KC Current
KC Current Host North Carolina in 1st Round of the Playoffs
The Kansas City Current put together one of the best seasons in NWSL history and they finished 4th in the standings.
The final week of the National Women’s Soccer League’s 2024 season isn’t over yet, but the drama is done for the Kansas City Current. Since the NWSL doesn’t host a Decision Day style format where all the teams play at the same time, all the team’s Kansas City were chasing in the standings have already played.
There were two teams KC could pass coming into the weekend, if results fell right. NJ/NY Gotham played on Friday night and the Washington Spirit placed on Saturday. The Current just needed a single point dropped by each team to pass both clubs and climb to second (if KC won Sunday).
Both clubs earned victories. Washington defeated the North Carolina Courage 1-0 tonight. Gotham defeated the Utah Royals 4-1 on Friday.
The Current have trailed by a single point to both clubs for weeks. Gotham haven’t dropped a point since they played the Current on September 28th. A 1-1 draw that turned out to be the deciding factor in where these teams were seeded. Gotham were perfect their last three games. Washington was also perfect. Three games, three wins.
No matter what happens when the KC Current travel to face the Chicago Red Stars tomorrow, they’ll finish fourth in the standings. North Carolina have been locked into fifth for weeks. That means KC will host NC next Saturday, November 9th, at CPKC Stadium at 11:00 AM CST.
If the Current advance, they will have a chance to host if a string of upsets happen around the league. With as good as the top teams have been playing, they may end up facing the Orlando Pride on the road in the semifinals. A matchup that would have made a class NWSL Championship with the animosity from the first meeting this season.
No matter what happens, the NWSL final will be held in Kansas City.
Unprecedented Point Totals
Regardless of what happens Sunday, Kansas City will finish with at least 52 points. In 2023, the San Diego Wave had the best record in all of the NWSL, and they had only 37 points. The KC Current are already 15 points (!!) better than the team with the best record last year. That’s pretty wild!
Now, it should be said, the teams played four more games this season. But even then, that’s just 12 more possible points. Even if San Diego got all of them, it still wouldn’t be enough to pass the KC Current. The same is true of the league winners in 2022 (Seattle Reign, 40 points) and 2021 (Portland Timbers – 44 points through 24 games). In all reality, only the 2014 shield winning Seattle Reign and 2018 shield winning North Carolina had clearly better seasons than the 4th place (!!!) KC Current.
And three teams finished ahead of them! It really is a case of the have and have nots in NWSL in 2024.
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Good, thorough article Chad. It’s a bummer that the year that KC ends up being really good, there are three other teams just as good. The “reward” for beating the Courage (one of only three teams to have defeated the Current this season) is likely a trip to Orlando…
That draw to Gotham stings. If Cooper hadn’t been shielded off the ball by the official. That draw to Houston stings. If Franch and Wheeler had had better communication.
Lots of ifs throughout the course of a season, now they just need to control what that can control–beating NC at home and potentially the Pride on the road before returning home for the Championship Match.
I wonder what Vlatko does with the lineup today now that there’s nothing at stake?
Yeah, a few of these really hurt. The draw to Gotham stands out because of the ref. The draws to Chicago and Louisville, not because of the refs, but because they just shut off for a critical moment.
They had such an exceptional season. It’s wild how many points they got and still got fourth. But they just have to control what they can control and keep finding a way to win.