Gotham FC's win over KC Current tells the story of the season | An NWSL recap.
Gotham beat the KC Current in a way that exposed old wounds in the KC Current's road form. Plus, magic in Portland and this summer's rising stars.
Gotham’s matchups with Kansas City have been a bit of a powder keg in recent history. The playoff upset led to mass changes this offseason before once again losing to Gotham in the Challenge Cup earlier this summer. While KC won the CPKC rematch, it was Friday’s loss to the NWSL shield leading Bats that was a microcosm of KC’s 2026 campaign. Away from home while Temwa Chawinga took WAFCON by storm, the Current looked to finally flip the script on their poor away performances this season. 22 seconds in, Amelia White chipped Ann Katrin-Berger to finish off a brilliant Croix Bethune sequence in transition.
@talkin_soccer_ Jaedyn Shaw finishes the comeback as Gotham beat KC 2-1 in a game that was more lopsided than the scoreline reflects. Gotham are now 7 points atop the table #nwsl #kccurrent #gothamfc #woso
♬ original sound - Justin Horneker | TalkinSoccer
Unfortunately, that early win was met with Gotham taking over the match and exploiting the Current’s biggest weakness: the gulf in front of the CBs.
As an aside, I wonder if KC would benefit from a shift to a back three to better protect that space. It’s unlikely that a manager from the Red Bull school of management would sacrifice numbers in the attack to make that happen but when they have the level of attacking talent they have, perhaps a 3-4-3 (with Katie Scott at RM?) would be worth a shot. Pure fantasy.
Anyways, Amelia White opened the scoring 22 seconds in! A nice little bump and curl interplay with Debinha and Bethune who looks up and miraculously feeds White’s run through multiple defenders.
That’s the dichotomy of this KC Current, Bethune has been an MVP candidate while Debinha has returned to form as one of the league’s best complimentary attacking pieces, all while Michelle Cooper and Temwa Chawinga are on their way back.
However, the downside was on display as Gotham smothered the life out of the game, drew level through Midge Purce’s 3rd goal and 5 games before grabbing the lead just ahead of halftime.
It’s a match where KC would probably come home with a point if Ann Katrin-Berger isn’t at the top of her game through the second half, but Sam Kerr’s game winner just ahead of halftime shows how clubs are exploiting the Current’s spacing.
Howell entered the attacking third, switched the play into Savannah McCaskill who laid off into the stride of Jaedyn Shaw as the Current midfield scrambled to recover. At that point, Shaw draws a hectic group of defenders towards her, before chopping a pass into Kerr who had took a few quick strides towards the near post with Kayla Sharples flat footed expecting a more traditional ball into the box.
In general, I still believe the Current will be fine as much as their away form is inexplicable at this point. They played a tough match without the 2x defending MVP against a Gotham squad that is now 7 points clear at the top of the table but the margin of error is small. The underlying numbers aren’t as stark but they’ve still majorly stumbled with Chawinga on WAFCON, have a worse road record than everyone but Chicago and are 2-3-3 since the Summer break. 10 games left in the season, there’s still time to grab 4th place if they can win at home and grab some draws, but the lack of additions is hard to swallow when the issues are so apparent.
On the Gotham side, things could not be going better.
The bats have a two and a half game advantage on the Spirit after going 8 unbeaten including a 4 match win streak where they’ve allowed 1 goal against.
And Jaelin Howell has been a dawg.
The Wave continue to underachieve.
On paper, San Diego should be the toast of the league but they can not close out a match to save their lives. The Wave have slid to 5th after drawing Denver 1-1 and if it wasn’t for Mel Barceñas’s individual genius, they’d slide even further off the pace.
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It’s the curse of not getting a save, and still missing the yet to debut Cat Macario, but the sun’s getting real low, and the Wave have the game model to be competing at the top of the table. Unfortunately, they have one out of four GKs who have over -1.0 goals prevented, and that’s 19 year old Luisa Agudelo, who has started just 3 matches this season.
After the Wave face Utah next weekend, they have one of the easier schedules compared to the teams in front of them, but it’ll take learning how to close out games to regain ground.
Maybe that’s helped by refusing to release its U20 players for the upcoming World Cup, to the ire of Emma Hayes and US Soccer, but something has to give.
Maddie Mercado is leveling up in Seattle.
Mercado has now scored 5 goals in 8 matches since the season resumed after goals in back to back matches this week. After spending part of last season on loan with the USL Super League’s Carolina Ascent, Mercado has taken a clear step forward. Despite the loss to Louisville midweek, Seattle have benefitted from the budding partnership between the winger and Mia Fishel; in fact, the Reign have the 4th most expected goals since the break.
A shocking fact after years of Laura Harvey ball, but the Reign have been thoroughly in the mix over the back half of the season.
If underlying stats are predictors of future performances, the loss at Racing this week will look like a blip rather than a premonition, especially with Maddie Dahlien continuing to look like an elite NWSL creator.
Utah Royals continue to prove they are elite.
Jimmy Coenraets is your NWSL Coach of the Year barring unforeseen circumstances.
It’s incredible to think about how frustrated fans were after the first two matches of the season, but since then, the Royals have been a strong collective. Kate Del Fava, Mina Tanaka, and Cece Delzer have been key veteran pieces, while Cloé Lacasse has matured into a borderline elite NWSL contributor. An under appreciated aspect of Utah’s success is how aggressive the full backs have been in what is essentially a 2-4-3-1 in possession.
That places more of an emphasis on the connections into the wings, and when the wings are playing like this, it’s a recipe for success.
Utah has essentially performed along the same line as the Washington Spirit all season, incredible given the vastly different expectations heading into the season.
Focusing on Lacasse, only Riley Jackson has created more key passes over the second half of the season, while only trailing Croix Bethune in assists.
In a league chock full of elite wingers, Lacasse is up there with Tordin, Shaw, and Dahlien.
The Kayla Fischer and Emma Sears strike partnership is working
Racing Louisville might be making a run after the 2-1 win over Seattle takes them to 4-0-1 over the last five matches. Maybe more importantly, its 4 wins in a row since Bev Yanez paired Kayla Fischer and Emma Sears up top in the 5-3-2.
Since then, Louisville has been “locked in,” according to Yanez, on the heels of a stretch where Racing’s lone loss was a midweek meeting with KC where the lack of depth was on display during a rotated midweek beatdown.
Kayla Fischer and Emma Sears have 8 goals between them since the formation shift, and it’s fueled a deadly counterattack that has Racing starting to return to the mean after over half a season of underachieving.
That Louisville has been able to bounce back like this, not just since the formation change but since all of the important pieces have returned to full fitness, proves that depth will continue to be an issue barring some unforeseen investment in the transfer market. However, Yanez deserves credit for making it work.
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Welcome to the NWSL Boston; there are no easy matchups, even the (at the time) 13th placed Racing Louisville is ready to kill you in transition.
There’s still a 4 point gap to 8th place – and Seattle has a game in hand – but it’s starting to feel like this is the team to watch out for over the last 10 matches of the season.
Of course, assuming Emma Sears isn’t traded by then.
It is a situation: reports surfaced this summer that Sears had asked for a trade earlier this season, but since then, Sears has worked her way back from injury and integrated into a crucial role. Does that mean that everything is now copacetic? Or was Sears hoping to see more reinforcements?
For now, that’s all we know.
Caiya Hanks' magical return.
Caiya Hanks missed over a year with an ACL injury and comes back with this to seal Portland’s win over Orlando.
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The Thorns needed some luck after the season-ending injury to Olivia Moultrie, the returns of
Weaver and Hanks should help. On Meghan Klingenberg night, you can’t script a better moment than this.
Portland has won back to back now, stopping a skid of just 1 point in 4 matches, but the xG differential has not been good. Robert Vilahamn needs to figure out a structural fix to the defensive woes, but I’m far from the first person to point that out.
Anyways, Pietra Tordin now leads the league in goals + assists; this is a player deserving of a USWNT call-up, as much as Emma Hayes is spoiled for choice.
Finally, Chicago Stars are who we thought they were… I guess.
If you thought there might have been a step forward after the Stars announced that Lorne Donaldson… they’ve lost the last two matches by a combined 6-0 to Seattle and Houston. It’s been bad. Any worse than before? Probably not, but there’s so much work that needs to be done here to even look like a mediocre club. All of this while Mal Swanson is in the starting lineup; maybe it’ll improve with time to train.
