Plus: Interview with Courage CBO Ralph Vuono; team signs England National Team midfielder Erica Meg Parkinson
Hi all,
I’d planned on sending an analysis of the 2026 Courage sooner, but life got in the way. As it turned out, it’s a good thing I held off, as this week was jam-packed with major news. Let’s break it all down!
Manaka Matsukubo transferred to Chelsea
This has been national news all week, adding fire to the concerns that the Women’s Super League is continuing to drain NWSL talent. Personally, I think the NWSL is the stronger league for multiple reasons, but any high-profile departure will spark continued analysis and debate.
As for the Courage, Manaka’s departure leaves a hard-to-replace gap in scoring productivity. Manaka earned 5 goals so far this year, which is even more impressive considering her call-ups to the Japan National Team meant she didn’t play in every match. Manaka was a creative attacking midfielder that had a gift for finding space between opponents. She also was selfless and accurate in passing to teammates, racking up 4 assists this season.
Chief Soccer Officer, Dr. Ceri Bowley, had a productive, impromptu discussion with supporter’s group The Uproar before the weekend’s match against Seattle Reign. Here’s what the group learned:
- Manaka expressed a strong desire to play in the Women’s Super League, rather than the NWSL, in part because a lot of the Japanese National Team players are in the WSL.
- The Courage made multiple, meaningful offers, directly addressing concerns about the club’s willingness to spend on top talent.
- As stated in the press release, Manaka had a “clause in her contract requiring the Courage to approve any transfer at or above a particular threshold.”
- Club leadership felt they took every action they could reasonably take to keep her here.
It’s disappointing to lose a key player, but at face value, it seems the club understood the magnitude of the loss and attempted to avoid it. In parallel, the club started seeking additional attacking midfield talent in case this scenario played out. As others have pointed out, the club also earned a fee for her transfer, which they would not have received if she’d made the same move once her contract expired.
While there’s no such thing as replacing top talent (we still miss Kaleigh Kurtz and Denise O’Sullivan), the club was proactive in trying to strategically fill the position. As we’ve seen with the addition of Maycee Bell, sometimes new talent brings fresh possibilities for the game.
Grading the 2026 NC Courage so far
Preseason coverage is challenging. Even under the best of circumstances, teams acquire new talent, and we do our best as analysts to look into our crystal balls and forecast what the season might hold. It was particularly hard with this year’s Courage, with a new head coach, relatively new Chief Soccer Officer, and the most new starting talent of any team in the NWSL, outside of the expansion sides.
Now that more than a third of the season has wrapped, we have more real-world data to examine. We grade the Courage by line, the coaching change, and overall management and team culture in our latest post, Evaluating the 2026 Courage to Date.
Our overall scores:
Defense: B+
Midfield: B
Forwards: B+
Head coaching hire: A
Management and Team Culture: A+
You can read more about our thoughts here.
Interview with Courage CBO Ralph Vuono
In this week’s podcast, Katie and I sit down with Chief Business Officer, Ralph Vuono, to discuss the team’s surge in attendance, how they’ve been experimenting with marketing, and their hopes for the future of the club.
It’s a great discussion, and you won’t want to miss it.
You can find it this Thursday on our website or on Spotify.
Courage Acquire Erica Meg Parkinson
The NC Courage acquired England National Team midfielder Erica Meg Parkinson, who will be available at the start of the transfer window, in time for the July 18 match against Bay FC. Her likely signing was reported in May by Flo Lloyd-Hughes and Conner Roberts in The Cutback.
At this week’s matchup with the Seattle Reign, Parkinson made a brief appearance to welcome her to the club, a nice treat for fans who braved the heat.
She joins the Courage from Portuguese first division club Valadares Gaia, completing her most recent season with 5 goals and 1 assist, though several goals came from penalty kicks. She’s played with forward Lauryn Thompson before.
Bill Nottingham, who’s been a guest host on our podcast, provides an excellent deeper analysis here.
Hope you enjoyed our special edition! We’ll return Wednesday for our regular weekly coverage, and the podcast comes back on Thursday.