Even though they are off to a bad start, this article gives me hope that the ownership is taking a holistic approach to building their club, and getting the Holidays as part of the group is a good sign. I think currently there is too much talent for them to be a bottom-dwelling club this year. Not sure what is dragging them down.
NWSL commissioner: Courage, rivals must invest in infrastructure to keep up with league’s growth :: WRAL.com
I suppose, despite the title, this is the omni-comprehensive-all-seasons-North-Carolina-Courage-thread. I only wanted to chime in to notice that Manaka Matsukubo has scored a nice goal in the quarter-finals of AFC Women's Asia Cup (a 7-0 thrashing of Philippines by Nadeshiko Japan).
Just checked the gameday roster with their full active roster and along with missing Matsukubo, they also did not dress new acquisitions Schlegel, Pena, Shiragaki, and Ijeh. So given how well NC Courage played Saturday, once these players get brought fully into the team, they should be well-staffed this season.
Also I can tell you from my experience of Japanese and Italian League that Uno Shiragaki is solid and that Evelyn Ijeh is actually excellent and scored lots of goals in the season and a half she played for Milan AC; not only: she made all of the offense-line of the team better.