{"id":232528,"date":"2026-03-10T16:06:06","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T16:06:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/10\/nc-courage-houston-dash-boston-legacy-denver-summit-equalizer-soccer\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T16:06:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T16:06:06","slug":"nc-courage-houston-dash-boston-legacy-denver-summit-equalizer-soccer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/10\/nc-courage-houston-dash-boston-legacy-denver-summit-equalizer-soccer\/","title":{"rendered":"NC Courage, Houston Dash, Boston Legacy, Denver Summit \u2013 Equalizer Soccer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"mvp-content-main\" itemprop=\"articleBody\">\n<div id=\"mvp-post-feat-img\" class=\"left relative\" itemprop=\"image\" itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/ImageObject\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<meta itemprop=\"url\" content=\"https:\/\/equalizersoccer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/USATSI_26812358_168397926_lowres-1000x600.jpg\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<meta itemprop=\"width\" content=\"1000\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<meta itemprop=\"height\" content=\"600\"\/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><!--mvp-post-feat-img--><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"mvp-feat-caption\">Credit: Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The 2026 National Women\u2019s Soccer League season kicks off on March 13, and we at The Equalizer are previewing all 16 teams for you. <a href=\"https:\/\/equalizersoccer.com\/2026\/03\/09\/2026-nwsl-previews-part-1-chicago-stars-bay-fc-utah-royals-angel-city\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Yesterday<\/a>, we detailed the four teams that finished at the bottom of last season\u2019s standings. Today, we\u2019ve got the other two teams who finished below the playoff line, as well as 2026\u2019s expansion sides.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Last season:<\/strong> 9-9-8 (9th place)<\/p>\n<p><strong>Head coach: <\/strong>Mak Lind (1st season with the Courage)<\/p>\n<p><strong>Key additions: <\/strong>Kailen Sheridan, Ally Schlegel, Evelyn Ijeh<\/p>\n<p><strong>Key losses: <\/strong>Denise O\u2019Sullivan, Casey Murphy, Kaleigh Kurtz<\/p>\n<p><strong>About the offseason: <\/strong>After falling one point short of the playoffs last season, this North Carolina Courage team has seen a lot of changes. There\u2019s a new coach in Mak Lind, who joins the team from Swedish women\u2019s side BK H\u00e4cken. (Lind replaces Sean Nahas, who was fired last summer for \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/story\/_\/id\/45920708\/north-carolina-courage-sean-nahas-head-coach-fire-factors\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a multitude of factors<\/a>.\u201d) And multiple veteran members of the championship-winning team have departed: Longtime goalkeeper Casey Murphy and defender Kaleigh Kurtz both headed to expansion teams (Boston Legacy and Denver Summit, respectively), while captain Denise O\u2019Sullivan left for Liverpool in January. The loss of O\u2019Sullivan is particularly harsh, with the veteran midfielder leaving the team after nine seasons, two championships and three Shields, and leaving a massive leadership hole in her wake.<\/p>\n<div class=\"equalizer-paywall\">\n<div class=\"paywall-block\">\n<p>\n      Access the best women\u2019s soccer coverage all year long\n  <\/p>\n<p>\n     Start your FREE, 7-day trial of The Equalizer Extra for industry-leading reporting and insight on the USWNT, NWSL and beyond.\n  <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><!-- CONTENT END 3 --><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<!--mvp-post-tags--><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<!--posts-nav-link--><\/p>\n<div class=\"mvp-org-wrap\" itemprop=\"publisher\" itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/Organization\">\n<div class=\"mvp-org-logo\" itemprop=\"logo\" itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/ImageObject\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/equalizersoccer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/equalizerWhite-1.png\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<meta itemprop=\"url\" content=\"https:\/\/equalizersoccer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/equalizerWhite-1.png\"\/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><!--mvp-org-logo--><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<meta itemprop=\"name\" content=\"Equalizer Soccer\"\/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><!--mvp-org-wrap-->\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/equalizersoccer.com\/2026\/03\/10\/2026-nwsl-previews-part-2-nc-courage-houston-dash-boston-legacy-denver-summit\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Credit: Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images The 2026 National Women\u2019s Soccer League season kicks off on March 13, and we at The Equalizer are previewing all 16 teams for you. Yesterday, we detailed the four teams that finished at the bottom of last season\u2019s standings. Today, we\u2019ve got the other two teams who finished below the playoff [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":232529,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6805],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-232528","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-womens"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}