After a stellar season with Manchester City in the FA Women’s Super League, USWNT midfielder Sam Mewis has returned to the NC Courage. Mewis is expected to make her return debut this Friday, May 28 against Racing Louisville.
Mewis returns to the Courage as not only a fan favorite, but one of the most impactful players in the club’s history, playing a vital role in two NWSL Championships, three NWSL Shields and a Women’s ICC Championship title since the team relocated to North Carolina.
“I’m excited to play with everybody,” Mewis said. “It’s just such a great group and we have so much history that it makes it mean so much more. Just being back with everyone today and getting to see everyone in the locker room and give hugs, and it’s just really exciting. It feels like coming home. It’s great.”
After her return to the club was announced on May 17, Mewis had her first day of Courage training Tuesday, May 25 ahead of her expected return debut on May 28.
“The work ethic at Man City was very high,” Mewis said. “I have nothing but positives. I think that both environments are really special and really great training environments. Something that is unique to the Courage is just that we really pride ourselves on that like high pressure and high intensity all the time. It’s so much fun to be in that kind of environment and to be pushed like that every day. But I will say that the training at Man City was incredible. I feel like I got better every day.”
Although Mewis will be a U.S. allocated player for this season, the Courage locked Mewis up on a two-year deal with the club using allocation money, which allows a team to pay a player above the league’s maximum salary, for her contract.
“I think the most important part of this from my perspective is a multi-year commitment,” said club president and GM Curt Johnson. “We want to keep all of our top players, our most impactful players, here as long as possible to have longevity, to have stability and to be able to achieve. That was a big part of the discussion with Sam and her representatives and Sam was very open and willing to have those discussions. We used the resources with U.S. Soccer as it relates to allocation, and then we were able to add a couple of years to that. Great result for us and I think, a very good result for Sam.”
Courage head coach Paul Riley has said Mewis could feature higher up the field than she traditionally has for the Courage in the past. During her previous run with the Courage, Mewis played primarily at the base of the box midfield alongside Denise O’Sullivan.
“The great thing is she can play anywhere in our midfield and our midfield needs a boost at this point, there is no question,” Riley said. “I think we’ve been a bit bland in the midfield. Sam gets the best out of O’Sullivan. But I think she plays in the 10 she gets the best out of Debinha. Listen, Sam was always a box-to-box midfielder for me. She’s the best box-to-box midfield in the world, but I think she can add all the pieces to it.”
For Man City, Mewis had the best goal-scoring season of her career, bagging 16 goals in 32 appearances, and during her spell overseas, Mewis was named U.S. Soccer 2020 Female Player of the Year.
“She’s added some goal-scoring stuff for Manchester City, so in the fact that we need goals out of the midfield, that might play into what we pick at the weekend on Friday night,” Riley said. “But the best thing is just have Sam on the park in that midfield and that box needs her, whether in the six or whether it’s in the 10.”
During both the Challenge Cup and regular season, the Courage have seen a lot of different players fill the remaining 10 and six roles beside Debinha and O’Sullivan, respectively, and Mewis will provide stability to one of those two positions.
“As soon as Sam steps on the park, all the standards change…” Riley said. “I think the biggest impact you can have on any team is what affects the whole group. She affects the whole group, not just in the locker room, but on the field. Just going through one session, I’d say the standards rose today. We talk a lot about training standards, how important they are. Sam’s got such an appetite for playing, such a willpower to win in there, short-sided games or even a simple switch-grid games, and that willpower pushes other people to be better. I feel like the competitiveness increased 25% this morning, and that’s why you bring players like Sam in.”
After the Courage have collected just one point from a possible six so far, Mewis’s return to the Courage couldn’t come at a better time. After opening the season with a 0-0 draw on the road against OL Reign, the Courage lost their first home match since June, 2018, falling 2-1 to the Orlando Pride.
With Mewis, the Courage look to bounce back from the relatively poor start to the season and mount a defense of their 2019 NWSL Championship.
“What I’m most looking forward to is winning,” Mewis said. “I think that we’ve created such a culture of winning here at the Courage that that’s kind of our standard and our expectation. That’s how we train. That’s how we go into games. I’m just really looking forward to that and to being here and hopefully contributing to that. I don’t think that differs from my past experience, I think there was also a great culture at Man City and we had a lot of success, but I am just excited to be home to be back in kind of familiar territory, back in America.”
Although she is likely the biggest, Mewis will not be the last of the reinforcements for the Courage this season. Angharad James will be joining up with the team at some point soon, pending any additional delays with the visa process, and Riley teased the signing of another international after the Orlando game.
