Houston Dash at KC Current: Match Preview

Another week and another opportunity for the Kansas City Current to leave their mark on the NWSL. This time around, the Houston Dash will be making the trip north to try to do something no team has accomplished in eight straight regular season matches dating back to last season–prevent the Current from walking away with all three points.

It’s not just that KC is winning these games, they’re not even allowing their opponents to believe they have a chance. Every match in 2025 has seen the Current win by multiple goals, and in all but one, they’ve scored their goals early, going into halftime with a large lead they’re not about to cough up. Eight first half goals over the first four matches of the year is a solid average and will win you a lot of games, especially when combined with the fact that this team has still only conceded one time. The team’s active shutout streak is now up to 311 minutes and counting.

Not only is it rare to start a season winning the first four games–it’s only happened thrice before this year (North Carolina Courage in 2017 and 2018 and Seattle Reign in 2014), and now both Orlando Pride and KC have accomplished it–but it’s extremely unusual to begin a season by winning each of the first four games by multiple goals. This Current side joins only the 2014 Seattle team with that achievement.

It’s also worth noting that all three of the previous teams to begin a campaign winning four progressed on to claim the NWSL Shield and appear in the championship matches. That clearly bodes well for both Orlando and KC, though of course they can’t both claim the Shield.

Speaking of Orlando, they technically sit atop the standings with KC just behind them based on goal differential (+10 to +9). However, most of that came from their season-opening thrashing of the Chicago Stars 6-0.

More recently, they eked out victories at home against the San Diego Wave (2-1) and on the road against Seattle (1-0) during which they were outshot 13-7. San Diego became the first team to play against both the Pride and the Current this season, with fairly similar results–though KC did shut them out 2-0 while playing in SoCal. This upcoming weekend brings the biggest test yet for Orlando as they welcome the Washington Spirit to Florida. The same Spirit team KC defeated 2-0 in DC. The Spirit also defeated Orlando in the preseason NWSL Challenge Cup in penalties.

Meanwhile on the banks of the Missouri, the Current will be churning as Houston dashes up from Texas. (Too much?) The Lone Star Ladies haven’t generally fared that well against KC with the Teal owning a 9-4-3 all-time record against them. Last season KC beat Houston twice at CPKC Stadium, once in the regular season and once in the Summer Cup, though their first meeting of ’24 was one Kansas City likely wants to forget as an embarrassing miscommunication in the back led to the tying goal for the Dash.

Last year was not kind to the Houston Dash as they finished dead last in the table, earning 20 points from 26 matches, with just five wins. They have, however, not shied away from high profile/big money transactions. That started nearly one year ago to the day as Houston delt their star attacker, María Sánchez, to San Diego for half a million dollars (this was after Sánchez was reported frustrated by the team’s slow start to last season).

They kept the deals going when they (briefly) set the record for largest transfer fee in women’s football with Lyon paying $830,000 for defender Tarciane. Of course, the Dash also needed to bring in some players which they did most notably by acquiring Yazmeen Ryan from NJ/NY Gotham to pair alongside the likes of Diana Ordóñez. And, certainly, the team still employs USWNT keeper Jane Campbell.

So far this season, Houston has again started rather slowly. They currently sit in a logjam of teams (from 7th t0 11th place) all with four points. Their two losses thus far have come against what might be two of the stronger teams: Washington and Angel City, though both losses came at home. They’ve also played Gotham to a 0-0 draw and defeated Chicago 2-1.  This will be just their second road trip of the season and, again, they lost both of their previous visits to CPKC Stadium by multiple goals.

The Current return from their beach vacation still riding high from another comfortable victory. The only negative from their time in San Diego was the injury to Michelle Cooper, though that may not turn out to be as serious as had been feared.

Update on Cooper from Vlatko:
She’s a lot better than we initially thought. We’ll check in again Thursday and then evaluate if she will be ready for Saturday. #kcbaby #nwsl

— Jillian Carroll Letrinko (@JillianC_arroll) April 15, 2025

If Cooper is limited or unable to go, it simply opens up more time for Bia to work her way back into full match fitness. Kansas City’s front three of Cooper, Debinha, and Temwa Chawinga have clearly started the season on fire, scoring eight goals between them.

Because of this, it’s easy to forget how much firepower sits on the bench behind them. Bia was named the NWSL Player of the Month to open last season; Haley Hopkins was brought in to, in part, provide an arial threat in the box; Mary Long is a youth international who could be ready to make that next leap; Flora Marta Lacho showed flare and technical skills in her one appearance for the team thus far; not to mention two injured attackers Kristen Hamilton and Alex Pfeiffer. Kristen and Alex may be at rather opposite ends of their careers, but they brought energy and excitement (and goals) to the field just last season.

In Opta’s current rankings of the top 20 women’s football teams in the world, the NWSL places eight. The highest ranked from this league? The KC Current at #6. All of the other top seven are from Spain, England, and France. Unlike on the men’s side, the domestic league earns a lot of worldwide respect. However, it may be a while before any NWSL team can dethrone the likes of Barcelona and Chelsea for the top spots.

Increasingly, there are international competitions for clubs to compete in. Just last year, the Current won their first two trophies (the Summer Cup and the Women’s Cup) by beating teams from Spain, Mexico, and South Africa. Soon FIFA will begin sponsoring true worldwide club tournaments: the FIFA Women’s Club World Cup (every four years) and FIFA Women’s Champions Cup (each of the other years). It will be exciting to potentially watch the Kansas City Current squaring off against the consensus best in the world.

First things first though, win this weekend and continue the march towards league domination.

WHEN: Saturday, April 19 at 6:30 PM (Central Time)

WHERE: CPKC Stadium, Kansas City, MO

HOW TO WATCH: ion, 38 the Spot, YouTube TV

Record:

KC Current: 4-0-0 (12 points, tied for 1st place)

Houston Dash: 1-1-2 (4 points, tied for 7th place)

Last Match:

KC Current: 2-0 road win against San Diego Wave

Houston Dash: 1-3 home loss to Angel City