The North Carolina Braveness are going to look totally different this NWSL season.
For the primary time since 2017, the 12 months the workforce started taking part in in Cary, N.C. after transferring from Western New York, they’ll play with out Denise O’Sullivan.
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The Braveness introduced Saturday that they’ve transferred the Irish midfielder to Liverpool FC of the Barclays Ladies’s Tremendous League for an undisclosed payment.
Calling O’Sullivan a mainstay for the Braveness can be an enormous understatement. She arrived to the membership through the summer time of 2017 searching for a recent begin after being waived by the Houston Sprint. Throughout the 9 seasons since, she would develop into the membership’s all-time chief in appearances, that includes in 186 video games in all competitions.
“It’s arduous to place into phrases what this membership has really meant to me. North Carolina will at all times be my dwelling, and I’m without end grateful to the membership, my teammates, and the unimaginable followers who supported and believed in me each step of the best way,” O’Sullivan stated in an announcement. “I’m on to a brand new problem now, however I’ll at all times be part of Braveness Nation. From the underside of my coronary heart, thanks for every part.”
With O’Sullivan on the pitch — principally as a stout box-to-box defensive midfielder with a knack for profitable balls, incomes the nicknames “junkyard” and “Savage Sully” for her aggressiveness — the Braveness gained seven NWSL trophies: three Shields, two Problem Cups, and a pair of NWSL Championships in 2018 and 2019. The Braveness additionally gained the Worldwide Champions Cup in 2018.
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O’Sullivan tallied three objectives and 12 assists in her tenure with the Braveness. She made the NWSL’s Finest XI workforce in 2019 and the Second XI in 2023, and has been named one of many “100 Finest Feminine Footballers within the World” by The Guardian.
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NWSL champions by means of the years
2025: Washington Spirit (Problem Cup winner)
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NWSL champions by means of the years
2025: Washington Spirit (Problem Cup winner)
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NWSL champions by means of the years
2024: Orlando Delight (defeated Washington Spirit within the 2024 NWSL Championship sport)
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NWSL champions by means of the years
2023: NJ/NY Gotham FC (defeated OL Reign within the championship sport)
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NWSL champions by means of the years
2023: North Carolina Braveness (Problem Cup winner)
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NWSL champions by means of the years
2022: Portland Thorns FC (defeated Kansas Metropolis Present within the championship sport)
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NWSL champions by means of the years
2022: North Carolina Braveness (Problem Cup winner)
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NWSL champions by means of the years
2021: Washington Spirit (defeated Chicago Crimson Stars within the championship sport)
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NWSL champions by means of the years
2021; Portland Thorns FC (Problem Cup winner)
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NWSL champions by means of the years
2020: Houston Sprint (Problem Cup winner)
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NWSL champions by means of the years
2019: North Carolina Braveness (defeated Chicago Crimson Stars within the championship sport)
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NWSL champions by means of the years
2018: North Carolina Braveness (defeated Portland Thorns FC within the championship sport)
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NWSL champions by means of the years
2016: Western New York Flash (defeated Washington Spirit within the championship sport)
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NWSL champions by means of the years
2015: FC Kansas Metropolis (defeated Seattle Reign FC within the championship sport)
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NWSL champions by means of the years
2014: FC Kansas Metropolis (defeated Seattle Reign FC within the championship sport)
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NWSL champions by means of the years
2013: Portland Thorns FC (defeated Western New York Flash within the championship sport)
“Denise has been an integral a part of this membership because the starting, and he or she has helped outline the Braveness method,” Ceri Bowley, chief soccer officer for the Braveness, stated in an announcement. “She’s been a frontrunner, each on and off the sector, and the usual of excellence she set for herself, her teammates, and everybody at this group will likely be her legacy. She will likely be missed, however we perceive her want to be nearer to dwelling and want her all the very best in her subsequent chapter.”
A local of Cork, Eire, the 31-year-old O’Sullivan has 126 caps for the Republic of Eire nationwide workforce and has 22 objectives for her nation. She began in all three video games for the Irish within the 2023 World Cup.
With O’Sullivan transferring to Liverpool, Kaleigh Kurtz signing with the enlargement facet Denver Summitt, and Meredith Speck nonetheless an unsigned free agent, only one participant stays on the Braveness’s roster who was a part of the membership’s final championship workforce in 2019: defender Ryan Williams.
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Nathan Thackeray, the 2019 squad’s goalkeepers coach, additionally stays. He was promoted to performing head coach final August after Sean Nahas was fired.