Jaylynn Nash/USA TODAY Sports
North Carolina Courage head coach Sean Nahas does not hide from the fact that his team endured a turbulent buildup to the 2023 National Women’s Soccer League season. Brazilian playmaker Debinha’s departure for the Kansas City Current via free agency and a draft-day trade that shipped away rookie sensation Diana Ordoñez saw the Courage lose over half of their goal-scoring production from a high-scoring 2022 season.
“A lot of question marks last year,” Nahas says now, in an interview with The Equalizer. “We didn’t have a really positive offseason last year. But we’re going into this season in a positive light, and that’s good for us.”
That optimism was not a given. Major personnel losses over the past few months threatened to destabilize the foundation the Courage built in 2023. League MVP Kerolin tore her ACL in the final regular-season match of 2023 and will miss most if not all of the coming season, depending on her recovery. United States women’s national team fullback Emily Fox…
