Kansas City Current makes statement (& sets NWSL record) with win over Houston
Entering the weekend, the Kansas City Current was one of three teams without a loss in the 2025 NWSL season. By the time Saturday night’s match kicked off from CPKC Stadium, the Current was the final unbeaten team standing.
And KC will stay that way through next week thanks to a 2-0 home win over the Houston Dash.
Lo LaBonta’s first half penalty kick — followed with another trademark goal celebration — gave the Current a 1-0 halftime lead. Kayla Sharples scored her first goal since joining the club via trade last summer to make it 2-0.
After Angel City lost 4-0 at home to Gotham FC and the Orlando Pride lost 1-0 at home to the Washington Spirit, the Current gained sole possession of first place in the NWSL.
KC now holds a perfect 5-0-0 record. The club has won nine straight regular season matches dating back to 2024, which is an NWSL record.
The numbers are impressive.
The Current has scored 12 goals and only conceded one in 2025. Through five games in 2024, the Current conceded nine times.
“We added a couple of players, but it’s just more mature,” head coach Vlatko Andonovski said. “Like, we don’t play different. We still have a very similar system. The structure is very similar. But there’s little things that we do better that obviously make big differences.”
The only goal KC has conceded in 2025 came in the second half of the season opener against Portland. Saturday’s clean sheet marked KC’s fourth straight and extended the team’s shutout streak to more than 400 minutes.
How the KC Current won Saturday
LaBonta got her opportunity from the penalty spot after Bia Zaneratto was taken down inside the box. Like last week, LaBonta ripped her penalty kick into the top corner.
LaBonta converted her 12th penalty, third most in NWSL regular-season history. Only Marta and Megan Rapinoe have converted more.
The secret?
“I try not to think of the keeper at all,” LaBonta said. “I pick where I’m going and just focus on putting everything behind it.”
The Current held control of the match throughout. Houston threw numbers behind the ball for most of the game to avoid getting hit by the deadly counterattacks and transitions KC has been known for.
“It was obvious that they wanted to defend a little lower with numbers in and around the box and give us a little bit more of the ball,” Andonovski said. “Which was great for us.”
In the 62nd minute, Sharples got her head on Izzy Rodriguez’s corner kick to score her first goal for the KC Current.
“Obviously we did have a lot of corner kicks in that game and I think a lot of us got on the end of it,” Sharples said. “So we really wanted to score one off a corner kick and it happened to be me.”
Indeed, Sharples scored her first goal with KC, but it wasn’t her first at CPKC Stadium. She scored for Bay FC last season in the Current’s 5-2 victory. Coincidentally, that was also the fifth game of the season.
Sharples also scored against the Current in Kansas City in 2023 with Chicago.
Mary Long makes KC Current debut
Mary Long, daughter of KC Current co-owners Chris and Angie Long, made her professional debut, coming on as a substitute for Debinha in the 81st minute.
Up next: The Current hits the road to face a postseason opponent from last year in the North Carolina Courage. Kickoff from Cary, North Carolina, is set for 6 p.m. Central on Saturday, April 26.
Daniel Sperry covers soccer for The Star. He can be reached at sperry.danielkc@gmail.com.
This story was originally published April 19, 2025 at 9:04 PM.