Match Preview: Final Regular Season Road Test Up Next for Kansas City Current at Houston Dash

With only two regular season games remaining in the 2025 campaign – and having already secured a postseason berth – the Kansas City Current (20-2-2, 1st place, 62 pts.) heads to the Lone Star State for its final regular season road test against the Houston Dash on Saturday, Oct. 18. Kickoff is set for 6:30 p.m. CT at Shell Energy Stadium in Houston, Texas, for Week 25 of the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) season.  

The match will broadcast nationally on ION with JP Dellacamera and Jill Loyden on the call as well as on the World Feed with Eric Krakauer and Gary Bailey. Fans in Kansas City can watch a local simulcast on KMCI, 38 the Spot or tune in to 90.9 The Bridge to hear Jillian Carroll Letrinko and Jake Yadrich call the action. The KC Current App will also have an audio stream of the match in English, Spanish and Portuguese.    

WATCH PARTIES & TEAL MOBILE VISIT 
The Kansas City Current will team up with No Other Pub to host a watch party as the team hits the road to take on the Houston Dash this Saturday at 6:30 p.m. CT, and the Teal Mobile will be on site. Additional watch parties will be held at Asados Bar & Grill, Double Tap KC, Friction Beer Co., Gaels Public House, Martin City Brewing Pizza & Taproom, Q Kansas City, River Bluff Brewing, Set The Bar, Station 7, Teocali Restaurant, The Chicken Coop (Des Moines, Iowa) and Walk-On’s Sports Bistreaux (Wichita, Kan.).       

A watch party will also be held at The Dub, Kansas City’s first and only sports bar dedicated to women’s sports. Jillian Carroll Letrinko and Jake Yadrich will do a live radio broadcast of the Current’s match vs. the Dash for 90.9 The Bridge at The Dub on Saturday. The Dub, which officially opened to the public on Oct. 16, is located at 105 West 9th Street, Kansas City, MO 64105. 

CURRENT VS. DASH 
The Kansas City Current leads the all-time regular season series with the Houston Dash at 5-3-3 and is unbeaten in seven all-time visits to Houston across all competitions with a 4-0-3 mark, although the last two matches at Shell Energy Stadium have been draws. Only Chicago Stars FC at Orlando Pride (8 straight) and Portland Thorns at Chicago Stars FC (10 straight) have gone unbeaten in their first eight road games against a single NWSL opponent. 

The last meeting with the Dash was earlier this season at home on April 20, resulting in a 2-0 shutout for Kansas City. Midfielder Lo’eau LaBonta scored the go-ahead goal in the 21st minute from the penalty spot before defender Kayla Sharples headed in fellow defender Izzy Rodriguez’s corner kick in the 62nd minute. The Current officially moved into first place on the NWSL table after that win and has remained in the top spot ever since.  

ON POINT 
More history was made for Kansas City following its 2-0 win over Gotham FC on Oct. 11. The victory moved the Current’s point total up to 62 in the NWSL standings, officially breaking the Orlando Pride’s record of 60 from 2024 for most points in a single regular season. With two games remaining before playoffs, the club has the potential to extend that record to a whopping 68 points at the end of the regular season. Kansas City is averaging 2.58 points per match through Week 24 and is on track to eclipse North Carolina’s NWSL record for most points per match in a regular season of 2.38 set in 2018. 

TOP OF THE TABLE 
The Current remains at the top of the NWSL table for the 20th week in a row with 62 points and a 20-2-2 record. The club’s 19th win of the regular season on Oct. 6 set a new NWSL record, snapping the previous mark of 18 from Orlando and Washington in 2024. Kansas City then became the first team to reach the 20-win threshold on Oct. 11. The Current’s plus-36 goal difference entering Week 25 is greater than the goal differential of all other teams in playoff position combined (plus-31). Kansas City is riding a 17-match unbeaten streak, the second longest single season unbeaten streak in NWSL regular season history. It is the Current’s third unbeaten run of 13 or more games in a single regular season, having also done so in 2022 and 2024. Only two other clubs in league history have had a run of 13 or more matches without a loss: Orlando in 2024 (23) and Seattle in 2014 (16). 

DYNAMITE DEFENSE  
Kansas City has conceded just 11 goals with two regular season matches left to play. No team in NWSL history has allowed fewer than 17 goals over a full year, regardless of season length. The Current has allowed 0.46 goals per game through Week 24. The only other team that is conceding less than one goal per game on average is Gotham FC, which has given up 0.83 goals per game. Kansas City’s stalwart defense is anchored by Brazilian netminder Lorena, whose 14th clean sheet on Oct. 11 officially broke Orlando’s Anna Moorhouse’s NWSL record of 13 for most goalkeeper shutouts in a single regular season. Lorena’s 14 clean sheets not only extend her own single-season franchise record but set a new club mark for regular season career shutouts. The previous career mark was set over four years, and Lorena’s in her first season with the Current.  

GOLDEN GIRLS 
Forward Temwa Chawinga, the 2024 NWSL MVP and Golden Boot winner, leads the 2025 NWSL Golden Boot race through Week 24 with 15 goals and three assists. She has continued to separate herself from the field as Gotham FC’s Esther Gonzalez, who is second on the Golden Boot leaderboard, has 13 goals and one assist. Only one player in NWSL history has claimed the Golden Boot multiple times: Sam Kerr, who won it in three consecutive seasons from 2017-19. Joining Chawinga on the Golden Boot’s top 10 is fellow Current forward Bia Zaneratto along with midfielder Debinha. Zaneratto ranks ninth with seven goals and three assists while Debinha sits in 10th with seven goals and one assist. Entering Week 25, no other club has more than one representative on the Golden Boot race’s top 10. 

#TEMVP 
Forward Temwa Chawinga is in the midst of yet another sensational season. Last weekend, she scored her 15th goal of the regular season after netting 20 goals in her first NWSL campaign last year. She became only the second player in league history to record 15 or more goals in multiple seasons, joining Sam Kerr who achieved the feat in three consecutive seasons from 2017-19. Chawinga’s strike against Gotham on Oct. 11 marked her 35th career regular season goal – the most in any two-season span in the league’s 13-year history. She has scored at least once in two-thirds (32 of her 47) of her regular season appearances and has tallied 39 goals in 52 games across all competitions. Additionally, the Malawian holds NWSL records for most consecutive regular season matches with a goal (8), consecutive regular season home matches with a goal (10) and consecutive regular season road matches with a goal (7).  

GOT THE CALL UP 
Saturday’s match in Houston will be the Current’s last NWSL match before the FIFA international window, in which several Kansas City players will be representing their home countries. On Oct. 10, the Brazilian National Team called up goalkeeper Lorena and forward Bia Zaneratto. With her fifth national team invitation of the calendar year, Lorena has been called up by Brazil for every camp held so far in 2025. This is Zaneratto’s first national team call-up since May 2024. Brazil then added midfielder Debinha to the roster on Oct. 17. Three days later, Canada called up forward Nichelle Prince, who helped her home country win gold at the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games. This marks Prince’s fifth national team invitation of 2025. 

On Oct. 15, the United States called up forward Michalle Cooper, midfielder Claire Hutton and forward/midfielder Ally Sentnor. After featuring in the Futures Camp earlier this year, Cooper and Hutton both got their first senior national team call-up in February for the 2025 SheBelieves Cup presented by Visa and have since appeared in three subsequent USWNT camps. Sentnor, who joined the KC Current in August, earned her first senior team invitation in November 2024 and has been part of each USWNT camp this year alongside Cooper and Hutton. 

AVAILABILITY REPORT
OUT: Alana Cook (SEI-Knee), Clare Gagne (SEI-Head), Kristen Hamilton (Hip), Vanessa DiBernardo (Maternity Leave) 
QUESTIONABLE: Temwa Chawinga (Knee)
INTERNATIONAL DUTY: None

USWNT AT CPKC STADIUM 
The U.S. Women’s National is set to make history in Kansas City this month with its first-ever match at CPKC Stadium, the first stadium in the world purpose-built for a women’s professional team. The USWNT will play New Zealand on Wednesday, Oct. 29, at 7 p.m. CT at CPKC Stadium. The match will broadcast on TNT, TruTV and HBO Max in English, on Universo and Peacock in Spanish and on the radio on Westwood One Sports and FDP Spanish Radio. Limited tickets are available for purchase HERE.  

2025 NWSL SHIELD WINNERS 
The KC Current made history on Sept. 20 by winning the 2025 NWSL Shield, presented by CarMax, following its 2-0 win over Seattle Reign FC at CPKC Stadium. This is the first time in franchise history the Current has won the Shield, which is awarded to the club with the best record during the regular season. The Current has remained at the top of the table since Week 6, and now no other team can surpass Kansas City in the league standings.  

Kansas City became the fastest club to win the Shield in NWSL history, doing so with five regular season games left in the 2025 campaign. The previous record for fastest to clinch was with four matches remaining done by Seattle in 2014, North Carolina in 2018 and Portland in 2021. The Current is the seventh different Shield winner in the league’s 13-year history. Head coach Vlatko Andonovski, who has won two NWSL championships and has twice been named the NWSL Coach of the Year, has now added the NWSL Shield to his decorated resume for the first time in his career. 

PLAYERS TO WATCH 
Kansas City defender Izzy Rodriguez – On Oct. 11 vs. Gotham FC, Rodriguez dished out her sixth assist of the 2025 regular season, which is tied for first in the league. That equaled the single season club record for regular season assists first set by forward Temwa Chawinga and midfielder Vanessa DiBernardo in 2024. It was also her 11th career regular season assist, matching defender Hailie Mace’s club record. Rodriguez made her 50th career regular season start last weekend to become the fifth player in club history to hit that milestone. She is the only player on the roster who has appeared in all 24 NWSL matches this year, and her lone goal this season was the game-winner vs. North Carolina on Aug. 30 as the Current clinched their postseason berth. 

Houston forward Yazmeen Ryan – Ryan leads the Dash’s roster with four goals, 40 shots, 17 shots on target and 35 corner kicks. Three of her four regular season goals have come after the summer break, and she has started all 22 matches she has appeared in. She leads a Houston attack that has scored in 10 straight regular season home matches and is unbeaten in its last four games at Shell Energy Stadium. Ryan was recently named to the USWNT roster for the FIFA window beginning next week. She has 12 caps with two goals for the senior national team.  

2025 NWSL PLAYOFF TICKETS 
Having now clinched the Shield, the Current will enter the 2025 NWSL Playoffs, presented by Google Pixel, as the No. 1 overall seed. Kansas City will host a guaranteed quarterfinal match against the No. 8 seed in addition to a home semifinal match if the team advances. The NWSL quarterfinal game will be held the weekend of Nov. 7-9 with a potential semifinal game the weekend of Nov. 14-16 at CPKC Stadium. 

Playoff tickets are now available for purchase HERE and parking passes will be sold at a later date. The NWSL regular season concludes Sunday, Nov. 2, and times and dates for playoff matches will be finalized after the last matchday.