Kansas City Current draws Washington Spirit at home. Was it a missed opportunity?

After a now-infamous weather delay derailed a powerhouse clash at CPKC Stadium earlier this year, Saturday night’s matchup between the Kansas City Current and Washington Spirit provided a second bite at the apple.

Yet the result stayed the same: The Temwa Chawinga-less Current played the Spirit to a scoreless draw.

“Both teams were very organized, very disciplined, committed to their shape,” Current coach Vlatko Andonovski said. “... I’m happy with the performance of our team. We were able to stop one of the most dangerous attacking teams in the league, and we’ll learn a lot.”

Washington is the only other team in the NWSL with more than 30 goals through 20 games played. It’s certainly possible these teams meet again in the playoffs.

KC’s Claire Hutton said she noticed plenty of adjustments in-game from the Spirit. And she felt like the Current kept adjusting right back.

“At some point, you could call it a stalemate because they weren’t able to break us,” Hutton said. “And we were working to break them. There were opportunities on both sides. ... Both teams were able to attack in different ways and consistently defend.”

Here’s the big picture.

This game won’t significantly affect the KC Current’s ability to win the NWSL Shield. A Kansas City win next week, coupled with Washington failing to win, would do the trick.

The Current did extend its NWSL shutout streak to eight games, and its unbeaten streak was pushed to 13 games. With a record of 16-2-2, the Current remains 14 points clear of second place.

The first half ended scoreless. For the first 30 minutes, KC dominated the action but couldn’t create a real chance, let alone a shot on target.

The Spirit proceeded to have the better of the chances for the 15 minutes on either side of halftime. But Washington wasn’t able to do very much with those opportunities.

The Current brought on Debinha at halftime, and that brought the game to life. Furthermore, a red card to Washington in the 65th minute significantly changed the complexion of the match.

Hal Hershfelt’s late challenge — a boot straight to Hutton’s ankle after Hutton had made a pass — resulted in her second yellow card of the evening. Her first came for running over Lorena in the first half.

The Current ended up with more chances and shots taken, but none got past Washington goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury.

Normally, teams bunker in deep after a player receives a red card, especially late in a game. But Spirit coach Adrián Gonzaléz subbed on two speedy forwards moments after the red card, forcing the Current to respect that speed and direct ability to attack.

“When you have the three forwards — Trinity Rodman, Rose Kouassi and Gift Monday — you have to be very careful,” Andonovski said. “The whole game, (Washington) had 11 transitional moments … six of them came from the 60th to 90th minutes. … We had to calculate the whole time how much we can push without getting exposed.”

As for Chawinga, the KC Current star did not play in Saturday’s game. Andonovski said KC doesn’t want to take risks if players have injuries and don’t feel 100% confident in playing.

“We did that with Lorena last week,” Andonovski said. “Hopefully they’re all 100% and ready to play. But unless they’re 100% ready to perform, I don’t think it’s time for us to take those risks.”

Up next: The Kansas City Current hosts the Seattle Reign next Saturday. Kickoff is at 6:30 p.m. from CPKC Stadium.

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

This story was originally published September 13, 2025 at 9:00 PM.