Kansas City NWSL team breaks through for first win, a 1-0 home victory over OL Reign

Victoria Pickett just starting shouting whatever came into her mind..

Pickett had grabbed a microphone, her face flashed up on the big screen at Legends Field and over 5,000 fans were roaring in celebration.

Pickett’s shout was somewhere between “Kansas City!” and “Let’s go!” and a little bit of general screaming. It was all the Kansas City NWSL midfielder could get out as she stood on cloud nine.

“I was just making noise, I was just so pumped, I was like ‘I don’t know what I’m saying!’” Pickett said shortly after she walked off the field.

But the rookie midfielder had good reason to celebrate. She’d scored the only goal in Kansas City NWSL’s first win in franchise history.

Kansas City (1-9-4) defeated the OL Reign 1-0 Saturday night at home to halt a streak of 17 games without a victory to start life in the NWSL.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Pickett said. “We have solid players and everything, and I don’t think our record shows our talent and everything.”

She’s not wrong about that.

While a 17-game winless streak is a staggering and unwanted record, Kansas City tied five of those games, and of the 12 losses, six were by a single goal.

There’s a lot that goes into such a winless streak, and certainly more than just a couple of bad bounces that went the wrong way, but at times it certainly felt like that for KC.

So when one of those bounces finally fell the right way, it felt like vindication for Kansas City.

Setting up a free-kick 30-yards out from goal in the 73rd minute, four Kansas City players stood around the ball: Lo Labonta, Kristen Hamilton, Addie McCain and Hailie Mace.

It was a set-piece routine Kansas City has practiced all season, and they were determined to get it right.

Hamilton rolled the ball toward McCain as LaBonta ran toward the duo, looking to strike the ball with all her might. But instead of McCain laying the ball off to LaBonta, the rookie backheeled the ball to Mace, who was running from the backside of the play.

Mace fired a shot into the mix of players at the edge of the Reign’s box, striking the ball off one of their defenders. In games past, that deflected shot would have ricocheted away from goal.

This time though, it fell right to the feet of Pickett. The 25-year-old Canadian took a quick touch before firing it into the bottom corner to give Kansas City a late lead.

Pickett’s teammates quickly rushed her, but then she looked up at the scoreboard.

There was still work to be done.

“I looked at the clock, and I was like ‘there’s still a lot of time,’” she said.

But Kansas City saw out the remaining 17 minutes of the game, plus seven minutes of stoppage time, to reach the full-time whistle as the winners for the first time in franchise history.

“We needed them (the fans) in that last ten minutes for sure,” KC head coach Huw Williams said. “It was a boost for everybody, and it was a boost for me on the sideline.”

One of those fans in the crowd was U.S. Women’s National Team coach Vlatko Andonovski, who also coached Kansas City’s former NWSL team, FC Kansas City, to two championships between 2013 to 2017.

“It’s amazing. Just coming to the stadium and experiencing the atmosphere, the buzz, the community being behind this, it makes me happy,” Andonovski said. “This is just the beginning, we’re going to see a lot more of this.”

Tactically, it was one of Kansas City’s best games and the final result matched what happened on the field.

Williams deviated from his typical 4-3-3 to play a 4-4-2 with a midfield diamond. It was a move that allowed Kansas City to overload the midfield and limit the Reign’s options in the middle of the park.

“Some of it out of respect for them, very good players over there,” Williams said on the formation. “But also some of it, we needed to get our midfield players attacking and that would allow us more flexibility in getting Lo (Labonta) into the attacking third.”

The move worked a treat, allowing Kansas City to outshoot the Reign 16-12 and, despite finishing the game with just 42% possession, look the much more dangerous team, in control.

“We just dominated the midfield,” Pickett said. “We have such dynamic midfielders that it really helped us, and I think we utilized the space well out wide and I think the movement was good for all of us.”

As the full-time whistle blew, every single player and staff member of Kansas City ran into a huddle into the middle of the field as music blared and fans roared.

After countless meetings and training sessions discussing how the team could get better and find that first win, it was the players’ moment to celebrate as one.

“I think it was a lot of yelling, a lot of cussing, we were just super hyped,” LaBonta said. “Anything that came out, it was screams or whatever noises, but I think we mainly just wanted to come together and embrace each other.

“This team and the players have always been tight-knit so I think for us to go through this struggle together and finally get the win is the reason why we all came together and all walked around and thanked the crowd together.”

This story was originally published August 14, 2021 at 9:39 PM with the headline "Kansas City NWSL team breaks through for first win, a 1-0 home victory over OL Reign."