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Teal & Purple & the rest of the Rainbow–Racing at Current for Pride Night

Published

1 month ago

on

Thad Bell

There are exactly two NWSL teams that have won four of their past five matches, and those two teams have a date Saturday evening at CPKC Stadium.

Now, of course, not all wins are created equal. Racing Louisville are no doubt on a hot streak, but precisely zero of their five total wins this season have come against teams currently sitting in playoff positions (they’ve beaten: Chicago Stars, Utah Royals, Houston Dash, Gotham, & Angel City). Meanwhile, included in Kansas City’s nine total wins this season are (road!) victories over the teams currently sitting in 2nd (Orlando Pride), 3rd (Washington Spirit), and 4th (San Diego Wave).

Movement detected πŸ“ˆ@orlpride & @washingtonspirit move into 2nd place after their Week 11 wins. @carmax.com | #RoadToTheShield

— NWSL (@nwslsoccer.com) 2025-06-09T15:28:57.353Z

This Saturday marks the penultimate match of the first half of the season, and after Louisville, KC will have played all the league teams save Angel City, who they host next Friday. The Current are a full five points clear of second place in the standings, and they have achieved this despite playing seven of their eleven games on the road to this point. They get to ease into the long international break (June 21-July 31) playing their final two games in the friendly confines of CPKC. They have won all four home matches thus far in 2025, and have still only lost a single time ever in the crown jewel of the NWSL.

Louisville races into Missouri having played back-to-back 5-goal thrillers, and managing to win both by 3-2 scorelines. Last weekend, they came from behind against Utah and secured the victory with an 85th minute goal by Sarah Weber. In late May, they held on to the lead versus Angel City, despite playing the final 20+ minutes down a woman as Kayla Fischer was shown a straight red for violent conduct. (She will still be suspended for this weekend’s match in KC.)

Racing Louisville, the only major professional sports franchise in the state of Kentucky, began play in the NWSL the same season as the Current, 2021. However, unlike the KC team, Louisville has yet to experience much in the way of on-field success. The team has never qualified for the playoffs and has no particularly high-profile athletes. With that said, the midfield/attacking trio of Savannah DeMelo, Emma Sears, and Taylor Flint (nΓ©e Kornieck) have all spent time with the USWNT and have 10 goals between the three of them thus far in 2025. All told, Racing has tallied 15 goals for this season. Unfortunately, they have also given up 18 goals against (-3 goal differential compared to KC’s +16) this year which is the fourth most of any team. In other words, it will likely prove difficult to keep Chawinga and co. in check for ninety minutes.

It's getting stickyyyyy πŸŽοΈπŸ†Temwa Chawinga, Esther GonzΓ‘lez, and Barbra Banda are all 7 goals through Week 11.

— NWSL (@nwslsoccer.com) 2025-06-10T16:44:10.547Z

While Louisville appear to be rounding into form, Kansas City is clearly the team to beat 42% of the way through the regular season. They are comfortably in first and are best in just about all statistical categories. They have defeated the other top contenders and have done so primarily on the road. They have the reigning league MVP, Temwa Chawinga, who is also (again) leading the Golden Boot race. They have another player, Debinha, who has been garnering a lot of love in this year’s MVP conversation. Many of their players have received Best XI nods for various months, including their goalkeeper, Lorena, who leads the league with a 0.73 goals against average. They have just completed a three-match road swing that took them from Florida to Illinois to New Jersey and won each game, outscoring their opponents 6-2.

Unfortunately, the one thing that’s not going perfectly for the Kansas City team is that they’ve been hit by the injury bug. The aforementioned Brazilian talisman, Debinha, is likely out until at least August. One of the stalwarts in center defense, Alana Cook, is out for the rest of the season (and likely at least part of next year). Team captain and minister of fun, Lo’eau LaBonta, was injured in her second appearance with the US national team a week ago.

The matchday injury report has yet to come out, but it will also almost certainly still include three athletes who have yet to make their season debuts: Kristen Hamilton, Alex Pfeiffer, and Gabby Robinson. The Current have over half a starting lineup nursing knee issues on the bench. Fortunately, KC’s roster is deep and players like Rocky Rodriguez, Haley Hopkins, Flora Marta Lacho, Jeriko, and Bayley Feist have stepped up when called upon. The starting lineup on Saturday will almost certainly look identical to last weekend’s with the only real question being whether Izzy Rodriguez or Ellie Wheeler gets the nod at fullback opposite Hailie Mace.

With only two matches to go until the team gets a lot of R&R time during the 6-week long international break (minus the recently announced Teal Rising Tournament in mid-July), the Current are looking to carry their momentum forward. They’ve successfully navigated the trials of a long road trip and now hope to extend their current winning streak to five and then six games by the time they hit the break. Standing in their way, though, is a Louisville team as confident as they’ve ever been in their five-year history.

Come out or tune in to Pride Night this Saturday as the Current look to maintain the pole position against the Derby-ers from Kentucky.

WHEN: Saturday, June 14 at 6:30Β PM (Central Time)

WHERE: CPKC Stadium, Kansas City, MO

HOW TO WATCH: ion, 38 the Spot

Record:

KC Current: 9-0-2 (27 points, 1st place)

Racing Louisville FC: 5-2-4 (17 points, 6th place)

Last Match:

KC Current: 2-1 road win versus Gotham FC

Racing Louisville FC: 3-2 home win versus Utah Royals

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