached team faced the Courage in the playoffs was 2019, when the Courage beat Seattle 4-1 at WakeMed Soccer Park in extra time.

Historic offense vs. the best playoff defense

Led by Golden Boot winner Temwa Chawinga, the Current let their offense do the talking in 2024 and broke the NWSL scoring record, which was previously held by the 2019 Courage, with 57 goals. Debinha, who had three goals and six assists this season, was a key piece of each of those record setting offenses.

That offense will be going up against one of the stingiest defenses in the NWSL this season. The Courage's 28 goals against ranked as the third least in the league and the Courage have been historically difficult to score on in the playoffs. No team has more playoff clean sheets than the Courage's four and no team has a better playoff goal differential than the Courage's +9.

Each of the 2024 meetings between the Courage and Current were hard-fought, low-scoring affairs, with Kansas City being held below their 2.2 goals per game average in each of the three meetings.

Goalkeeping x-factor

Part of that defensive equation in recent years has been goalkeeper Casey Murphy, who just might be one of the biggest x-factors in NWSL playoff history. Murphy ranks second in NWSL playoff saves with 28, trailing just Kansas City's AD Franch and her 38 saves. However, Murphy has played just three games, seven less than Franch's 10.

The Courage have been on both ends of Murphy's playoff heroics, with the former Rutgers Scarlet Knight making 11 saves for Seattle against the Courage during the 2019 playoffs and 13 saves for the Courage against Washington in 2021. No player has made more saves in a single NWSL game, regular season or playoffs, than Murphy's 13 against Washington and no player other than Murphy has made more than 8 saves in a single playoff game since 2016 when Opta began tracking stats.

Playoff history

The North Carolina Courage are 5-3-0 in the NWSL playoffs, with each of those three losses coming against that year's champion. In 2017, the Courage fell in the final against the Portland Thorns, while in 2021 and 2023, quarterfinal losses came at the hands of eventual champions Washington and Gotham.

The other two years the Courage made the playoffs, 2018 and 2019, ended with lifting a trophy. When the Courage are in the playoffs, the road to the title runs through Courage Country in one way or another.

Playoff experience

Courage captain Denise O'Sullivan is the team's all-time leader in playoff appearances and minutes, playing and starting every playoff game the club has played in. The Ireland international also scored the club's first-ever playoff goal in club history during a 1-0 win over Chicago in the 2017 playoffs.

2024 Iron Women Kaleigh Kurtz and Casey Murphy are the only other active Courage start multiple playoff games for the club.

Check out the North Carolina Courage Statistics

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