Rough Start Costs Courage against Bay FC
by Fran Stuchbury
Published on March 29, 2026 under National Women's Soccer League (NWSL)
North Carolina Courage
North Carolina Courage vs. Bay FC
(North Carolina Courage, Credit: Fran Stuchbury)
The North Carolina Courage surrendered three first half goals in the opening 34 minutes and lost to Bay FC 3-1 in front of 7,013 fans at First Horizon Stadium at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, N.C., Saturday evening.
The Courage's record moved to 1-1-1 for four points while Bay FC improved to 2-1-0 for six points. Bay FC picked up its first road victory since April 19, 2025 which was a 1-0 victory against the Courage.
"We had a very tough start, tried to chase the whole game," said North Carolina Head Coach Mak Lind. "Didn't succeed with scoring goals early; it came too late. Struggled with the high press a little bit. Didn't find the good triggers to win the ball high up on the pitch, and they punished us the times they won the ball and were higher up. They scored the first goal, scored the second goal and made a change to get more aggressive, even higher up on the pitch. Helped a little bit in the high press, but it was too late. It felt like every time they were in the box they scored a goal. If you're down three goals at home, it's tough to get back from there. We gave it a chance in the second half. We talked about scoring the first goal, start chasing from there, but today was a a tough day at work. We need to watch the game again and learn from things happened on the pitch and and grow from there."
Bay FC scored the first goal of the game in the 20th minute off the foot of forward Alex Pfeiffer, her second of the NWSL season.
Bay FC added its second score in the 30th minute thanks to forward Keira Barry's first goal of the campaign.
Four minutes later Bay FC improved its lead to 3-0 with a goal in the 34th minute from midfielder Dorian Bailey, also her first of the season.
"Obviously delighted with the three points today," said Bay FC Head Coach Emma Coates. "Particularly the manner of the performance in the first half and some of the resilience we showed at the end of the game."
The Courage cut the lead to 3-1 in the 66th minute on a goal from midfielder Manaka Matsukubo who made her 50th NWSL game appearance after coming off the bench as a substitute late in the first half.
Matsukubo returned to the team this week after winning the AFC Women's Asian Cup and qualifying for the 2027 World Cup with Japan.
"I'm really happy to be back, then today's game, we're all sad," said Manaka. "I think we need to be better."
After a scoreless draw against defending NWSL Champions Gotham FC, North Carolina has scored one goal the past two games.
"In possession, we need to be sharper on the ball," explained Lind. "That means every time you give the ball away, you have to start to defend. Too many turnovers; give the ball away. We need to fix that, of course. We have it to be even sharper in creating goal-scoring opportunities. One goal in two games is not enough for us and of course, we need to work on that. We need to be very patient in this process we are going through."
"We obviously had a tough start to the game," added Courage defender Ryan Williams. "Dug ourselves a bit of a hole. I think we came out a little bit flat, had some in-game adjustments. I think those adjustments were good, and I think we just decided to play tonight a little too late. We need to be ready to go when the game starts. We just need to be sharper putting the ball in the back of the net. There's a lot of good from the game, and I think obviously there's some things we want to work on."
North Carolina's next match is at home on Saturday, April 4th against Portland Thorns FC at 6:30 pm est.
Images from this story
 North Carolina Courage vs. Bay FC (Fran Stuchbury) |
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