{"id":256927,"date":"2026-08-09T11:51:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T11:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/09\/courage-top-spirit-in-4-3-thriller-equalizer-soccer\/"},"modified":"2026-08-09T11:51:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T11:51:14","slug":"courage-top-spirit-in-4-3-thriller-equalizer-soccer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/09\/courage-top-spirit-in-4-3-thriller-equalizer-soccer\/","title":{"rendered":"Courage top Spirit in 4-3 thriller \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\/08\/2026-08-08T233742Z_778457233_MT1USATODAY29545243_RTRMADP_3_NWSL-NORTH-CAROLINA-COURAGE-AT-WASHINGTON-SPIRIT-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: Rafael Suanes-Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The North Carolina Courage topped the second-place Washington Spirit in a dramatic 4-3 victory in Saturday National Women\u2019s Soccer League action.<\/p>\n<p>They started by absolutely stunning the Spirit by scoring three goals in the first 15 minutes. Ashley Sanchez continued her career-best season when she scored her 11th of the season in just the second minute. Evelyn Ijeh then kept up her fine form, following up last week\u2019s hat trick with a brace, scoring in the ninth and 15th minutes to bring her total to nine goals on the season. North Carolina maintained that 3-0 lead to halftime.<\/p>\n<p>After the break, Washington made four substitutions and quickly got back in the game. Trinity Rodman and Sofia Cantore scored in the first five minutes of the half to cut the Courage lead to one. Rebeca Bernal scored the equalizer in the 90th minute, setting up stoppage time drama.<\/p>\n<p>Minutes before the final whistle, North Carolina defender and captain Natalie Jacobs scored her team\u2019s fourth goal and the game-winner. It was a clinical finish in transition, particularly for a centerback.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-x wp-block-embed-x\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">An epic comeback was almost had but the Courage score a game winner in the final minutes to return home with another three points.<\/p>\n<p>Washington Spirit vs. North Carolina Courage highlights presented by <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Nationwide?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\">@nationwide<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/xZmYKVlotu\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/xZmYKVlotu<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 National Women\u2019s Soccer League (@NWSL) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/NWSL\/status\/2086256283439734811?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\">August 9, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\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><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/equalizersoccer.com\/2026\/08\/09\/courage-top-spirit-in-4-3-thriller\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Credit: Rafael Suanes-Imagn Images The North Carolina Courage topped the second-place Washington Spirit in a dramatic 4-3 victory in Saturday National Women\u2019s Soccer League action. They started by absolutely stunning the Spirit by scoring three goals in the first 15 minutes. Ashley Sanchez continued her career-best season when she scored her 11th of the season [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":256928,"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-256927","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\/256927","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=256927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}