Can the KC Current win an NWSL championship this season? The march starts Saturday

The Kansas City Current returns to the field in 2025 this weekend, kicking off its 2025 National Women’s Soccer League campaign.

The opponent Saturday at CPKC Stadium will be a familiar one: For the third year in a row, KC opens the season at home against the Portland Thorns

Last year’s meeting — the first match played at the Current’s new stadium — was highly entertaining. With 80% of the Kansas City roster back this season, another exciting game no doubt awaits.

Until then, here are four storylines to watch as the Current’s season begins:

Year 2 of Temwa Chawinga

KC Current forward Temwa Chawinga lit up the NWSL last season, her first in the league, with a record 20 goals en route to MVP honors.

So what’s next?

Chawinga will no longer be a secret or surprise. There’s now a year’s worth of film on file as teams try to devise plans for stopping her. No team could slow her down in 2024 — she scored against all 13 of them.

Can she replicate her historic goal-scoring output this year? KC coach Vlatko Andonovski suggested she might even surpass it.

“Her timings on the runs and the spaces that she pops up in are a lot better (this year),” Andonovski said. ”I don’t know how they will translate once we start playing regular games, but I hope that she’s able to get in dangerous areas and score as many goals as she did last year.

“Maybe even more, who knows.”

Race for the Shield

If you did a cut/paste on the Current’s 2024 record, dropping it into the standings from past NWSL seasons, KC would have the best mark in all but one of those years (2018).

In 2024, the Current’s record left the club in fourth place, just one point away from second. The standings were tight at the top.

The gap between the Current in fourth place and NC Courage in fifth was 11 points. The gap between Orlando in first and the Current? Just five.

Orlando returns most key performers from its double of winning the NWSL Shield (best regular-season record) and league championship. The Washington Spirit have another year with coach Jonathan Giraldez and time to get healthy.

Simply put, the top four teams in this league are again going to be very good. But will one of them slip up? Will someone from the back of the pack make a leap to that top grouping?

The race for the shield should be thrilling. A team’s fortunes could change with concession of a last-second equalizer.

The next generation

The Current gave the keys to its midfield to an 18-year-old making her pro debut season last year. Good call. Claire Hutton’s rookie breakout now has her in the national-team picture.

The Current also started Ellie Wheeler, a college draft pick, a start. Andonovski even played then 16-year-old Alex Pfeiffer, who scored the game-winning goal in the first match at CPKC Stadium.

Point being: This team isn’t shy about giving younger players their first shot — and doing so right away. And that mirrors a trend league-wide as younger players are becoming stars.

Croix Bethune won multiple awards as a rookie last season. Ally Sentnor turned heads in Utah. One of the NWSL’s most recognizable players, Trinity Rodman, is in her fifth year in the league and is only turning 23 in May.

It’s a younger player’s game these days. KC signed Katie Scott (U-18 initiative), Mary Long and Clare Gagne, and one (or more) from this group could see some playing time right away.

Ellie Wheeler and Claire Hutton could also make strides this year. Pfeiffer is close to returning from her ACL injury and she, too, might command some playing time in 2025.

The GK Union

Goalkeeper is the only position that underwent a significant offseason makeover in Kansas City. Not coincidentally, goalkeeper was also the Current’s primary weakness in 2024.

AD Franch, a fixture with the Current and league legend in her own right, struggled at times during her final two seasons here. She is no longer with the team.

A quick word about stats and evaluation of goalkeepers: Expected Goals (xG) quantifies the likelihood a shot taken ends up as a goal; Post Shot xG (PSxG) provides a similar value and is the more accurate number to use when judging the quality of shots a goalkeeper faces.

The plus/minus stat provided by Opta subtracts the number of goals conceded from the PSxG faced and gives a plus-minus score for goalkeepers. (Positive is better.)

Franch, in PSxG +/- posted negative scores cumulatively in 2023 (-1.7) and 2024 (-2.3). In her 2022 Goalkeeper of the Year finalist season, she had a +5.0.

Almuth Schult’s arrival in 2024 helped steady the KC back line, as she posted a +3.4 in just nine games. She and the Current tried to reach a deal, but Schult opted to return to Europe.

Enter Laurel Ivory, Lorena and Clare Gagne, goalkeepers with varying levels of experience and skills.

Lorena is a star in Brazil, and her imposing height and shot-stopping ability will likely make her the team’s number one in 2025.

Ivory played well in a difficult situation in Seattle last season, blanking the Current once with 10 saves. That was one of just two times all season that the Current went scoreless.

Remember the name of Gagne, too. She excelled in her senior season at North Carolina.

Daniel Sperry covers soccer for The Star. He can be reached at sperry.danielkc@gmail.com.

This story was originally published March 13, 2025 at 11:32 AM.