The Best To Ever Do It

Getting ready to head out to CPKC on a Saturday afternoon and I felt something unfamiliar.

I was nervous.

Since the halfway point of the season, before that even, its been abundantly clear that the Kansas City Current were the top team in the league and would become the winners of the NWSL Shield, so the question in my brain has become “Who is the team to fear in the playoffs?” Going into the second half of this season, I feared the Washington Spirit and I feared the Orlando Pride. That was about it, and both teams were coming to Kansas City to play us. But in the months since, a new force has arisen - Gotham FC, one of the hottest teams in the league and strengthened by the arrival of Jaedyn Shaw. This game was going to be, at the very least, a big challenge.

Outside of Friday evenings, Saturday afternoon might be the best time slot for a game in my mind - 4PM kickoff is incredible. If you’re a Kansas Citian - you’ve got enough time to have a productive morning before starting to get into pre-game mode, and you’ll have enough time after the game to do something afterwards if you so chose. This Saturday feels particularly special to me. For one, we’re probably looking at the last home game during beautiful weather.

Tonight’s theme is a #TealOut (everyone wear teal) and it’s warm enough outside that you only need one layer. The crowd looked a bit more tealier than usual to be fair. Yesterday was also the “MO River Murals Festival”, taking place on the Riverfront Heritage Trail, aka the trail that thousands of fans walk through to get from the River Market to CPKC Stadium. I love the walk on the Riverfront Trail so much - and its not lost on me that a big part of the reason I love it so much is that this trail has been given plenty of character and vibrancy through these murals - so getting the chance to see new ones is a real treat. Walking down the steps of the Town of Kansas Bridge while excited about a game is great, but doing so and hearing Sass-A-Brass, a local “queer street parade brass band”, cover Hot To Go? Unbeatable.

Knowing about this team’s mentality and personality, the lineup was really no surprise. Last week’s away game to Angel City, it made all the sense in the world to give your fringe players a shot and be more concerned with minutes than results. This was a match at our home against a team that could well find itself in the NWSL Championship - this was one for the first string.

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This match is an interesting one in terms of its emotional context. Pragmatically speaking - this match doesn’t matter at all for the Current as they’ve clinched the Shield. It matters a lot for Gotham, as (at the time of writing, after the Saturday fixtures) 3 points separate third place and eight place. But there are plenty of storylines here, the major one being “Esther Gonzalez vs. Temwa Chawinga”, with each team’s star player being in the race against each other for the league’s Golden Boot as well as presumably in the race for MVP.

For Kansas City, there’s a feeling that the Gotham team they faced is a lot different to the one they’re facing now, most notably with the double-headed monster of Rose Lavelle and Jaedyn Shaw now fit and firing. But Kansas City is also chasing history here, and looking to stake its claim as the best regular season team in the history of the league, by breaking the league’s points record with two games to spare.

For a match that means nothing to the Current on the table, it means a hell of a lot to the team. And when the whistle blew, that was made so very apparent.

Now, normally, I want to see the Current attacking the supporters’ section in the second half. I figure, if its a tie game in the second half I want the loudest part of the crowd to be there to lift the team up while they’re in their attacking phase. That’s not what we got this match - but boy was it a treat to watch this team press in the first half. Vlatko mentioned in his pre-match press conference that the team has done plenty of analysis on this and that they have, far and away, the best “defensive forwards” in the league. I haven’t seen the stats - but I did watch Bia, Debinha, Ally Sentnor, and Michelle Cooper press Gotham’s defenders like absolute demons and constantly force them to hit long balls to nowhere in particular just to relieve the pressure.

Tactically, it was pretty apparent that this was a different sort of gameplan to the ones that home fans have got used to at CPKC, where the Current are the heavy favorites and therefore the ones with most of the ball, the ones forcing the issue. Against Gotham, the Current weren’t as interested in the ball, opting to control the game by controlling the passing lanes and forcing Gotham to have a lot of the ball, but in areas that were pretty much free of danger. The counter attack and counter-pressing was going to be the biggest weapon of this game, theoretically. Michelle Cooper in particular was absolutely everywhere, running like she had been told that she had a minutes restriction and never giving Gotham a breather. Similarly, Izzy Rodriguez on the other side would be pushing up so high that you wouldn’t blame a casual fan for not realizing she was a defender. Instead of trying to play through the lines, Kansas City was more than happy to use Bia as an outlet and have runners play off of her.

A half hour into the game and we hadn’t seen a real chance yet, the closest thing from Kansas City was Michelle Cooper putting a couple of crosses into a position where Shelby Hogan needed to act - but in a position she handled with ease. I remember thinking to myself “gosh, most of this game has taken place in Gotham’s half, I want to see it over here”, about twenty minutes in. Ten minutes later - a somewhat sloppy transition provided the first real glimmer of hope, with Michelle Cooper possibly having a chance to be through on goal but losing the ball under her feet a bit. No problem - the team transitioned as a unit, Cooper was able to swing it to Bia and then an open Izzy Rodriguez, who hit a hopeful shot that forced Hogan into a quality save and breathed new life into the South Stands. In a game that was missing those big moments so far, we had one, and it felt like the groupthink went “we’ve only got 10 more minutes with them attacking our goal, let’s leave it all out on the line”.

Not two minutes later, the set piece is cleared back to Izzy Rodriguez, who puts the ball back into a dangerous area and its met by the head of Bia Zaneratto. It was like time stood still for a second, I could see the ball redirected Bia’s head and gently moving in my direction. I could see the keeper’s positioning and knew that she had no shot. Then, that most wonderful visual of the net rippling thanks to the ball hitting the back of the net, that most wonderful train horn, and my two arms were in the air in celebration. 1-0 to the Kansas City Current. The crowd was alive again, providing life to a match that was full of quality but low on chances. Ten minutes later, the halftime whistle blew and the vibes were immaculate.

The halftime introductions of Hailie Mace and Temwa Chawinga were as much for their health and fitness as they were for the strength of the team, to be fair. But you’ve got to wonder what it feels to be on the opposite side - to be an otherwise hot team that’s been stifled by the Kansas City team defense that sees the reigning MVP subbed IN to the game at halftime. Two minutes into the second half and Mace is tested. She makes a great defensive play in a 1v1 situation, but tries to dribble her way out of trouble and loses the ball, finding herself out of position while Gotham attacks their left wing. Rose Lavelle has the best chance Gotham has seen - taking a shot from about 8 yards from goal. The only problem is that Claire Hutton is there to block it. Lavelle gets the ball back, moves it onto Midge Purce who tries to make something happen.

The only problem? SEVEN of KC Current outfield players are back defending. Every single player on this team is a defender. That’s the mentality that’s carried them to history. Purce’s shot is blocked and easily gathered by Lorena. Two minutes later, and a bouncing Hailie Mace through ball is “intercepted” by Jess Carter. The only problem? She miscontrols it and Bia is there like a shark who smelled blood in the water, outmuscling Carter, taking control of the ball, and playing a perfectly timed through ball for Temwa Chawinga, who’s found her way between two defenders and completely through on goal. You know the rest. It feels kinda like deja vu from last year’s Golden Boot race where things were level for a good part of the year, before Chawinga ran away with it at the end.

From here, things pretty much went exactly as you’d want them to if you’re a KC Current fan. Gabrielle Robinson had another great appearance and looks to have gained match fitness back after a year out, but was subbed out for a returning Kayla Sharples. Rocky Rodriguez got some substitute minutes. The big wrinkle that this writer is still trying to figure out is that six subs were used, so one of them must be a ‘concussion substitute’, meaning a potential head injury for someone. One to watch, certainly.

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There are two things I want to shout out in particular, both of them from the crowd. The first was that there were two distinct and separate cheers for Gabrielle Robinson being subbed off and Kayla Sharples being substituted on. It really felt like two unique shows of support for two very, very popular players among the fanbase. The looming question among the fanbase is - who starts during the playoffs? Elizabeth Ball, meanwhile, had another quietly outstanding performance, where she didn’t put a foot wrong during a clean sheet against one of the strongest attacking forces in the league.

The other main thing is that a few minutes before the end of the game, with a two goal lead, Temwa Chawinga is in her own defensive third, and helping to stifle an attack. If my mind serves me correctly, there’s a legitimate chance that Gotham gets a corner kick from this action, but Chawinga is there to defend the ball and clear it, so Gotham has a throw-in that’s slightly outside of the most dangerous area. The crowd erupts with a massive cheer, and then breaks out into a “TEM-V-P” chant. My first takeaway was - what a demonstration that this crowd knows ball! But the second - what a perfect representation of how special of a player she is. Temwa is the best attacker in this league. Her goalscoring record is ridiculous. If she made very little defensive contributions, she’d still be a candidate for MVP. But that’s not who Temwa she is - she has an outstanding defensive work rate and is a major, major part of the team’s insane defensive record.

The headline after this match is that the Kansas City Current broke the points record, they’ve got the most points in NWSL regular season history. They’ve broke that record in 24 games, the length of most NWSL seasons, but they broke a record that was achieved in 26 games.

Unfortunately, this is just the reality of a league that is actively growing and expanding. The records require a lot of nuance and context. It’s natural that people will hear about a record like that and try and understand the wider context. But the most impressive thing about this team is that with any additional context, their records just look more impressive. We saw this last year when Chawinga broke the league’s single season scoring record in 24 games. Sure, she had two extra games, but she didn’t need them. Same for the points record. They’ve got two additional games, but they broke the record without needing them.

But I still continue to think that the most under-discussed record thats on its way to being broken is their defensive record of having conceded 11 goals. Right now, the record for fewest goals conceded in a single season is 17 goals, shared by the 2018 Courage and the 2021 Thorns. Those were both set during 24 game seasons. Barring some incredible circumstance of Houston and San Diego combining to score 6 goals against the Current in the next two games - this record is going to get blown out of the water, and by a team whose season had even more games than the previous record breakers.

I get why the team itself isn’t going to celebrate anything yet, they’ve got a set of playoffs to win. But last night’s win, for me, cemented the fact that the 2025 Kansas City Current are the best regular season team that this league has ever seen. I really just can’t see how you could make the argument for anyone else. They’ve got the most wins, the most points, the most clean sheets, the fewest conceded, by any conceivable metric they are the best to have ever done it.

Bring on the Dash, bring on the Wave, and bring on the playoffs.