Match Preview: KC Current at Bay FC

The Current flows into the Bay this Saturday in the third-to-last weekend of the NWSL’s regular season. Coming off a comprehensive win at Racing Louisville (the team in 9th place), the Kansas City Current now travels to the west coast to clash with the team in 8th place.

At this point in the season, the focus is fully on making it into the playoffs and securing the best possible seed. Bay FC are in a tight battle with the Portland Thorns and Louisville (and potentially the San Diego Wave and Angel City–who recently received a point deduction penalty) for the final two spots in the playoff field. Like Racing last week, Bay will be desperate to earn as many points as possible to ensure they make the postseason.

Meanwhile, Kansas City has already secured a playoff spot and with a win this Saturday (or a loss/tie by the North Carolina Courage) would be guaranteed of at least one home playoff match. But this is a team that won’t be satisfied with a 4th place finish and just a single postseason game at CPKC Stadium.

With the Orlando Pride’s win over the Washington Spirit (which secured the Pride their first NWSL Shield for the best regular season record) last week, KC now finds themselves just a single point behind both NJ/NY Gotham and the Spirit. If the Current can win out (away to Bay, home to San Diego, and away to the Chicago Red Stars), they will put a lot of pressure on the two teams just ahead of them–Gotham still has to play Orlando and Washington still travels to North Carolina. Even a single draw from either of those teams could allow Kansas City to jump them in the standings. Again, if Kansas City could finish the regular season in second place, they would be guaranteed homefield advantage throughout the playoffs because CPKC is hosting the Championship match.

As for this matchup, Bay FC is a team that had been in good form up until their last game, a 1-5 defeat to Gotham. In the few matches before that, they’d beaten the Seattle Reign, Louisville, and Portland, drawn North Carolina, and narrowly lost to Orlando 0-1.

Despite these positive results, they’re not a team with a lot of offensive firepower. They haven’t scored more than a single goal in a match since the end of August and have scored a full 22 goals fewer than the Current have on the season. They have also conceded the most goals of any team (38) and are carrying a -11 goal differential into this match.

With that said, they do have some players to watch as Asisat Oshoala (Nigeria), Racheal Kundananji (Zambia), and Princess Marfo (Ghana) are all star attackers for their national teams with the ability to score for Bay. USWNT defender Abby Dahlkemper helps control the backline for the team and former KC Current Kiki Pickett patrols the midfield. (Bay has two additional ex-Current players in Jordan Silkowitz, the backup keeper and Alex Loera, who unfortunately injured her ACL during these teams’ last meeting in April.)

Speaking of that last meeting, that was back during the time when KC’s approach seemed to be, “you may score a couple, but we’re simply going to outscore you.” That game ended 5-2 with both Bia and Chawinga netting a brace.

As the season has progressed, the Current seem to have somewhat shifted their tactics as they now are much more likely to win 1-0 than 5-2. KC has conceded just a single goal in their past five matches but has “only” scored seven during that same time. That means, over the past month plus, they average scoring less than two goals per match and give up less than a goal per game. Compare that to the first five games of the season, during which they scored 17 goals (over three per match) and conceded 10 (exactly two per match).

Part of this transformation has included remaking the center of KC’s defense, including center back Kayla Sharples, acquired from Bay FC in the trade that sent Silkowitz west.

Another item to note from that game back in April, Bia has scored just once (June 14) since then. Early in the season there was a genuine argument to be made about whether Chawinga or Bia was going to score more goals for the team. And while, yes, Bia did miss a chunk of time with a foot injury, that argument has been well and truly decided as Temwa leads not only the team but the league (and it’s not even that close) in goals scored. With one additional goal in any of the final three matches, Chawinga will set a new league record for most goals in a season. With the pace she’s going at, averaging basically one goal per game over the last few months, she’ll likely break the record with ease.

Here is the goal that left Chawinga tied with Sam Kerr for the NWSL mark:

18TH GOAL OF THE SEASON 🔥

The SECOND fastest goal this season at 1:49 with the assist from @Debinha7 👀@NWSL | #KCBABY pic.twitter.com/TDY98xlIPo

— KC Current – x (@thekccurrent) October 5, 2024

And perhaps Bia again joins her on the scorer’s sheet with this favorable matchup in San Jose.

If Bay FC can sneak into the playoffs, even if they bow out after just the first round, this will likely be viewed as a successful first season in existence. For Kansas City, however, the expectations are completely different. In a season in which your team features the possible MVP, when you might set the all-time team scoring record for a season, when you open the world’s first stadium dedicated to a women’s professional team and that stadium is hosting the Championship game, you won’t be satisfied with just making the playoffs.

In a game that will likely feature a lot of royalty with Princess (Marfo) and (Savy) King on one side of the pitch and (Nichelle) Prince on the other, it may be the player with the Golden Boot that helps her team wear the crown.

WHEN: Saturday, October 12 at 9:00 PM (Central Time)

WHERE: PayPal Park, San Jose, CA

HOW TO WATCH: ion 

Record:

KC Current: 13-7-3 (46 points, 4th place in NWSL league standings)

Bay FC: 9-1-13 (28 points, 8th place in NWSL league standings)

Last Match:

KC Current: 2-0 away win to Racing Louisville

Bay FC: 5-1 away loss to the NJ/NY Gotham