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The second NWSL semifinal featuring the North Carolina Courage and the Chicago Red Stars has been relocated to Providence Park in Portland on 6pm on Tuesday, September 18th, per the NWSL website.
The NWSL Shield-winning North Carolina Courage were set to host the game in Cary on Sunday, but with Hurricane Florence bearing down on the eastern seaboard, have had to relocate their game on short notice. The winner of Tuesday’s game will play either the Seattle Reign or the Portland Thorns in the NWSL final on Saturday, September 22nd.
The league took a while to make the decision (apparently due to North Carolina trying to preserve the possibility of playing at home for as long as possible) and with Florence making landfall earlier today, the logistics of flying the Courage out of town on short notice were probably too difficult to play the game on Sunday as originally scheduled.
While not a great situation for the teams involved, it is an opportunity for soccer fans in Portland to watch fantastic players like Sam Kerr and Crystal Dunn play in a high stakes match close to home.
Merritt Paulson explained the club’s position on twitter:
Not our choice/desire to host this event but the league needed a venue other than Chi after trying to get certainty around a NC game.
— Merritt Paulson (@MerrittPaulson) September 13, 2018
All tickets proceeds after our cost will go back to league and coming out for this game very much helps NWSL and WoSo. Not an ideal situation
General admission tickets will be $10 and are available through the Timbers/Thorns website.