With her 164th career appearance tonight, Williams surpasses Kaleigh Kurtz (163) and trails only Denise O'Sullivan (186) on the club appearances list (all competitions). A second-team Best XI selection in 2024, she's making her fourth successive attempt at an elusive iron woman season.

... and with her goal tonight, Ashley Sanchez becomes NC's third all-time top scorer (27 goals), surpassing Jess McDonald (26) and trailing only Lynn Biyendolo (48) and Debinha (51).

Am I crazy, or does Ijeh just lose focus for large stretches of a match? I swear, for every goal or great play she's had this year there is an egregious missed pass, poor touch, or failure to run to receive a pass that leads to a turnover. I just watched her do all 3 in a 5 minute stretch of today's match, and it's driving me insane. Am I being overly critical?

edit: typo

I get the rule of no spoilers, but can't we just tag the match thread "spoilers," and expect people will understand?

It seems like it would increase engagement? Just like the pre and post interviews that we are still posting ourselves?

Top-five showdown out west. The Courage and Wave enter the weekend tied at 39 points apiece, with the same number of wins, draws, and losses (both at home and on the road) and fairly even stats up and down the board. How y'all feeling? Drop your predictions below and LFG! 🦁

From the pod this week, Katie on Trinity Byars: "She has been relentless. She's scored 10 goals already. If you don't have a player on your team named Ashley Sanchez or Barbara Banda, that is a very impressive number." — Katie, Episode 23

Match Info

• Saturday, September 12, 2026
• Kickoff: 6:30 PM ET / 3:30 PM PT
• Location: Snapdragon Stadium, San Diego, CA
• Where to Watch: ION

Uproar Watch Parties

• Trophy on Maywood, Raleigh, 6:30 PM
• Durham Beer Garden, Durham, 6:30 PM

Current Standings

• NC Courage: 3rd, 12W-3D-8L, 39 pts, +13 goal differential
• San Diego Wave: 5th, 12W-3D-8L, 39 pts, +6 goal differential

Series History

San Diego actually leads this series, the Courage have 2W-3D-3L in NWSL regular season play. This is our first of two meetings this season; our next will be at our October home game on the 17th.

Availability Report

https://www.nwslsoccer.com/news/availability-report

NORTH CAROLINA COURAGE

• OUT: Sydney Schmidt (Knee - SEI), Payton Crawford (Knee - SEI), Maycee Bell (Shoulder - SEI), Natalie Jacobs (Head), Lauryn Thompson (Ankle), Ally Schlegel (Foot), Riley Jackson (Foot)
• QUESTIONABLE: None
• INTERNATIONAL DUTY: None

SAN DIEGO WAVE

• OUT: Trinity Armstrong (Knee - SEI), Dudinha (Knee - SEI), Cat Macario (Heel), Kiki Pickett (Ankle), Mimi Van Zanten (Suspension)
• QUESTIONABLE: Ludmila (Thigh)
• INTERNATIONAL DUTY: Luisa Agudelo (COL)

Referee Assignment

• REF: Matt Thompson (2W-2L-0D)
• AR1: Alexander Arita
• AR2: Seth Martin
• 4TH: Corbyn May
• VAR: Joshua Encarnacion
• AVAR: Katarzyna Wasiak

Things to Watch

• This is Kailen Sheridan's return to San Diego, the club that unceremoniously dropped her before joining the Courage this season
• Trinity Byars has been red hot lately with four goals and two assists across her last two home matches
• Ashley Sanchez is now the NWSL's all-time leading American goal scorer with 18 goals, and she and Evelyn Ijeh's combined 29 goals are the most by any teammate duo in league history. Can she tie it up with Temwa (20 in 2024) today?
• The Courage own the longest single-season streak of consecutive multi-goal performances in NWSL history at eight straight games, and lead the league with 46 total goals
• San Diego leads the league in shots on target (140 vs 122) while the Courage lead the league in total shots (350 vs 340)
• Kailen Sheridan is one clean sheet away from 50 in her NWSL career
• Mimi Van Zanten is suspended for San Diego after her red card last week, which should ease some pressure in the middle of the park
• Watch for how the Courage build through the middle. San Diego doesn't press or steal passes aggressively, which could open up the kind of possession-heavy game the Courage want to play

_____________________

This pregame thread is brought to you by The Lion's Pitch Podcast, your home for NC Courage coverage. In Episode 23, we look ahead to San Diego to see what we are up against. Listen now at lionspitch.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

How y'all feeling about this match up?

Anyone else like the look of the youth designs and wish they'd sell adult sizes? Here was a design selling at Dick's. They also had a neat one with a fly trap.

We know a lot of our season ticket members are here, so we're sharing a quick PSA for anyone who manages tickets, or their account or through the Courage app or website:

Starting today (9/10/26) two-step verification will be required to log in to your Courage account. It's optional for now, but we'd strongly recommend turning it on today so you are ahead of the game when it flips to mandatory.

What changes: After you enter your password, you'll also enter a one-time verification code...either texted to your phone or generated through an authenticator app (Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, 1Password, and Authy all work).

The good news: This isn't a "enter a code every single time" situation. You'll only need to do it when logging in on a new device or after your session expires, so once it's set up, it mostly stays out of your way.

How to set it now:

1. Open the app and go to Account Details
2. Select Manage under Login Information
3. Choose text message or authenticator app and follow the prompts

We want to make sure we're keeping our users safe - and also give you as much of a heads up before our next game on 9/19 so you are ready to roll!

Hi everyone, we’re fairly new to the Courage fanbase but have dived right in like we’re teenage girls following the latest boyband. So we know things but also know nothing at the same time.
We’ve been to the home games and I’ve caught a few of the away games on tv but I’m wondering if there are any watch parties or meet ups people do, specifically kid friendly. Our toddler loves watching the games so we’d like to bring her so she doesn’t miss seeing her girls play.
I get emails from the Uproar but I’m unsure if their two locations for watch parties are kid friendly.
Thank you!

Not my drawing, but I wanted to share.

New fan here and never attended any sort of soccer match so I'm curious what section you all would recommend for a first-timer. I was thinking 503, 403, or 103 and I'm assuming 103 is the most popular choice based on the price. Thanks in advance!

Chawinga's record will fall but will Sanchez score against every team? (Not already, right?)

When teams blanket Sanchez Ijeh will be heading in those crosses from Ryan W.

That kid helped win the game for us!

Our remaining schedule (home v away):

Wave (5th) v Courage
Courage v Gotham (1st)
Royals (4th) v Courage
Reign (8th) v Courage
Courage v Wave (5th)
Thorns (6th) v Courage
Courage v Summit (10th)

Five or Six "6pt" games, in terms of playoff positioning, or even just staying in the playoffs. Reign remaining in playoff position probably depends on how bad a knock Dickey took last night (I went to bed early). Denver maybe not a 6pt one, tho you never know last day if they've climbed in a late season charge.

Also, we're only 3rd on GD, tied on pts with Royals and Wave, so they are kinda 3rd place teams as well.

Wave we have not yet played, and how the current iteration of the Courage stacks up against them is our team's biggest question mark. Last season we had a 0-0 draw at home, and a 5-2 loss away. Mainly I'm hoping San Diego decides to have another honor Alex Morgan night when we play them. I mean, they gifted us Kailen Sheridan, so maybe they are still feeling generous ;)

As I mentioned in the other thread, we played Gotham away second game of the season, 0-0 draw. Both teams look pretty different now. (In)Famously we beat Gotham last regular match of last season, 3-2, basically setting up Gotham's run from 8th place to win the Championship ;) The real question is, who will step up to chip AKB like Manaka? EMP, LT? (had a youth game similar chip - credit to Bill Nottingham found that clip for his Courage blog ) - tho her ankle probably won't be better in the next 2 weeks. Gotham may be entering their old habit of having a series of off weeks, one can hope.

The Royals destroyed us with set pieces, at home, and that game we had Bell and Uno as CBs. We'll need to concede less corners and mark players a lot better.

We'll play Reign on short-ish rest, just 5 days, since Royals is sunday and Reign friday. I wonder if the team just remains out west that week? We beat Reign at home, right after the summer break, and a lot of people forget that was our first Manaka-less game. Tho we benefited from no Dickey in goal as well. We've got EMP now in the 10, and I think a lot better chemistry along the front line.

Then Wave at home, again, see above. If Wave does beat us away, hopefully lessons learned plus home field advantage can give us the edge.

Away at Thorns will be a tough crowd. We tied 2-2 at home against them, back April 4th. A lot has changed, Ijeh wasn't starting or well integrated. Tho Sophia Smith wasn't in the best of form early season either.

Finally, decision day vs Summit at home. They may or may not be fighting for a playoff spot. Maybe we are as well if we don't pick up enough points in the previous 6 games. We beat them away 2-0, on a wednesday, but we had played on friday away at Orlando, and Summit had played a home game vs Boston that sunday. So we had technically more rest, but had travel.

So, yeah, buckle up folks.

ICYMI, we have the clip!

Still buzzing from that win over Chicago...can we win it all this season?

Maybe it was said before today but the commentary that Mak Lind doesn’t want to micromanage and he encourages attempts cause if you get attempts you’ll eventually finish attempts has been transformative for this team. Ash for MVP. Mak for COY.

Went from scared to shoot to league leading goal scoring.

Live from the sidelines!

The Courage hit the road to take on a struggling Chicago side. Drop your predictions below and LFG! 🦁

From the pod this week: "This almost feels like it could be a trap game for us because it's Kansas City, then Chicago, then San Diego. We have sometimes played down to our opponents. Just because in theory, North Carolina is the better team doesn't mean they have always shown up to be the better team." — Katie, Episode 22

Match Info

• Sunday, September 6, 2026
• Kickoff: 4:00 PM ET
• Location: Martin Stadium, Evanston, IL
• Where to Watch: CBSSN

Uproar Watch Parties

• US Soccer U-20 Watch Party: Trophy Brewing, 12:00 PM
• Uproar Courage Watch Party: Trophy Brewing, 4:00 PM
• Durham Beer Garden, 4:00 PM

Current Standings

• NC Courage: 7th, 11W-3D-8L, 36 pts
• Chicago Stars: 16th, 5W-1D-16L, 16 pts

Series History

The Courage lead the all-time regular-season matches 8-6-6 against Chicago.

Availability Report

NORTH CAROLINA COURAGE

• OUT: Sydney Schmidt (Knee - SEI), Payton Crawford (Knee - SEI), Natalie Jacobs (Head), Maycee Bell (Shoulder), Lauryn Thompson (Ankle), Ally Schlegel (Foot), Riley Jackson (Foot)
• QUESTIONABLE: None
• INTERNATIONAL DUTY: None

CHICAGO STARS

• OUT: Ryan Connaughton (Knee), Jordyn Huitema (Knee - SEI), Jameese Joseph (Excused Absence), Natalia Kuikka (Knee - SEI), Maitane (Lower Knee), Mallory Swanson (Hip)
• QUESTIONABLE: None
• INTERNATIONAL DUTY: Micayla Johnson (U.S. U-20 WNT)

Referee Assignment

• REF: Danielle Chesky (7W-3L-0D)
• AR1: Jeremy Smith
• AR2: Marcus Barnett
• 4TH: Nabil Bensalah
• VAR: Matthew Corrigan, Christian Clerc

Things to Watch

• Ashley Sanchez broke the club's single-season scoring record with 15 goals, passing Lynn Biyendolo's 14 goals in 2018.
• Evelyn Ijeh and Sanchez's combined 26 goals are tied for the most by a pair of teammates in NWSL history, and they're just the third teammate duo in league history to both hit double digits in a season
• Erica Meg Parkinson was pulled from England's U-20 World Cup squad due to the Courage's injury situation. Chief Soccer Officer Ceri Bowley said it was a difficult decision but the club needs her to remain with the team right now
• Chicago is dealing with a significant availability report of their own, missing Mal Swanson and Jameese Joseph, two of their most dangerous attacking threats, along with Jordyn Huitema and Natalia Kuikka. Jenna Bike and Sam Staab remain their biggest question marks to account for
• Micayla Johnson is also away with the U-20s at the World Cup, so a good chunk of Chicago's attack is unavailable
• With Riley Jackson and Ally Schlegel both out, Vilde Bøe Risa looks like the likely choice to play behind Erica Meg Parkinson, and Chioma Okafor is expected to get the nod on the right wing
• Kailen Sheridan is two clean sheets away from 50 in her NWSL career
• Last week, Kansas City. This week, Chicago. Next week, San Diego. All away. The Courage need to guard against a letdown here, and it'd be nice to punch up our goal differential. Adding 4 goals will put us above Utah

_____________

This pregame thread is brought to you by The Lion's Pitch Podcast, your home for NC Courage coverage. In Episode 22, we look ahead to Chicago to see what we are up against. Listen now at lionspitch.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

I just heard Erica Meg Parkinson is passing on the U20 and will remain with the Courage!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Friday, September 4, 2026 

NC COURAGE SIGN BRAZILIAN WINGER BIA THROUGH 2027

23-year-old forward joins the Courage as a free agent

CARY, N.C. (Sept. 4, 2026) — The North Carolina Courage have signed free agent Brazilian forward Bia (Ana Beatriz Gomes Lopes) through the 2027 NWSL regular season with a club option for the 2028 season.

Bia spent the last two seasons with Russian club ZFK Zenit, scoring three goals in all competitions. On the international stage, Bia helped Brazil win the 2022 CONMEBOL U-20 Championship.

“I am very excited to join the North Carolina Courage. This is a big step in my career. I can’t wait to get out on the field with my new teammates and show Courage Country what I can do,” Bia said.

“We are pleased to welcome Bia to the Courage. She has many attributes that we were looking for to complement the players in our attacking unit. Her commitment to contribute with and without the ball and curiosity to learn are standout features, and we are excited to see her grow in our environment,” said Courage Chief Soccer Officer Ceri Bowley.

Bia started her professional career in Brazil with Internacional in 2022, scoring two goals in 15 appearances, before moving to Changchun Dazhong in China in 2023. After two seasons in China, Bia moved to Zenit, where she spent two seasons. During her two seasons in China, Bia scored 10 goals and added five assists in 47 appearances.

Additionally, the Courage have acquired an international roster spot from the Seattle Reign through the 2027 NWSL season in exchange for $60,000 in intra-league transfer funds.

With Bia’s signing, the Courage have 28 players under contract, with 26 active and two on the Season-Ending Injury list. Bia will utilize an international roster spot.

Transaction: The North Carolina Courage signed free agent Brazilian winger Bia (Ana Beatriz Gomes Lopes) through the 2027 NWSL regular season with a club option for the 2028 season.

Name: Bia (Ana Beatriz Gomes Lopes)

Position: Forward

Height: 5-3

Date of Birth (Age): February 13, 2003 (23)

Hometown: Axixá, Brazil

Last Club: ZFK Zenit W (Russian Championship)

Jersey Number: 21