Match Preview: Kansas City Current travel to Houston to kick off busy week

The Kansas City Current (5-0-1, 16pts., 1st place) will head to Texas this weekend to play the Houston Dash (1-3-2, 6pts., 12th place) Sunday, May 5 at 12 p.m. CT. CBS will carry the broadcast nationally and stream on Paramount+ with Jacqui Oatley and Lori Lindsey on the call. Fans in Kansas City can listen to the match with Dave Borchardt and Jillian Carroll Letrinko on 90.9 The Bridge FM or on the KC Current app, along with a Spanish language radio broadcast.   

Sunday’s match is the first of three matches this week for the Current. Following the match at Houston, the team will head to the Pacific Northwest for a midweek match against the Seattle Reign before returning home to play the North Carolina Courage May 12 at CPKC Stadium.

Kansas City sits four points clear of second place heading into the match Sunday with 16 out of a possible 18 points on the season. With five wins and a draw, the team has set a new club benchmark for the strongest start to the season yet.

Last week the Current stared down the hardest challenge yet, earning a 3-1 win on the road against Angel City. The home team found a goal in the 34th minute that carried Angel City into the break with a 1-0 lead. For the first time all season, the Current found themselves behind after the first 45 minutes of play.

At halftime head coach Vlatko Andonovski challenged his team to be brave as they played through the second half, and it was a challenge that midfielder Vanessa DiBernardo gladly accepted. In the 54th minute with Kansas City firmly in possession and searching for a shot, DiBernardo took a quick pass from forward Bia Zaneratto, tapped it slightly to her right and hit a perfect shot into the left upper corner of the goal to even the game.

Kansas City rode the momentum from DiBernardo’s third goal of the season through the end of the match. While some teams would gladly take a draw on the road, the Current sent waves of players into the attacking end looking to take the lead.

Late in the match midfielder Debinha, making her return from injury, dug the ball out from the left corner of the field and brought it toward the middle of the field. Defender Izzy Rodriguez, having just filled the space Debinha had left received a pass from the veteran Brazilian and sent a low driving cross into the box where midfielder Claire Lavogez could deflect it into the net. Lavogez then followed up with a second goal three minutes later to cap off a 3-1 win.

The Houston Dash were also on the road last week, traveling to play the Utah Royals. Two players made their debut with the club as Ramona Bachmann joined the team from Paris Saint-Germain and Paige Nielsen was traded from Angel City. Nielsen and goalkeeper Jane Campbell were able to keep the Royals attack at bay and preserve the second clean sheet of the season for Campbell and the Dash. However, Houston was unable to find a goal of their own either and settled for a 0-0 draw.

PLAYERS TO WATCH 
Kansas City Current goalkeeper AD Franch – Franch joined the Current before the club had an official name in 2021 and has been an integral part of the club since then. She has helped to lead the club throughout the start of the 2024 season. Serving as captain over the past three matches, she has kept her team calm and organized as the Current found two wins and a draw. Along the way, she has earned two straight NWSL Impact Save of the Week nominations.

Houston Dash forward Diana Ordóñez – Ordóñez is in her second season with the Dash after being acquired in a 2023 draft day deal. She scored three goals in 20 games for the club last season but has already matched that total in the first six games of 2024. Her offensive output accounts for half of Houston’s goals so far this season.

579 DAYS
Claire Lavogez signed to the Current in July 2022, played in 10 games that first season and was named NWSL Player of the Week a month later. She was an incredibly important piece to the Current’s run to the playoffs, but unfortunately suffered a tear to her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in the quarterfinal match against Houston.

The French international worked hard to recover and return to the field. She made her return in front of the home crowd Sept. 1, 2023. She played 54 minutes over the course of four games to finish out the 2023 season. In 2024 Lavogez has played the role of game-changer for Andonovski, coming into the second half of all six matches and helping to close out each match strong.

All her hard work came to fruition last week with the Current and Angel City tied 1-1, a draw seemingly likely as the clock hit the 90th minute. Not ready to give in, Lavogez ran onto a cross from defender Izzy Rodriguez and deflected the ball into the back of the net. Three minutes later she was in the perfect position once again and sealed the victory for Kansas City, and 579 days after her last goal for the club, she once again made her way onto the scoresheet.

CONGESTED SCHEDULE 
The Kansas City Current will travel nearly 5,000 miles to play three games over the next eight days. The week opens with Sunday’s match against the Houston Dash (730 miles) at Shell Energy Stadium in Houston. From there, the team will travel to Seattle, Washington (2,350 miles) to play Wednesday night against the Seattle Reign. The busy week ends when the team returns home (1,840 miles) to host the North Carolina Courage at CPKC Stadium Sunday, May 12.