ICC: What North Carolina Courage loss means for women’s game

The 2019 Women’s ICC has come to a close with Olympique Lyonnais taking home the hardware in a tournament that symbolizes so much around the women’s game.

The second annual International Champions Cup ended with European giants Olympique Lyonnais defeating previous champions North Carolina Courage 1-0 at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, North Carolina.

This year’s edition consisted of European champions Lyon, NWSL champions North Carolina, FA Cup champions Manchester City, and Primera División champions Atletico Madrid.

Lyon took on Atletico Madrid to kick off the tournament with a 1-0 victory. That set up a final against the North Carolina Courage, who recovered from a goal down in the dying stages to beat Man. City, Jessica McDonald notching the stoppage-time winer.

A Lyon-Courage final set up a rematch of last year’s championship which North Carolina won 1-0. This time, though, it was Lyon who ended the tournament atop the pile, reversing that very scoreline from a year ago.

The tournament brought out the best of Courage Country, having over 8,000 fans attend the final as North Carolina attempts to continue the building momentum around the women’s game like other teams in the NWSL have done. Aside from the world-class talent and attendance, this year’s ICC gave fans a glimpse of what the women’s game can be here in America and all around the world.

Fans were attracted to WakeMed Soccer Park specifically because of the names of four individuals. Sam Mewis, Crystal Dunn, Jessica McDonald and Abby Dahlkemper. Perhaps even more important than the four stars was the fourth star that those players earned this summer when winning the 2019 World Cup in France.

And in the process of earning that record-breaking championship, the USWNT faced off against host country France in what some called the biggest game in women’s soccer history. The likes of Amandine Henry and Wendie Renard made for a mouth-watering matchup against the defending champions.

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We all know how that ended, with the United States breaking the hosts’ hearts en route to the trophy. But the good news for fans was that they wouldn’t have to wait long to see some of those exact same players — and other World Cup stars — face off again.

You can go down the list of all four team rosters and several names will jog your memory of the summer World Cup. Debinha lighting up the Brazil attack, Janine Beckie being one of Canada’s bright young stars, and not to mention Ada Hegerberg, who, although chose to sit out of this summer’s tournament, is arguably the best player in the world.

The players who caught our eyes this summer have all gone back to their club teams, mixing in with players from other countries to create incredible squads that can compete at the top level. And specifically for those in the United States, these squads are in the backyard waiting for fans to fill the stadiums.

We know about America’s success on the national stage, but on the club level, the NWSL has been just as dominant. However, as Lyon’s recent inexorable success on the world stage indicates, culminating in their ICC victory, the gap between the U.S. and the rest of the world, especially in Europe, is narrowing.

And with owners around the world seeing the money in the women’s game, more investment is on its way, only furthering the competitiveness between the U.S. and the European counterparts. This, then, is an exciting time to be a fan of women’s soccer, where clubs here in America can actually compete with clubs in Europe for the title of Best Team in the World.

The ICC is how fans are going to see that talent from around the world square off on the pitch, and with talks of expanding the tournament to more than just four, we will get to see other teams from around the world take a shot at one another for the trophy.