World Cup: A North Carolina Courage group stage update
By Drew Hubbard
As the group stage of the 2019 Women’s World Cup comes to an end, seven North Carolina Courage players represent their nation in the world’s biggest tournament. Here is how they got on.
Seven North Carolina Courage players took part in the 2019 World Cup group stage in France. They departed from North Carolina in pursuit of winning another championship, except this time with their respective national teams in the biggest tournament in the world.
Sam Mewis, Abby Dahlkemper, Jessica McDonald, and Crystal Dunn all represented the United States while goalkeeper Stephanie Labbé took the field for Canada. Abby Erceg was in the New Zealand backline and Debinha was a consistent attacking threat for Brazil.
Here is how they all got on.
Stephanie Labbé
Canadian goalkeeper Stephanie Labbé started the 2019 World Cup with nigh on nothing to do against Cameroon. The African side attempted four total shots and none of them forced Labbé to make a save. It took the Canadians just before halftime to earn the victory when Kadeisha Buchanan scored the game’s only goal.
And even though a seemingly more competitive match against New Zealand was next, Labbé again wasn’t pressured to make a save. New Zealand took only two shots and neither were on goal.
Labbé would finally be tested against the Netherlands. The Dutch took two shots on goal and both found the net for a 2-1 defeat for the Canadians, the second of which coming off a cross that Labbé came out for, but was unable to get a hand on which left a wide-open net for Lineth Beerensteyn. Labbé’s World Cup run is not over as Canada now take on fellow top-ten opponent Sweden in the round of 16.