Down the stretch, the competition for a playoff position in the National Women’s Soccer League is intensifying.
Nobody is more eager to have it than Debinha.
The 30-year-old Brazilian powerhouse is using every ounce of her might to guide the North Carolina Courage on an incredible rise from the bottom of the NWSL rankings to an unlikely playoff place.
Debinha has helped the Courage move up from 12th to sixth in the NWSL standings in just five short weeks with five goals over the previous two games, and at least a brace in three of North Carolina’s last five.
On September 10, when the Courage played Racing Louisville FC at WakeMed Soccer Park, Debinha began her otherworldly tear.
Debinha contributed an assist to the Courage’s lone goal against Angel City FC four days after scoring two of North Carolina’s five goals in the blowout game.
After suffering a difficult home defeat to Megan Rapinoe and the OL Reign a week later, Debinha and the rest of the team headed south to Florida to take on the Orlando Pride.
The 5-foot-1 midfielder assisted Tess Boade on her first-half stoppage-time goal, won a footrace against Orlando’s defenders to tap one in just two minutes into the game, and lofted a shot from the corner of the box into the side netting of the goal to notch a brace just minutes into the second half.
And on Saturday, during the Courage’s second-to-last regular-season game, Debinha absolutely dominated.
Sean Nahas’ team defeated NJ/NY Gotham on the strength of her hat trick, which included goals in the 27th, 34th, and 81st minutes.
Thanks in large part to Debinha’s late-season heroics, which have propelled him into the league’s golden boot race, North Carolina now finds itself among the teams contending for one of the two remaining playoff positions with only one week left in the regular season.
On Friday night, the Courage will take a cross-country flight to play Alex Morgan’s San Diego Wave, a group that has already secured a spot in the playoffs.
And North Carolina will want to take control of its own fate with a current one-point advantage over the Chicago Red Stars for the sixth and final position in the playoffs.