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Before this match even started, my friend Carri turned to me and said, "This is either going into extra time or it's going to be a blowout. There is no in-between."
She was absolutely right.
The North Carolina Courage went into their third consecutive NWSL final as the most dominant and consistent team in the league, playing at home on the heels of a wild semifinal at home, with no major lineup changes, so the odds were certainly in their favor from the jump, snarky tweets about Paul Riley loving an underdog narrative notwithstanding. The Red Stars came in on a wave of momentum, six consecutive wins by confident performances, the announcement of Sam Kerr as the League MVP for 2019 and a 100-strong away support in Cary. They were, sadly, without centerback Tierna Davidson, who put in some strong performances alongside Julie Ertz toward the end of the season, but had suffered a sprained ankle in training.
After the pre-match pageantry, complete with ill-advised on-pitch pyro at the hottest part of the day in an extremely humid, swampy place, both sides came out firing. It's so easy to forget after the haze of four goals, but it was actually the Red Stars who got the first good look in this match, as Vanessa DiBernardo got a strong foot on an Abby Erceg deflection that Stephanie Labbé was just able to punch out of the corner. The Courage quickly responded with their first goal less than two minutes later on a brutally fast counterattack from the top three who have been their firepower all season – Lynn Williams to Jess McDonald to the Best XI Snub Heard 'Round the World, Debinha.
The next 10 minutes saw some more near misses from both sides. Alyssa Naeher came up big to save a ball from Williams (and even with four glaring concessions to the Courage, had multiple heroics on the day); Kerr found enough space to make a run and then rocketed it right into the arms of a waiting Labbé. The possession breakdown for this match is actually surprisingly even at nearly 50-50, which is wild considering how dominant the Courage looked, especially in midfield. In addition to winning the battles in midfield, their attack just looked and felt efficient. Lynn Williams out there making lung-busting runs, finding her targets and, in the 26th minute, capitalizing on a lack of pressure to lob one right at Jess McDonald's head for another goal. Twenty more minutes of frenetics, of shouting, of searing humidity and increasing desperation out of the Red Stars, and Crystal Dunn pushed past a scrum of falling defenders to net a third in the dying seconds of first-half stoppage.
At the start of the second half, Katie Johnson entered the match for Savannah McCaskill, and the Red Stars started to look more composed and cohesive as the second half wore on, threatening more in the Courage box. Casey Short and Kerr were able to put together some nice combination play, although the finishing just wasn't there. And then Sam Mewis, in the 61st minute, connected with an Abby Dahlkemper long ball for an arcing goal number four, which felt like the death knell, especially given the opportunities remaining on their bench. The Courage were able to bring on Kristen Hamilton and McCall Zerboni for fresh legs, which I realize is a deeply disturbing phrase even as I type it. Heather O'Reilly left the pitch for the final time as a player in the 89th minute to a breathless standing ovation, and two minutes later, the whole thing was over, and it was back-to-back titles for North Carolina.
Paul Riley will still probably find a way to spin back-to-back shields and titles into an underdog mentality for his side. Heather O'Reilly rides into the sunset on a high. The season is over and everyone looks ahead to gearing up for the draft in January, the official reign of Vlatko Andonovski, confirmation of a new expansion team in 2020 and a subsequent expansion draft, and every club will have to figure out what that means for their roster. Chicago will, if speculation is correct, have to ponder a future without League MVP Sam Kerr, as PSG and Chelsea are reportedly interested in the Australian star; and the NWSL will have to come up with real strategies (and dollars) to compete with European leagues for top talent.
And two absolutely dominant sides will learn from build on this season's results. The Courage have set themselves up well enough to have the word "dynasty" thrown around. The Red Stars a well-rounded, tight-knit roster built on hometown heroes like Casey Short, Vanessa DiBernardo, and Sarah Gorden, although questions of what that roster looks like next year with expansion will remain. Onward to next season.
(Photo: North Carolina Courage / Twitter)