Dissecting Jacobs' game winner

On Saturday, the Courage won a wild one. Taking a 3-0 lead within 15 minutes, they looked to be on their way to a comfortable win. But the Washington Spirit fought back, and after they tied the game in the 90th minute it looked like the Courage would have to hold on for dear life just to get a single point.

But Natalie Jacobs had other ideas. Let’s dig into how the Courage got the win, and how the Spirit ended up on the wrong end of the thagomizer.

Not what you’d expect a fast break goal to come from

Here’s how the play started.. Hannah Betfort was played into space, but was 1-on-3. Trinity Rodman picked the ball off of her and then went down on the sideline with cramps. Tara Rudd picked up the ball and walked it forward.

Washington looks to attack, but is still set defensively

Rudd plays a very nice ball on the wing to Madison Hauguen, who had entered the game recently to be Washington’s last attacking sub.

Ryan Williams, after playing every minute of three games in eight days

Haugen attempts to drive the wing on Ryan Williams, but Williams has the speed to cut her off. Ryan wins the ball and then drops the ball to Natalie Jacobs.

The dribble appears to surprise Carly Wickenheiser

Jacobs picks her head up and looks upfield. She has a simple outlet to Shinomi, who also has space in front of her, but she chooses to carry the ball forward instead. One of the notable aspects of both Jacobs and Maycee Bell is that they both are willing to beat a presser off the dribble, adding another dimension to North Carolina’s buildout.

Technically, she still has an outlet to Shinomi here

Jacobs dribbles past the first defender and appraches a second. Neither look to step to her, presumably because she’s a center back who will probably pass it off and then retreat. Rudd is in the Courage half, tight on Hannah Betfort. You can see Feli Rauch pointing “look! over there! Chioma Okafor has oodles of space and a center back to attack! Go there!”

Jacobs declines to play the ball to Okafor, instead dropping it safely to Vilde Bøe Risa. Bøe Risa, however, immediately turns and does hit the pass to Okafor in space.

As the pass goes to Okafor, the key moment happens. Hal Hershfelt turns away from Jacobs to watch the pass. Leicy Santos slows up as the ball goes to the wing. Rudd is keeping pace with Betfort, assuming she is the main threat. Jacobs decides to accelarate into space, and no one goes with her.

Rauch, far behind the play at the beginning, is now an active outlet

Three seconds later, Jacobs is wide open in space. Okafor collects and hesitates, playing Rauch in on the underlap. Elisabeth Tse has dropped off to pick up Rauch’s run. Rebecca Bernal, the first player Jacobs dribbled past, is trying to get back but is too late.

You can see Kate Weiser, who started on the left sideline, also attempting to get back

As Rauch runs onto the pass, Tara Rudd is in trouble. While she was retreating covering Betfort, she not only has seen Jacobs speed in on her left, but she glances right and Shinomi has now appeared ahead of her as well.

By putting a first-time ball into space, it baits MacIver off the line

Jacobs uses Rudd’s glance at Shinomi to drift even further away from her. Rauch plays a perfect one-time ball into Jacobs’ path. Sandy MacIver, having retreated to her six, now sees Jacobs with no defender and starts to sprint at her.

Shinomi likely cleans up any deflection as well

Jacobs takes one touch to settle and hits a perfect strike to the far post with her off foot. As noted by Nick Schnittker, she was a forward in college.

The Courage take seven touches in ten seconds after Jacob’s inital lay-off to score. After three games in eight days where they played nearly all of the minutes, Feli Rauch and Natalie Jacobs combined to outhustle basically the entire Spirit team to get the game winner.

The goal was especially meaningful to Jacobs. In her post-game interview Jacobs talked about the team’s trip the day before to Arlington National Cememtery, and how they honored her grandfather who is buried there.

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Other game notes #

Coach Mak Lind came into the club noted he was “obsessed with scoring goals”. With their four goals scored against the Spirit, the Courage are now the joint top scoring team in the league with 32 goals, and have the highest per-game goal average.
North Carolina’s third straight win moved them to sixth in the table, and fifth on points-per-game. They have a six point gap on the playoff cut line, and also a six point gap to second place in the table.
Three games in eight days seemed to cause some heavy legs per the stat sheet. NC only won 37% of ground duels and were called for seventeen fouls, their most of the season. Riley Jackson and Erica Meg Parkinson combined for eight defensive actions before being subbed out, a far cry from the fifty-one they had between them in the Denver and Orlando games.