WakeMed Soccer Park | Cary, North Carolina – Saturday, October 7 at 7:00 PM ET
Players to watch:
With her goal on Sunday against OL Reign, forward Kerolin became the third Brazilian to score 10 goals in a single season in all competitions, joining Marta and Debinha. Only the United States (21) has more players with double-digit goal seasons in league history. Kerolin’s 10 goals are good enough to lead her side as well, with teammates Tyler Lussi (5) and Mille Gejl (2) the only others to have scored more than one goal this year.
San Diego defender Christen Westphal assisted on forward Alex Morgan’s goal against Portland with all six of Westphal’s regular season assists for the Wave finding a different goalscorer on the team. In addition, the assist tied Morgan for most regular season assists in team history. Meanwhile, it was Morgan’s sixth goal of the year but her first in league play since May 21 against Houston.
Match facts: An incredibly entertaining NWSL season enters its penultimate weekend of action with the hosts North Carolina Courage looking to halt a six-game winless run as table-topping San Diego Wave FC comes to town. Prior to Friday’s results, the Courage are in 4th place with 29 points from 20 games while San Diego sits in 1stplace with 33 points from 20 games played.
The Courage are on a six-game winless streak (D3 L3) in regular season play, despite scoring in all six of those matches. It’s the fourth time an NWSL team has scored in six straight matches but had no wins with the only longer streak belonging to then Sky Blue FC in 2018 (7). Separately, seven different players have scored their last eight goals with only Kerolin finding the back of the net more than once in a six-game span.
San Diego has won four of its last five matches (L1) and is coming off an impressive 2-0 road victory against the Portland Thorns. The Wave’s 12 points are tied for its most in a five-game span in regular season play in team history (May 2022) with only OL Reign (13 in April to May) having more points in any five-game span this season.
San Diego earned a 3-1 home win over North Carolina in April and is unbeaten in the three all-time meetings in the fixture (W2 D1). The three goals allowed by the Courage earlier this season are its most allowed in a loss this season in all competitions.
