Statesboro Herald.

After falling to the North Carolina Courage on the road earlier this season, South Georgia Tormenta has been looking forward to the opportunity to play them again at Tormenta Stadium.

The rematch, held Thursday morning following rain and lightning that delayed the match from Wednesday night, followed a familiar script as Tormenta was able to maintain possession and create chances, but North Carolina capitalized on their opportunities as the defending champions topped Tormenta 2-0.

“The frustrating thing about soccer is you can dominate your opponent for the majority of the match and still lose,” Tormenta Manager Kian Brownlee said following the match. “

Tormenta had opportunities early, including a shot from 18-yards out from Chinatsu Kaio in the fourth minute and another from Katie Russo from about the same distance in the 10th minute, but neither found the back of the net.

In the 20th minute, Tormenta turned the ball over deep in their territory, leading to a shot from the Courage that South Georgia goalkeeper Cora Brendle was able to tip over the crossbar. However, on the ensuing corner kick, the ball found the foot of Chism Taylor who one-timed it through the Tormenta defense to give the Courage the lead.

“The reality is if you’re going to win national championships, you can’t have mistimed movements or give your opponent opportunities,” Brownlee said. “There’s a reason they haven’t lost a game in two years.”

North Carolina nearly doubled their lead just five minutes later when Taylor found herself one-on-one with Brendle, but Brendle’s kick save was enough to keep the ball out of the net and preserve the one goal deficit.

The second half saw Tormenta continue to maintain possession and create chances. Ten minutes into the second half South Georgia found some space behind the defense, but the cross in from the end line wasn’t far enough away from the Courage goalkeeper who was able to corral it and stop the threat.

In the 64th minute, the Courage would strike again, this time on a long ball down the right side and despite Brendle’s efforts, North Carolina was able to tuck it inside the back post to extend their lead to 2-0.

“They capitalized on their two chances that they had and we had just as many,” said Helen Gutierrez. “We could have put them away. We were on them. I never let like, and this may sound but, but the champs. I didn’t feel like they were the champs and we were just some other team.”

Minutes later, Tormenta nearly answered when Constance Agyemang beat her defender to the endline, but her cross was just a touch too high and she wasn’t able to connect.

In the 75th minute, it appeared Tormenta finally cracked the Courage defense. Following a corner kick, there was a tussle for the ball near the goal and Tormenta was able to poke it past the goalkeeper for an apparent goal. However, the officials ruled the goalkeeper had possession of the ball despite that not being the case.

“The referees need to be very careful about calling that because the standard is that it has to be clear and obvious possession and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t clear and obvious,” Brownlee said.

“I would never criticize the officials too much, but on sight, to us from our angle, that should have been a goal for us,” he said.

“Just a little frustrated, but we can’t control the goal getting called back,” Gutierrez said.

Defender Ida Marhaug echoed Gutierrez’s sentiments about being frustrated.

“We’re playing so well. I’m proud of the girls,” Marhaug said. “We outplayed them for big parts of the game, we were just missing in a few moments. I think we’re giving the goals away and making it very easy for them and we’re not taking advantage of the many chances we created.”

The loss drops Tormenta to 4-4-1 on the year with just three games remaining. After a stretch that saw them play five games in 12 days, Brownlee gave the players the weekend off to recover and they’ll return Monday for a full week of training before their next game.

The Courage improve to 6-0-0 on the year.

Bownlee said the training time will give him and his staff more time to evaluate some of the players who may not have seen much playing time due to the compressed nature of the schedule that essentially only allowed for recovery and match preparation.

“I think having these couple of days off will help the team readjust our mindset a little bit,” Gutierrez said.

Despite the loss, Brownlee still saw good things from his team.

“The reality is you have to be super proud of the performance and the effort.

Tormenta returns to action on Saturday, June 21 for their final W-League home match against Wake FC. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m.