Courage Forward Diana Ordóñez Talks About Improving Results in 2022

With June 2022 right around the corner, the North Carolina Courage are settling in for a three-match road trip, starting with the Houston Dash this Sunday. Prior to the team leaving for the state of Texas, rookie forward Diana Ordóñez talked to the media about the Challenge Cup and the season so far.

The Courage won the 2022 pre-season Challenge Cup tournament, but since opening the 2022 season, they have yet to get their first win, starting the season 0-3.

“I don’t think any of us expected to be 0-3 at this point,” Ordóñez said.

She said the slow start has allowed them to rethink and reflect and challenge themselves in the coming weeks.

“But now it’s like, OK, what happened in the Challenge Cup that’s not carrying over to the regular season, and how can we fix it?”

Ordóñez said they will continue to work.

“I feel not that we haven’t managed it well, but I think we do need to figure out what was working for us and how to continue to implement it into the regular season.”

Focus Going Forward

With Sunday’s game right around the corner, Ordóñez said the approach is about the team and their focus.

“I think something important to us coming off these last few games and not having won in the last couple games, we want to focus on ourselves,” she said.

“I think it’s important to know your opponent and know what they’re good at and how we want to expose them or break them down and have a game plan, but I think we really want to focus on us and what we need to do in order to be successful and to implement our style on other teams and not let them or their personnel the way that they play affect us and have us have to change everything on their account. We want to be able to go in there and play the way the Courage plays and other teams are just going to have to deal with it.”

Next Game

The Courage face off with the Houston Dash Sunday, May 29, 2022, at PNC Stadium 7:00 pm ET. The game will be broadcast on Paramount+ in the United States, and on Twitch internationally.

The Courage won’t play again at home until Sunday, June 19, also against the Houston Dash, with a kickoff of 5:00 pm ET.