To be fair, both teams had asterisks on them, with Lyon being in preseason. Not to mentioned that NCC got thoroughly outplayed; they just got the early goal and rode out the storm. Still, it was essentially the same starting XI they've been used to, so definitely a result worth mentioning. But it's a dent, not a whooping.
You stabbed my pet peeve. Defense is equally important as offense. NCC outplayed Lyon. NCC Defense kept Lyon scoreless; NCC Defense therefore outplayed Lyon Offense. NCC Offense scored a goal, thereby outplaying the Lyon Defense. You can say Lyon dominated possession by an insane amount and the Lyon attack bombarded NCC and you can say NCC was playing in despiration and bunkered with the 4-1-4-1. But you can't say NCC got outplayed. SCOREBOARD.
"Outplayed" is not, and has never been used as a statistical term. NCC won, yes. But anyone watching the game would say they probably shouldn't have. They were on the back foot almost the entire game - Lyon consistently dictated the pace of things. That is why it's perfectly correct to say that they were outplayed. The better team on the night doesn't always win. Besides, a good defense prevents shots, period - not just the good shots. NCC didn't do that. (Plus, if you want to say "SCOREBOARD" instead of "SCORE", most soccer scoreboards DO list shots, by the way!)
NCC did enough to win. On paper, this team should not have beaten OL. But they played a game in the heat and humidity of Miami in July. They played. And NCC won. And OL did not. The game does not prove anything, although it is a nice result for the Courage and NWSL. It kinda showed one of the reasons many Americans hate soccer: a 1-0 game, where one team got ahead and played defense the rest of the way. Many of us fans would love to see NC vs OL, both in season and at full strength. It wasn't the case on Sunday.
I have to take back one thing. The game did prove something. It proved the North Carolina Courage have guts. #JunkYardDogs
3rd place is archived on the ICC Women's Tournament Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1963063723985367 Dunno about the final.
I think the NC v OL game suggests: OL is not as much better a team than everyone else as some people think. And it also suggests that the NWSL is worthy of comparison with any other league. Only "suggests," it's only one game.
To me it suggests Lyon have a reccurent finishing problem and lacked sharpness in front of the goal. It is not a new problem. And two weeks into pre-season they actually did not look to bad.
I wanted to share a post-game quote or two about HAO's role for the NC Courage: Riley spoke after the game about the pre-game jitters his side felt. But, he said there was one player on his team that brought an overarching calmness to the bus, locker room and pitch. Heather came in and scored a goal, but even more than that she settled the players in in the locker room before the game. [We] had some anxious faces when I walked in the locker room and a lot of talking going on, ‘Oh we gotta do this, we gotta watch this, we gotta watch that,’ so I think she settled everyone down. She’s been around the block a few times so having her experience was good for us tonight Riley also mentioned that O’Reilly spent a lot of the first half working with Ryan Williams on the right side, talking her through it all. ...and one from rookie defender Ryan Williams: Ryan was a 22-year-old playing against [Eugénie] Le Sommer on that right-hand side,” Riley said after the game. “She [Williams] went up to me after the game and was like ‘Oh, she’s so good!' http://www.nwslsoccer.com/news/#oreilly-dangelo-lead-the-courage-to-inaugural-icc-championship
Lyon's a very pass oriented team; their were going to win the possession battle, whereas the Courage took an page from the world champions, French men's NT, held back & countered appropriately. I only saw the first half but Courage looked like the way more dangerous team Lyon boasted 6 out of FIFA's top ten players short list. They might in pre season, but they demolished Man City(a squad with 10 ENG NT players) quite easily in the first ICC game remember, most college teams only got a full week of practice before their first official game as well as a few college squads were able to defeat NWSL teams even though the college competition ended more than three months prior if anything it does show now that the NWSL is the strongest league in the world & that's mostly due to being such an incredible balanced (where every game is a tough game); when Ellis scalped Riley previously(China friendlies) the Courage were only able to draw the Dash & Royals(two squads with slightly loosing records btw...........can't find a full game replay as of yet, here's some high lights
(sorry couldn't resist) to paraphrese a certain quote "..if one (or two) battles could determine a whole league strength...the football would be much simpler game." https://mycujoo.tv/video/international-champions-cup?id=22580
what other league has a two time FIFA player of the year, yet her team is in last place with zero wins??? lol thanks, this one Courage player caught my attention, I'm surprised she slipped past your radar!
here's the Courage coming back to NC to a hero's welcome. Tremendous reception at RDU for the International Champions Cup winners, @TheNCCourage. Hear from Heather O'Reilly and Coach Paul Riley tonight at 11 on #WRAL pic.twitter.com/WGpXgLf94N— Jared Fialko (@JFiWISN) July 30, 2018 btw........shouldn't we be thanking the LGBT community? It was their outrage at Janine Hinkle, that got her her dropped from Ellis's squad, but her outstanding marking of van de Sanden & then Cascarino, that seemed to save the day(as most her teamies were running out of gas towards the end)
That was awesome from the fans. The Courage certainly deserve to celebrate, they worked extremely hard for the win. I finally watched the whole match and think the Courage had the better first half. The didn't allow OL any time to play their style or get comfortable, but rather pressed them like crazy. The goal by HAO was kind of a lucky one, but a goal is a goal. Buchanan looked horrible in the first half, and her mistake led to that goal. The second half was a different story. OL was able to play more their style and had some really good chances, but failed to convert any of them. Howevey the Courage also had some chances where they could've scored again, but OL cetainly looked the better side in the 2nd half. Of course the Courage were missing half their normal starters and OL were in preseason form. So, the question is: Which team gets the handicap/curve?
NWSL has the best league, in terms of parity. NWSL has the best league, in terms of having the best club team. Lyon has better individual talent, and as a result they are better on "paper". But as a "team", the Courage are the best. North Carolina also has better coaching.
can't bulls eye it/pinpoint what I exactly like about her, but she's got style I believe she's in the red blouse
Yeah, you certainly have to love that Duke video. There's a YouTube channel who made a remix of it a while back.
Full credit to the #ICCWomen organizers, but it seems like they haven't let the foot up off the pedal even though the tournament wrapped up long ago: while I was browsing Twitter for the NWSL championship news, I noticed that the ICC Women's tournament Twitter account hasn't just celebrated NCC's win, but they've been Tweeting (and Retweeting) stuff from D1F, the FAWSL, the UWCL, and even writing their own summary articles about how last month's participants have been doing in their respective campaigns. (Also of interest: they've even been RTing stuff from the likes of ManUWFC.) They're certainly doing as much as they can to keep interest in their desired WoSo teams high!