The North Carolina Courage delivered the upset of the 2025 NWSL season on Saturday night, storming back in the final minutes to stun the 5-0-0 Kansas City Current at WakeMed Soccer Park. It marked the Courage’s first win of the year and snapped Kansas City’s perfect start, 3-2, in favor of the home team. The comeback also made the Courage the first team since 2017 to score both a game-tying and game-winning goal in the 90th minute or later.

The Courage fell behind in the 29th minute when former North Carolina forward Haley Hopkins returned to haunt her old club with a smooth give-and-go goal at the top of the box.

But the home side responded early in the second half. In the 52nd minute, Manaka Matsukubo split the Current’s back line with a sharp through ball to Ryan Williams, who took a composed touch and buried her finish to the far post — the first NWSL regular season goal of her career. It wouldn’t be the last time she’d play hero that night.

Just five minutes later, Kansas City reclaimed the lead when Claire Hutton kept a loose ball alive in the box and Bia Zaneratto smashed home the rebound from close range.

Down 2–1 entering the 90th minute, it looked like the Current would be leaving with another win, but the Courage found life through veteran center back Kaleigh Kurtz, who buried a second-chance effort off a corner to level the match.

Just three minutes later, Ryan Williams capped off a standout performance with a perfectly placed assist to Ashley Sanchez, who slammed home the game-winner in stoppage time.

In postgame reflections with members of the media, Williams credited the team’s halftime mindset shift for the turnaround.

“[Head Coach] Sean [Nahas] said, ‘Don’t be afraid to take risks. We have to go. We are down a goal. We have nothing to lose.’ We took that into the second half, we were much more willing to go forward,” Williams said.

The victory brought a jolt of confidence to a young team still building its identity, and was the perfect way to celebrate two core members—Casey Murphy and Kaleigh Kurtz—who reached 10,000 career regular season minutes during the match.

With their first three points on the board, the Courage now head west to face the Utah Royals on May 3 at 10:00 PM ET on ION.