How the KC Current clinched an NWSL playoff spot — with 2 months left in the season
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- Kansas City Current secured a 2025 NWSL playoff spot with a 2-0 win Saturday.
- Lo LaBonta scored her 13th career penalty kick, tying for second in NWSL history.
- Team’s sixth straight shutout extended unbeaten run and total points to 46 in 2025.
The train just keeps rolling for the Kansas City Current. A 2-0 win over the North Carolina Courage on Saturday night at CPKC Stadium clinched a playoff spot before the calendar flips to September.
The regular season ends in October.
The win for the Current (15-2-1) put the team’s point total at 46 for the 2025 season. Saturday marked KC’s sixth straight shutout in NWSL play.
When asked how the team feels about clinching a playoff spot so early, KC Current midfielder Claire Hutton offered a simple response:
“Job’s not finished,” Hutton said.
Current head coach Vlatko Andonovski talked about how the team has always taken things one game at a time, and said that wouldn’t change now.
“Our goal is to come out as a group and be the best we can possibly be every game we play,” Andonovski said. “We’ve operated like that for now a year and a half, and we were only focused on being the best that we can be in this game.”
The team has “a rule,” he added. “We celebrate tonight, we rest tomorrow, and we get ready for the next one until it happens.”
How KC Current vs. North Carolina unfolded
North Carolina was up for the challenge early, as the only team to record a shot through the first 20 minutes.
But then the Current got a breakthrough, piling up shots before breaking the ice.
The Current appeared to strategize to put service from corner kicks right on Courage goalkeeper Casey Murphy. Izzy Rodriguez did so with an in-swinging corner off her left foot. It was bobbled off the post and cleared back out to the corner of the box for Rodriguez.
Rodriguez then teed up a cross attempt that fooled the entire Courage back line — and Murphy— bouncing into the net to make it 1-0 in favor of the home team.
“We saw an opportunity, and we created a couple of shots,” Andonovski said. “We hit the crossbar. … We scored a goal in the second phase off corner kicks. So like I said, we saw an opportunity, and it seems like it worked.”
Then, Temwa Chawinga was seemingly taken down by a tackle from Kaleigh Kurtz on a breakaway to earn a penalty kick. Replays showed that while Chawinga clearly got the ball first, Kurtz never appeared to make much contact with the KC star.
The decision stood, though, and Lo LaBonta stepped up to take the penalty kick. She smashed it past Murphy to double the Current’s lead in the 41st minute.
That penalty kick was the 13th of LaBonta’s career, tying her for second all-time with Marta. She is one shy of the record of 14 penalty kicks made in the NWSL, held by Megan Rapinoe.
The Current closed out the match to get the win. But an injury to Chawinga meant the star forward went straight down the tunnel to the locker room after being subbed off. The club did not have an update on her status at the time of the postgame news conference.
Up next: The Current travels to San Jose to take on Bay FC next Saturday. That match kicks off at 9 p.m.
Daniel Sperry covers soccer for The Star. He can be reached at sperry.danielkc@gmail.com.
This story was originally published August 30, 2025 at 8:58 PM.