NC Courage return to the first round after trading away Allysha Chapman

The North Carolina Courage have added the natural first-round pick from the Houston Dash in exchange for defender Allysha Chapman. The Courage traded their 2019 first-round selection away during the offseason, so this move brings them back into the first round. The Courage also gave their natural second-round selection and the second-round pick received from Seattle Reign FC that came along with Merritt Mathias in the trade with Houston.

Allysha Chapman was selected by the Courage with the 10th selection in the 2018 Boston Breakers Dispersal Draft, which was used by the league to allocate players whose rights were owned by Boston when they folded. Chapman seemed to fill a need for the Courage after they traded away right-back Taylor Smith to the Spirit, but the addition of Mathias made Chapman expendable. She played 29 minutes for the Courage in a substitute role on the road at Washington in her only Courage appearance.

Chapman is the starting left back for the Canada Women’s National Team (ranked 4th in the world), and she is an allocated player in the NWSL. Allocated players have their salaries paid by their home federation instead of their club team. The fact that she was not starting despite her pedigree and talent would surely be jarring, and she is expected to find an immediate starting role with the Dash. Houston currently sits in 8th place in the NWSL standings with a record of 1W-2D-3L. Chapman, 29, has made 51 appearances for her country and has scored one goal. She started 19 games and played 1,642 games for Boston in 2017. Unless Houston improves drastically this selection will be near the top of the draft.