Life in the fine margins

It is the eighth minute of the North Carolina Courage’s game against Gotham FC. Jordynn Dudley picks up the ball on the right side of midfield in the offensive half, popping up outside her normal area. She plays some quick combinations as she drives towards the Courage penalty area. Accelerating pas the Courage defenders, she finds herself in on goal. She shoots and scores.

Later, in the 91st minute, Gotham is attacking the penalty area. Sam Kerr loops a ball to the far post, where an on-rushing Rose Lavelle beats her defender to it. Kailen Sheridan rushes across, but is unable to get to the ball. Lavelle plays the ball across the frame of goal, where Jordynn Dudley beats the defense to it and scores.

Gotham defeats North Carolina, 2-1.

It is the fifth minute of the North Carolina Courage’s game against Seattle Reign. Phoebe McClernon picks up the ball on the right side of midfield in the offensive half, popping up outside her normal area. She plays a quick combination as she drives towards the Courage penalty area. Accelerating past the Courage defenders, she finds herself in on goal. She shoots, and it is saved by Kailen Sheridan. Natalie Jacobs and Shinomi Koyama clear the rebound.

Later, in the 91st minute, Seattle is attacking the penalty area. Sofia Huerta loops a ball to the far post, where an on-rushing Jordyn Bugg beats her defender to it. Kailen Sheridan rushes across, but is unable to get to the ball. Bugg plays the ball across the frame of goal, but it does not find an attacker. Eventually Hannah Betfort and Ashley Sanchez clear the ball.

North Carolina defeats Seattle, 1-0.

The goal for any team, including the Courage, is to be so much better at creating a volume of scoring opportunities across the game that the margins don’t matter. But in many games, there are key moments that can mean the difference between victory and defeat. For the Courage, the same situations happened twice across three games. Against Gotham, they lost on the margins. Against the Reign, they won.

Both head coach Mak Lind and the players have talked about the team’s philosophy this season. They want to encourage aggression and playing forward. Making mistakes will happen; their goal is to learn and correct and grow from them. Lind reiterated this in the post-game press conference:

They're going to use which tool they they need in that situation. I trust my players. They are incredible in in trying and implementing things and using the tools. Sometimes of course you pick up the wrong tool in a situation; then next time you have a new opportunity to do it again.

In the Seattle game, you can see improvement in the next opportunity. While McClernon did accelerate away from first Evelyn Ijeh and then Riley Jackson, there was tigher coverage and attention on both her and other Reign attackers. Unlike the Gotham game where Dudley had two other open attackers as options and plenty of space for herself, McClernon only had the shot as an option with defenders closing. That helps Sheridan position herself for the save, and the better tracking means Jacobs is there to clear the rebound.

At the end of the game, there are the same small corrections. Carly Wickenheiser is there to disrupt Bugg, instead of Lavelle having no defender in front of her. Natalie Jacobs, Uno Shiragaki, and Hannah Betfort all drop to the goal ensuring no free runner can tap it in, and they’re there to clear the ball that comes back in.

Not everything is under the team’s control. Dudley and Lavelle are top tier attackers, while McClernon and Bugg are very good… center backs. That no doubt makes a difference. Luck will always be at least some factor. If Gotham doesn’t finish as well, the Courage might have come away with points in that game. If Bugg’s ball clips Sheridan’s leg and sneaks in, the Seattle game might finish with a draw. All the team can do is play the moments as best they can to improve the chances of better results. In this game they improved on that.

Sheridan noted that’s while it’s good to get that win, that’s not the end of the work.

And I think today we were able to see that come to fruition a little bit and see the benefits of everything that we've been putting so much effort in. I'm just really happy that the girls can see that and feel that so that we continue to work on it. It's not a one-time fixes everything. It's going to need to continue to grow.

There’s further improvements that can happen with that work. This time they tracked the runners better, maybe next time they are a half-step quicker in reacting and they cut off the attacker before she even gets into the box. Wickenheiser got a slight touch on the late cross to the back post in this game, maybe next time the team can fully shepherd the ball out for a corner and a full reset.

The current iteration of the NWSL is full of parity; the difference between wins and losses is tiny. The differences in the league table are also small. This win moves North Carolina from just out of the playoffs to just over the cut line as they head into the international break. Six points separate fifth place and tenth place.

The Courage have three more games where they’ll need to continue that process as they push to keep their playoff spot. Every game is an opportunity for improvement in the fine margins.