Kansas City NWSL blanked 4-0 in another meeting with Amy Rodriguez and the NC Courage
Three Kansas City NWSL players called North Carolina home less than a month ago. And for the first time since being traded to Kansas City from the NC Courage, all three got the chance to start — at their old stadium, no less.
But it wasn’t the return goalkeeper Katelyn Rowland and forwards Hailie Mace and Kristen Hamilton wanted, as KC lost 4-0 Saturday at Sahlen’s Stadium.
“Specific moments, lapses, killed us,” KC coach Huw Williams said. “We’re playing against one of the best teams, certainly one of the most dynamic teams, in this league. They won 4-0, but I’m sure that score flattered them or not.”
Goals from Lynn Williams, Jessica McDonald, Meredith Speck and former Kansas City captain Amy Rodriguez spelled KC’s 10th defeat of the season. NC’s Havana Solaun was sent off in the 75th minute after picking up two yellow cards.
North Carolina scored its four goals on seven shots on target.
After earning the first win in franchise history last weekend, Williams opted to stick with a midfield diamond in a 4-4-2 formation, with Hamilton and Mace up top and rookie Addie McCain in the No. 10 role.
The approach worked well from a creative sense, carving North Carolina open early after a through ball from Mace to McCain allowed the latter to slide a chance across the goalmouth that Hamilton was narrowly beaten to.
It was a sign of things to come for KC, which finished the game goalless despite taking 26 shots.
“We’re definitely creating the chances like we did today,” Williams said. “We’ll keep on working, put our heads down as a coaching staff, and finding those right patterns that will work for us.”
Where Kansas City was missing chances, North Carolina was putting them away. The first came in the 12th minute from NC’s Lynn Williams, who was playing in her first game for the Courage since returning from the Tokyo Olympics.
Williams received a deep cross from teammate Carson Pickett, turned to face goal and slid the ball past Rowland.
The lead doubled nine minutes later off another Pickett cross, this time from a corner that found the head of McDonald. All the 33-year-old forward had to do was redirect the strong cross toward the goal to become the fourth player and second American in NWSL history to reach 50 goals.
In the second half, Rodriguez, traded to the Courage for Mace, Hamilton and Rowland, scored to make it 3-0. All three goals came off crosses or passes from wide positions into the KC box.
“Three of their goals were literally crosses in the box and us losing marks — two of them were on me,” defender Kristen Edmonds said. “I definitely need to do a better job about that, but that’s something that we definitely need to get better at and definitely need to work on.”
The Courage were relegated to 10 players for the final 10 minutes following Solaun’s sendoff, allowing KC to dominate the final stretch of the game. Defender Mallory Weber clanged a shot off the crossbar and Hamilton had a header tipped wide by Courage goalkeeper Casey Murphy.
The Courage added a final goal in stoppage time when Speck ran onto a long ball, beat Rowland at the halfway line and put the ball into an open net.
“I don’t think it was like we needed to change a lot,” KC midfielder Katie Bowen said. “I think from the start we created great chances; we just need to put them away.”
This story was originally published August 21, 2021 at 8:30 PM with the headline "Kansas City NWSL blanked 4-0 in another meeting with Amy Rodriguez and the NC Courage."