Courage Shock KC in Dying Minutes for First Win of 2025

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NWSL North Carolina Courage

Courage Shock KC in Dying Minutes for First Win of 2025

by Fran Stuchbury
April 28, 2025 - National Women's Soccer League (NWSL)
North Carolina Courage


North Carolina Courage with possession against the Kansas City Current
North Carolina Courage with possession against the Kansas City Current
(North Carolina Courage, Credit: Fran Stuchbury)

The North Carolina Courage recorded their first win of the National Women's Soccer League season with a come-from-behind 3-2 victory over the Kansas City Current in front of of 6,235 fans at First Horizon Stadium at WakeMed Soccer Park Saturday evening. The Courage improve to 1-3-2 this season, while the previously undefeated Current drop to 5-1-0.

North Carolina's victory is the first time since the infamous 5-4 Sky Blue FC - Seattle Reign FC game on July 22, 2017 in which a team has scored the game-tying goal and the game-winning goal in the 90th minute or later.

"It's about time, really," said North Carolina Courage Head Coach Sean Nahas. "Look, that's a good side. We had a battle and the last couple of weeks have been really difficult for the group. I thought we were really poor in the first half. I thought we were scared, I thought we played with fear and played not to make a mistake instead of going and taking it from the first whistle."

"Players that came off the bench really made a difference," Nahas continued. "There's a real team complete performance overall and when you're struggling a little bit and not finding a way to get results... I couldn't be any more proud of the group. I felt we deserved, over the last couple of weeks, I thought we deserved some extra results. That's not how it goes, but to battle back against the top team in the league and down a goal, equalize and then take the lead, I couldn't be any more proud of the group. Hopefully this is something that propels us to move forward and allows our group to believe how good they can be if they just continue to trust the process and work together and stick together. Look, the group could have been railroaded three weeks ago when we weren't getting the results. We had a great week of training and we kept it loose and had some fun with them. Yeah, it's a pretty cool thing to see how they reacted after that."

"I think everyone can stop talking about us not winning, and maybe they can talk about how we grew up today," said Nahas.

The Current opened the scoring in the 39th minute with a goal from Haley Hopkins, her first with the team.

Hopkins played at Virginia and was a first round pick, 11th overall, by the Courage in the 2023 NWSL Draft. In the two seasons she played with North Carolina she scored four goals. On January 30, 2025 she was traded to Kansas City in exchange for $50,000 in intra-league transfer funds.

"I think Haley's awesome; she's a wonderful person, and I'm happy for her that she was able to to come in," Nahas said. "Whether you play for us or not, once you're a part of our club, you're always a part of our club. She scored a good goal, and I thought we could have prevented it, but I'll always be proud of Hayley and I wish her nothing but the best and all the success in the world. I think she's a wonderful person, great teammate, great in the locker room. Grew a lot here and, unfortunately, things moved on, but she's with a good club and a great coach and, and she'll continue to evolve."

The Courage tied the game in the 52nd minute with the first-ever NWSL goal by defender Ryan Williams.

"I just feel like I have so much support around me, from my teammates to the coaches to my family. like everybody believes in me so much," said Williams "I just feel like they're always telling me to shoot, and I practice shooting. I'm super happy to help the team in that way, and it was definitely exciting. It was a really good team goal, a great pass from Manaka (Matsukubo). I felt like I didn't have to do much, but I'm just really proud of the team."

Williams did scored once in college at TCU back in 2017 in a 2-1 loss to Baylor in the Big 12 Championship game.

The Current re-took the lead at 2-1 with a goal from forward Bia Zaneratto, her first of the season. She signed with the Current on January 22, 2024 and plays for the Brazil national team.

North Carolina leveled the contest at 2-2 on a 90th-minute goal from defender Kaleigh Kurtz.

"I think it showed the resilience of the group," said Kurtz. "We've definitely had some things not go our way so far this season. So for us to come back and win and have the crowd behind us, it was super important tonight. We were able to hear everyone. We really fed off that energy, then it just showed that resilience and great character that the group has. Every single person was fighting until the end, so big win for us."

The Courage scored the game-winner three minutes into stoppage time off the foot of forward Ashley Sanchez.

Goalkeeper Casey Murphy and Kaleigh Kurtz surpassed 10,000 NWSL regular season minutes in the 48th minute. Kurtz is the second player to play 10,000 minutes in a North Courage jersey after midfielder Denise O'Sullivan became the first to hit that milestone.

North Carolina's next game will be on the road against the Utah Royals on Saturday. Their next home game will take place on Saturday May 10th against the Orlando Pride at 7:30 pm est.

Check out the North Carolina Courage Statistics




Images from this story

North Carolina Courage with possession against the Kansas City Current
North Carolina Courage with possession against the Kansas City Current
(Fran Stuchbury)		   

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