Uno fills the gaps

Uno Shiragaki was signed five days before the Courage’s first game. She was a twenty year old defender who had fewer than 40 games of experience in the WE League (Japan’s top league), and fewer than 20 substitute minutes for the Japanese national team.

But that was OK, because the Courage were deep at center back. Natalie Jacobs is a NWSL stalwart who has been a regular starter since joining via trade last year. Maycee Bell has become a star. Talia Staude was an experienced backup as well.

Then in the second game of the season, Natalie Jacobs went down an ankle injury. On top of that, at the end of April, Bell picked up a knee injury.

Because of injuries, Uno was thrust into the lineup, and so far in 2026 has played the most minutes at centerback of anyone on the Courage. And she’s been good.

How Uno excels in defense #

To get an idea of what Uno does well, we can compare her to other center backs in the league. There have been 35 center backs with 800 or more minutes played in 2026 (as of last weekend’s games).

Uno is like most Courage defenders, in that she’s doesn’t rack up a particularly high amount of raw defensive actions, in part due to North Carolina’s possession game. But there are a number of ways her limited actions give value.

One of the areas she’s the best is in stopping fast breaks; among center backs with 800+ minutes, she’s generated the sixth most value in stopping fast breaks, just behind Maycee Bell.

Looking at other places she’s reacting to opponents (clearances, ball recoveries, and interceptions), she’s 14th of 35 in value created despite only ranking 30/35 in the number of those actions. This is driven by her ball recoveries and interceptions. Combine that with her high value created in blocks, it highlights Uno’s key strength: her ability to read the game and react.

Here are some examples from North Carolina’s second game against Racing Louisville.

If you watch enough Courage games, the main thing you will see from Uno is her reading the opponent’s pass, stepping in front of the attacker she’s guarding, and making an interception.

Later in the game she anticipates the pass and breaks on the opponent before the pass is made, and wins the ball off the attacker’s first touch.

It’s not just against the pass. Here she sees Kayla Fisher recieve the pass, and immediately moves to cut off her advance, again winning possession by stepping between Fischer and the ball.

This has shown up in many games; when the Courage are defending out of a settled position, Uno can be seen anticipating and stepping past her mark to win the ball.

Her defensive instincts also show up in her non-action defensive numbers. There is an American Soccer Analysis metric called “g-”; rather than measure the actions the defender takes, it measures the value the offense produces in areas a particular defender should be covering. Uno’s g- rating is better than her action-based g+ rating; less offense gets created in her areas due to her reading of the game.

Helping the attack #

On the ball, Uno prefers to not take risks dribbling. She is one of the least active center backs in terms of carrying the ball - as an example, Esme Morgan has 88 more carries in roughly the same number of minutes. But she’s also doesn’t lose the ball at a high rate under possession, which makes her overall about average as a center back.

When it comes to passing, Uno brings a much more aggressive approach. This can be tracked by her ’expected pass completion’. A higher expected pass completion means a safer pass. For example, Maycee Bell’s expected pass completion is the second highest among qualifying players, showing her conservative passing instincts.

Uno’s expected pass completion is 24th out of 35 (her actual pass completion rate is 22nd). Looking into her pass distances brings light to what she does. Her average completed pass distance is relatively low (only 7 defenders have a shorter average completed pass), but her average vertical pass distance is 14th. She’s pushing the ball straight up the field, especially when passing in the middle third.

Once she gets to the final third, she then becomes even more aggressive. That’s when, from the right channel, she attempts to pick out teammates in the box and thread throughballs. She averages seven passes into the final ⅓ per game. While that’s not the highest in the league, it is still very high for a center back.

Unfortunately, her aggressvive passing forays haven’t produced much value relative to other center backs in the league. Some of this is because she is one of the the most frequent center back in sending passes to offside teammates. Still, she has produced the most open play passing value among Courage center backs.

As for attempts on goal, Uno has gotten off five shots, all but one off of set pieces. Her one non-set-piece shot was a nice give-and-go with Shinomi.

Covering where she doesn’t yet excel #

Uno’s anticipation and reactions also help her cover her weaknesses. For all the value she brings, Uno isn’t that fast, and she has to use her smarts to defend attackers that are faster (sometimes, much faster) than her.

Against Orlando, she just barely helped break up a Barbra Banda fast break by reading the ball just well enough to flick it away, giving time for Staude and Sheridan to clean it up.

Early against Washington, Uno was not able to get back fast enough to give Ryan Williams cover against Trinity Rodman on her goal. Later on, she ended up in a footrace as Rodman was played in behind. Knowing she would lose a straight race, Uno first bumped Rodman to get her a little off her line, and then timed her tackle perfectly to knock the ball away right before Rodman would have rounded her.

Overall #

By ASA’s net g+ metrics, Uno Shirigaki rates in the top quarter of players in the league this year (48th out of 207 with qualifying minutes).

This is all despite Uno…

• Coming to a new country and a higher standard of league
• Arriving five days before the first game
• Being younger than almost other starting centerback in the league ¹

Of course, it’s still less than half a season of work. With more game tape, teams may adjust how they attack both her and the Courage in general.

But it’s not a stretch to say that Uno stepping up and performing this well has helped save the Courage from their minor defensive injury crisis. And reading the game at this level at 20 years old means there’s plenty of room for improvement in her future.

¹ Jordyn Bugg is one year younger and has four starts.