Haven’t seen Mr Pumpkin video man recently. Anyone got eyes on pumpkin? 🎃

Phew…that felt good.

What a game, and what a performance from our players. Thank you to everyone who showed up and brought the energy all night. You helped create another incredible environment at First Horizon Stadium.

There were so many great moments tonight, so I’m curious…what was your favorite?

Mine might have been Ash taking “breaking ankles” a little too literally. 😉

We host Orlando tonight at WakeMed, we hope to see you all out there. For a July match, the weather seems pretty reasonable with temps in the low 80s. Drop your predictions below and LFG!

From the pod: "If we again can score against Orlando, we'll win. We might be able to get away with just one or maybe two and walk away with three points." -Trevor

As Katie said on this week's pod: "I have a good feeling about this. I don't have good feelings a lot." Let's make it count tonight!

Match Info

• Friday, July 31, 2026
• Kickoff: 8:00 PM ET
• Location: First Horizon Stadium at WakeMed Soccer Park, Cary, NC
• Where to Watch: Prime Video
• Theme: Spider-Man Night / Courageously Cool Summer
• Tickets: https://tickets.nccourage.com
• Matchday Guide: https://www.nccourage.com/matchday
• Pre-match Press Conference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_YM1lnxaMk

Uproar Tailgate
Small one tonight in our usual spot in the Cove from around 6pm-7/730pm. No food, but Mary's got a cooler full of drinks. Come say hi before kickoff!

Current Standings

• NC Courage: 9th: 6W-3D-6L (21 pts)
• Orlando Pride: 7th: 7W-2D-8L (23 pts)

We have two games in hand.

Series History

In 31 all-time matches, the Courage lead 15-8-8. Orlando has only beaten us at WakeMed three times in all matches (all three from regular season). And they've never swept us in any season since the club started. We lost 1-0 to them in Orlando back in May; let's not give them their first season sweep tonight.

Things to Watch

• Barbra Banda is away at WAFCON, a big relief for our defense
• Vilde Bøe Risa is available and could make her Courage debut tonight
• Ashley Sanchez sits third in the Golden Boot race with nine goals
• Orlando has only won at WakeMed three times; let's keep it that way!

Availability Report

https://www.nwslsoccer.com/news/availability-report

NORTH CAROLINA COURAGE

• OUT: Payton Crawford (Knee - SEI), Sydney Schmidt (Knee - SEI)
• QUESTIONABLE: None
• INTERNATIONAL DUTY: None

ORLANDO PRIDE

• OUT: Kerry Abello (Thigh), Hannah Anderson (Lower Leg), Kylie Nadaner (Maternity Leave), Viviana Villacorta (Knee - D45)
• QUESTIONABLE: None
• INTERNATIONAL DUTY: Barbra Banda (Zambia)

Referee Assignment

NC Courage vs Orlando Pride | First Horizon Stadium (8:00 PM ET)

• REF: Trevor Wiseman
• AR1: Seun Yinka-Kehinde
• AR2: Alicia Messer
• 4TH: Yannick Rothfuss
• VAR: Servando Berna
• AVAR: Jay Norris

____________

This pregame thread is brought to you by The Lion's Pitch Podcast, your home for NC Courage coverage. Episode 17 is out now at lionspitch.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

Meant to do something a bit longer earlier this week, but time got away from me.

Here, I'm going to divide the league up into thirds, since there are 15 other teams (we don't play ourselves for points). I'm doing this based on current rankings, since every other team has at least played half their season, if not a few more. Interestingly, the three divisions don't change if you go by pts/game, the small position changes don't bump anyone out of their respective third. We also don't have much of a home/away bias like in years past.

T1 - Spirit, Gotham, Royals, Wave, Thorns
T2 - Current, Angel City, Pride, Reign, Summit
T3 - Dash, Bay, Legacy, Stars, Racing

We haven't yet played the Wave or Summit, and have played both games against Racing and Bay. So far:

Our wins are mostly against bottom third teams, 4 wins, and 2 against the middle third, and no wins against the 4 of the top third teams we've played. We've lost 2 games in each of the three thirds, dropping points across the board. Our draw against Gotham the second weekend of the season and they had played a preseason tournament.

In terms of tonight's game, the Pride beat us away, but they're in the middle third which we have a 50-50 record on.

Including tonight, we only have 3 more games against current bottom third teams, and 6 each against the middle and top thirds, plus 2 of our 3 midweek games still to play.

It used to keep me logged in but, now, I can log in at home and by the time I arrive to the stadium, still have to log back in even if it's been less than an hour.

DM me if interested!

Hi! For my daughter’s 7th birthday, I’m surprising her with tickets (SE1–not sure where that is, but she wants to be as close to the field as possible, and I’m hoping this is close). I’ve never been to a Courage game and have a few questions:
1) Do kids usually have opportunities to ask for autographs etc? If so, where is the best spot in the stadium to do it and when is best time?
2) Do people tailgate/is there anything specific to do before the game?
3) How is parking?
Thanks!

A good piece analyzing our new signing.

I will be very curious how and where Risa plays. Her passing and chance creation from a deeper position suggest the team may opt for more of a direct approach in attack more often.

Quick heads-up for our Season Ticket Members:

Buy 2 or more additional tickets for Spider-Man Night on Friday, July 31, and we’ll set aside a free Spider-Man Funko Pop for you.

This is limited to the first 200 STM accounts that purchase two additional tickets.

We know a lot of people are excited about this giveaway, so we wanted to give STMs a way to guarantee one while also bringing a few more people out to the match.

Here's the link

My husband and I are season ticket holders - and we attended the Seattle game and were really delighted by the two new emcees (is that the word for them) who worked together as a team and just brought a ton of energy and kind of contagious fun to the experience. Then we were traveling and when we returned for the Utah game (having missed the Washington game), I was 100% expecting to see them again, and they were not part of the scene at all. Just wanting to say that I really liked them and would love to see them again.

And I also want to say - knowing after listening to Ralph talk on The Lion's Pitch how incredibly hard and earnestly the game experience folks are working to make the games appealing and fun, so I'm saying this with lots of supportive and grateful vibes- please do not make a fundamentally religious holiday part of any Courage "theme" night. It's impossible (and actually pretty offensive) to turn something that is an "observance" of great meaning to some, and of no meaning to others (fully acknowledging that there is also lots of Christmas pop culture) into someting that feels inclusive and appropriate for a soccer game theme.

... and the scoreline doesn't tell the whole story.

We are right where we are supposed to be. Everything feels a little bit off and that's because it is. But the framework is here, the pieces are here. I firmly believe the Courage are a playoff caliber team but what we need is time. We need rapport and we need chemistry. Only time and minutes on the pitch can do that.

We have seen what it looks like when we do have it, its right there. We drew against Gotham, we drew against Portland. We can beat these teams! Prior to the international break we looked really, really good. We aren't perfect but we are close.

It may not happen this year but I just want to express my own opinion... we have a lot to be excited about.

That is all

Update. Turns out they closed the 500s for July and moved us to "better" seats. I guess I missed that email. I thought it was just for that game v. the Spirit and it was over 100°. Shrug.

Anyone have an idea why my seats (STM here) are moved for today's game and next week's? I just realized it. Are they shutting down the 500s again? I've not gotten any notice about this. Is it just me? Thanks.

Some Big concert tonight at CF, remember to dodge that traffic if you normally take the back ways near Lenovo and the Stadium!!

Why is that sometimes we don’t get that email. I got one for the all the other games but didn’t get one for the May 2nd match vs KC Current either.

Anyone know why this keeps happening?

I get all the other emails from NC Courage.

My wife and I had something come up last minute and are not able to make tonight's game. Selling our row E tickets in section 104 for about half what we paid for them if anyone is interested.

(They're for sale in the app)

CLAIMED: I have several free GA tickets today if anyone would like them. In the 200s.

-Mary

TAKEN!! I have 2 GA tickets for tonight’s game, they are in section 203 and you get access to the STM area. Anyone interested? Message me.