Playoff Soccer! NC Courage at KC Current

On Saturday, the Kansas City Current get to leave all the divisive discussions of red and blue states behind and unite to form a Teal Town. For the first time in the team’s history, the Current will host a playoff match when they welcome the North Carolina Courage to CPKC Stadium with a spot in the semifinals on the line.

As has been well documented, this has been a remarkably good season for the KC. For starters, they had a 29-point improvement over last season (with four more games played). Midway through the season they (briefly) held the record for longest unbeaten streak in league history. They set the new league mark for goals in a season by a team (57) and by a player, Tewma Chawinga (20), in addition to most different goal scorers (18).

The KC Current have already collected two trophies with the Summer Cup and the Women’s Cup. If it wasn’t for the fact that three other teams also had remarkably good seasons, they likely would be polishing the NWSL Shield trophy right now as well. In fact, if there is any downside to 2024 for the Current, it’s that despite their incredible successes, they still just finished fourth in the standings. Orlando, Washington, Gotham, & KC are all bunched together at the top of the table, with just five points separating the Pride in first (60) from the Current in fourth (55). This is the first time in league history that more than one team (four!) earned an average of greater than 2.0 points per match.

What this all means is that the path to the title will not be an easy one. Should Kansas City win this weekend, they would likely have to travel to Orlando for the semifinal match. It would take not just one but two major upsets (the Red Stars over the Pride, Bay over the Spirit, or the Thorns over Gotham) for the Current to be in line to host a 2nd round game. Down the stretch, KC needed Washington and Gotham to drop just a single point over the final month of the season, but they’ve played just as impressively as the Current have. So, upsets in the playoffs will likely be hard to come by.

But before Kansas City can start thinking about semifinal scenarios, they first need to line up against the Courage–one of only three teams this season to defeat the Teal. That loss came on the road, but these two teams have also already met twice in KC this year and the Current have earned shutout victories on both occasions: a 1-0 win in the regular season back in May and a 2-0 triumph during the Summer Cup in August.

While just five points separate the top four teams in the final standings, a full 16 points separate 4th place KC from 5th place NC. The Courage have had some strong moments throughout the season, including defeating the Current, the Spirit, and Gotham and drawing against Orlando, but they have also had several rough patches. They seem to be stumbling into the postseason having lost two straight and not having won in over a month (10/5 over Angel City).

With that said, they remain a dangerous side featuring USWNT players like Ashley Sanchez and Casey Murphy and Brazilian (and reigning NWSL MVP) Kerolin. Defender Kaleigh Kurtz has just finished a third consecutive regular season playing every minute and old friend Victoria Pickett is still dangerous when given space and time to run at a defense. The Courage are also a much better team at home (30 points taken) than on the road (nine points) this season so this trip to KC should be a test for them.

As much as North Carolina are backing their way into the playoffs, Kansas City is taking the opposite approach, entering the postseason on a four-match winning streak and an eight-match unbeaten run. In fact, the last time KC lost was September 1, in North Carolina.

Last weekend, despite already being locked into 4th place, the Current trotted out a mostly first-team lineup in Chicago and easily defeated the Red Stars 3-1. The one missing piece of their normal starting rotation was newly crowned Golden Boot winner Chawinga. While she likely would have been available had the match had more at stake, she also had earned herself a break, setting not only the records for most goals in a season and most matches in a row with a goal, but also scoring against literally every other team in the league.

In fact, it’s possible that her absence on Sunday was a good thing as it forced others to step up and score. Cooper, Debinha, and Prince all found the back of the net against Chicago after Chawinga had accounted for more than 60% of the team’s offensive output over the second half of the season. That means that KC should have not only a rested Chawinga but also a more balanced attack when they take the field Saturday morning.

Trivia tidbit: Despite this being the first NWSL playoffs meeting between these teams, this is actually already the fourth time NC and KC have squared off in a knockout stage match. Besides this year’s Summer Cup confrontation, in both 2022 and 2023 the Courage came to Kansas City and defeated the Current in the semifinals of the Challenge Cup. KC should be keyed up and ready to return the favor this time around.

WHEN: Saturday, November 9 at 11:00 AM (Central Time)

WHERE: CPKC Stadium, Kansas City, MO

HOW TO WATCH: CBS

Record:

KC Current: 16-7-3 (55 points, 4th place in NWSL league standings)

North Carolina Courage: 10-2-13 (39 points, 5th place in NWSL league standings)

Last Match:

KC Current: 3-1 win away to Chicago Red Stars

North Carolina Courage: 0-1 loss home to Washington Spirit