North Carolina Courage Vs Chicago Red Stars: Week 1 Preview

The Chicago Red Stars gear up for their first game of the season against the dominant North Carolina Courage. Here is a full preview of the demanding season-opener.

Happy New Year, Chicago Red Stars fans! It’s the dawn of a new season and somehow the Girls in Blue keep getting scarier and scarier. I’ve already discussed all of these massive changes in my 2019 season guide. With possible expansion for the NWSL looming over next season, this may be the group’s last chance at a title together. And for the opening week of the season, the other side of the pitch hosts a team that is expecting to carry their dominance of the NWSL into another season, the North Carolina Courage. Truly a powerhouse matchup to start the season.

The Red Stars are coming off of a rather lackluster preseason. Due to technical reasons, the games weren’t streamed and were instead tweeted by a few different reporters and the club. From the impression that the comments provided, it seems as though the performances themselves were positive, but the problem was in actually winning. Then again, this is preseason. A lot of changes will be made and there are a lot of players who weren’t on the pitch and will be during the regular season.

The home team to open the season, the North Carolina Courage, is coming off an astoundingly brilliant campaign. They won the double, the NWSL Shield and the NWSL Championship. With very few changes to their roster, they expect to repeat again this year. The Courage will most likely be looking to use this game as a signal of intent to the rest of the league that nothing has changed over the offseason. Whether that is true or not, remains to be seen. Every season is different. But the talent is there for another commanding year.

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The big thing coming into this game is the disruptive presence of recent international friendlies. They may mean that there will be players who will have to miss out the first game of the season due to fatigue. For instance, while not in my projected XI, attacker Maria Sanchez may be an important player for Chicago Red Stars going forward but is coming back from a mid-week international friendly in the Netherlands for the Mexican National Team.

There is also the question of Rory Dames’ tactics, which are sometimes very hard to predict. Most pundits are suggesting a 4-3-3, while I think that we may see more of a 4-2-3-1 through the season while the internationals are still here. For this game, I see something a bit weird to try to fit in the best players possible onto the pitch.

Also of note for this game, the NWSL has recently made a deal with Yahoo Sports, meaning that this game will be the first game for the Red Stars to be streamed on the service. So take whatever steps you’ll need to take to set up to be ready to watch the game.

Projected XIs:

Chicago Red Stars (4-1-2-1-2): Alyssa Naeher; Arin Wright, Katie Naughton, Tierna Davidson, Casey Short; Danielle Colaprico; Julie Ertz, Morgan Brian; Yuki Nagasato; Sam Kerr, Katie Johnson

North Carolina Courage (4-2-2-2): Stephanie Labbe; Merritt Mathias, Abby Erceg, Abby Dahlkemper, Jaelene Hinkle; Sam Mewis, McCall Zerboni; Crystal Dunn, Debinha; Jessica McDonald, Lynn Williams

How To Watch:

Saturday, April 13th, 6:00 PM CDT; At WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, NC and online with the Yahoo Sports App