Snapdragon Stadium | San Diego, California – Saturday, April 1 at 10:00 PM ET
Players to watch:
San Diego Wave forward Alex Morgan was top the scoring charts in the 2022 season (16) and has already shown no signs of slowing down with a goal in the club’s 3-2 win over Chicago last weekend. Morgan converted a penalty, something she did quite frequently last year, to help seal the win approaching stoppage time after forwards Amirah Ali (22’) and Jaedyn Shaw (32’) netted the first two of San Diego’s season. The winner from Morgan was the second-latest game-winning goal in her NWSL career after her goal in extra time in last season’s playoffs, also against Chicago, came in the 110th minute.
North Carolina may have seen a shuffle in the starting XI from 2022 to 2023, but one thing remains and that’s the work rate of Brazilian forward Kerolin. Kerolin led the team in shots (4) and shots on target (2) alongside the game’s lone goalscorer, Mille Gejl. Playing in her first NWSL game after transferring from BK Häcken, Gejl scored and became the third Courage player to net on her NWSL regular season debut and the first since Julia Spetsmark in 2019.
Match facts: Two winners from Week 1 come together on Saturday night in San Diego as Wave FC and North Carolina look to keep up their hot starts following wins in their respective cities last weekend. San Diego, backed by some 30,000-plus fans at Snapdragon last weekend, were able to clinch a late victory over Chicago while North Carolina grinded out a home win over Kansas City.
San Diego were almost shocked into action last weekend as Chicago took an early lead before two goals in ten minutes from Ali and Shaw allowed the hosts to jump in front from a losing position. Just before the half ended, Chicago won a penalty and Mallory Swanson converted to notch the game at two apiece. However, applying pressure late paid off for San Diego as the hosts were awarded a late penalty kick that Morgan converted to claim all three points. The win was the team’s seventh home win in 13 all-time NWSL home games including the playoffs (D4 L2). Only Portland has more home wins (regular season and playoffs) than San Diego since the beginning of last season.
On the opposite side, North Carolina secured a 1-0 win over the Current in its season opener, the club’s fourth consecutive shutout dating back to 2022. There have only been two longer such streaks in NWSL history: a five-game streak by the Courage in 2021 and a five-game streak by the Reign in 2016. The Courage had quite a few debutants in the starting XI, including the goalscorer Gejl, and Sean Nahas’s side had to fight to the end to stave off Kansas City and earn the win.
San Diego shut North Carolina out in both meetings last season with a 1-0 road win in May and a 0-0 home draw in September. No team has ever shut out the Courage in three consecutive games since the team moved to North Carolina in 2017, though.
