The Kansas City Current are off to a dream start to the season. All eyes were on them two weeks ago when they opened their stadium with a trend-setting win over their regular Thorns opponent, and they've followed that up with two more wins. They sold out their two home games, effectively drawing an average of 11,500 fans per game, and not only defeated the top two teams in the 2023 regular season standings, but they just picked up their first win against Angel City. They are the only team in the league with nine points from three games (3-0-0) and are on pace to earn 78 points for the season. The league's current annual point record is the 57 points scored by College in 2018, and while it's clear the Currents aren't going to win every game this year, they're in a strong position from the start. (By comparison, last year's Shield winners Wave only scored 37 points in 22 games, which is his average of 1.68 points per game.) KC has already scored his fourth of that goal. We have achieved close to 1!)
But perhaps the most exciting development for the team in this young season is scoring goals. Through three games, Current scored 11 goals. This is a pace of 3/3 goals per game. In two home games, the team scored nine goals, giving them a pace of four and a half goals per game. For those who don't know much about professional soccer, these are very high scoring rates. In 2019, North Carolina Courage set an NWSL season record with 54 goals. Kansas City is currently on track to score over 95 goals this year. Again, it's highly unlikely they'll get close to that number, but will they go over 54?
One of the things that made this goal-scoring result so exciting was the way they did it. The past 11 goals have been scored by nine different players (DiBernardo, Wheeler, Beer, Hamilton, Pfeiffer, Rodriguez, LaBonta, Spaanstra and Chawinga). This is not a team that lives or dies by one superstar. In fact, if there's a “superstar” on this team, it's probably Debinha. Not only has she not scored yet this season, but she has also played less than one full game due to injury. And she's not the only scoring threat currently out with injury, as Michelle Cooper and Nichelle Prince have missed games so far. The depth on this team is incredible, especially in attack, and they're playing incredibly complementary football so far. Again, most of this season's goals were not simply the result of great individual effort. There were some beautiful assists and multi-pass build-ups. Andonovski gets a lot of credit for pulling the right strings up to this point in the season, but he's in a pretty enviable position as he has all the weapons at his disposal.
I've been scoring goals by committee so far, but this team definitely has some star players. Both Bea Zanerat and Temwa Chawinga are only three games into their NWSL careers, but they are likely to quickly become household names among fans. Bier, a long-time Brazil international, has contributed to KC's attack in all three games. Not only did she score in the opener, take a penalty against San Diego, and score against Angel City, she also recorded her first assist and secondary assist in this game. She is strong and fast, with a deft touch and a powerful shot. Her physical ability directly led to her team's first and third goals yesterday.
And speaking of fast, Chawinga's speed is an absolute game-breaker. As we have stated many times, Malawi players scored the most combined goals (club and country) of any athlete, male or female, in 2023. Despite this, her contract to join Current has not gone unnoticed and she somehow continues to score goals. She seems to catch teams unprepared. It's a special treat for KC fans to see her easily outrun her opponents. She was in the game literally from the first minute in the opening game, and with her speed and tenacity, Hamilton scored. Portland's backline and keeper were clearly caught off guard by her ability to catch up with the ball. And don't think for a second that Chawinga's only weapon is quickness. She officially recorded two assists and was credited with nearly destroying a San Diego woodworking facility with a cannonball hit. Just as important, she was willing to help on the defensive end, stopping her from fighting back multiple times when Angel City looked like it would collapse the team in the second half. (As an aside, she perfectly gift-wrapped the opportunity for Claire Laboges to become the team's 10th goalscorer this season in stoppage time yesterday, but Laboges was the only one where her shot was saved. I found.)
The upshot of all of this is that Kansas City looks like a very difficult team to defend off the scoreboard. The teams have converted 11 chances so far and are still getting used to playing each other. This is a far cry from the roster that finished the 2023 season, with many of the new acquisitions having precious little time to train with the team. It takes months for them to fully develop their chemical reactions, and imagine how dangerous the currents become when they approach full health. The sound of the whistle blaring through the CPKC Stadium when a goal is scored will be the nightmare soundtrack for any opponent coming into town. Consider his officially released 2019 scoring record for the Courage.
