With playoffs clinched, KC Current still has goals to achieve in regular season
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- Kansas City Current clinched playoff berth with eight regular season games left
- Team's 14-point standings lead positions them to secure NWSL Shield soon
- Several players lead league stats, boosting bid for end-of-season awards
The Kansas City Current is dominating in the 2025 National Women’s Soccer League.
The Current won its 15th game of the 2025 season this past weekend. With another victory Saturday night, KC would match its win total from the 2024 season. The win last weekend pushed the Current’s unbeaten streak to 11 games and clinched a playoff berth with more than two months remaining until the postseason actually begins.
With eight games left, however, there are goals the Current has yet to attain. Here’s what is still at stake:
A home NWSL playoff game
The magic number for the Current to clinch a home playoff game — a top-four finish in the NWSL standings — is a mere six points. That number combines points earned by the Current and points dropped by teams that could still finish higher than the Current.
If results across the league break well for the Current over the next several days, Kansas City could clinch that home playoff match by the end of the weekend. The results the Current need this weekend include a draw between Portland and Louisville and losses for Seattle and Orlando.
Chase for the NWSL Shield
Last season, the Current lost just three games. But high-scoring draws earlier in the season hampered the team’s ability to keep pace with the record-breaking Orlando Pride, who won the NWSL Shield — the award for the best regular-season record.
KC has built a significant gap at the top of the standings this season — 14 points, to be exact, separate the Current from the second-place Washington Spirit. For perspective, that is also the point difference between second place and 12th in the NWSL standings.
With that margin, the magic number for the Current to clinch the NWSL Shield in 2025 is 11. Three wins by the Current would do the trick; so would second-place Washington dropping some points.
If the Current wins Saturday and Washington drops points this weekend, a looming Sept. 13 matchup between the Current and Spirit at CPKC Stadium would be a potential NWSL Shield-clinching match.
NWSL points record
In addition to winning NWSL Shield in 2024, the Pride set a league record by hitting 60 points for the season.
One thing the Pride didn’t do was match the pace of the 2018 North Carolina Courage, who accumulated 57 points in two fewer games. In 2018, the NWSL played a 24-game season; the league now plays a 26-game schedule.
For the Current to eclipse the points-per-game mark of the 2018 Courage, KC needs to finish with at least 62 points. The Current has eight remaining games and a maximum points possible of 70. The Current could go 5-2-1 over those eight games and still meet that mark.
Individual accolades
The Current will likely have several nominees for the NWSL’s end-of-season awards.
Striker Temwa Chawinga could certainly win the Golden Boot, although she could miss some time due to an injury she sustained last weekend. She has 11 goals this year, one shy of Esther Gonzalez of Gotham FC. Chawinga leads the league in goals and assists.
KC teammate Izzy Rodriguez’s five assists in 2025 are tied for the league lead. Another Current player, Hailie Mace, is tied for second with four.
Finally, Current goalkeeper Lorena leads the league with 10 clean sheets this season. She needs just three more to tie Anna Moorhouse’s record-breaking mark of 13, set last season with Orlando.
Daniel Sperry covers soccer for The Star. He can be reached at sperry.danielkc@gmail.com.