ORLANDO, Fla. (April 19, 2023) — The North Carolina Courage rescued a point in their 2023 UKG NWSL Challenge Cup opener Wednesday night, earning a 1-1 draw with the Orlando Pride at Exploria Stadium. On the verge of another tough-luck result, captain Denise O’Sullivan buried a volley at the very last moment of stoppage time to equalize and get the point. The Courage and Pride each start East Division group play with a point.
The Courage dominated most stats from the night, holding an 18-6 edge in shots, 6-2 in shots on goal, 8-2 in corners, 36 touches in the opponent’s box to the Pride’s seven, 65% possession and 78 final third entries to Orlando’s 26.
After a scoreless first half, an unlucky header off a free kick deep ball bounced right to Ally Watt at the top of the Courage box in the 56’ and she ripped a shot that powered past the hand of Casey Murphy to trickle into the net and put the home side ahead.
The Courage saw plenty of chances to equalize go by the boards, including what looked to be a penalty off the goal restart when Kerolin Nicoli juked a defender, who fell and hit the ball with both arms. After initially awarding the penalty, VAR intervened to overturn the call to create a second straight match with controversy surrounding penalties.
In a scene that felt all too familiar to Saturday night, big chances piled up but just missed and it seemed as though the Courage would again be staring at a stat sheet trying to fathom a loss, but on the very last play of the night, a pinging ball around the Pride box found the right foot of O’Sullivan and she smashed a top-shelf finish to provide an exclamation point to the evening.
Match Notes:
Next Match: The North Carolina Courage resume NWSL Regular Season action as they travel to New Jersey to face Gotham FC on Saturday, April 22, at 7:30 p.m. ET from Red Bull Arena. The match will stream live on Paramount+ and @TheNCCourage will provide social media updates and behind the scenes looks.
Box Score:
NCC (4-3-3): Casey Murphy, Ryan Williams, Emily Fox (Sydney Collins – 46’), Kaleigh Kurtz, Malia Berkely, Denise O’Sullivan ©, Meredith Speck (Clara Robbins – 72’), Frankie Tagliaferri (Narumi – 65’), Kerolin Nicoli, Olivia Wingate (Brittany Ratcliffe – 65’), Tyler Lussi (Rikke Madsen – 72’)
Subs Not Used: Katelyn Rowland, Haley Hopkins, Brianna Pinto, Millie Farrow
ORL (4-3-3): Carly Nelson, Tori Hansen, Megan Montefusco, Emily Madril, Kylie Strom ©, Viviana VIllacorta (Haley McCutcheon – 71’), Mikayla Cluff (Kerry Abello – 46’), Summer Yates, Ally Watt, Messiah Bright, Erika Tymrak (Adriana – 82’)
Subs Not Used: Kaylie Collins, Caitlin Cosme, Marta Vieria da Silva
Score:
NCC: 1
ORL: 1
Goals:
NCC: D. O’Sullivan – 90+8’
ORL: A. Watt – 56’
Cautions:
NCC: M. Speck – 38’
ORL: K. Strom – 19’; C. Nelson – 90+5’
Ejections:
NCC: –
ORL: –
