Match Preview: Kansas City Current vs Seattle Reign

On Saturday afternoon, the Reign travel CPKC Stadium to take on the Kansas City Current, who have an opportunity to formally clinch the trophy they are all but mathematically guaranteed to win in front of their home crowd. The Current have consistently looked like the league's best team, varying between exceptional and outright unstoppable, and have not looked back since seizing the top of the table from Orlando early in the season.

They've won 16 matches, racked up a truly ludicrous +28 goal differential, and lost just twice. One of those losses did come against the Reign on May 2nd, with Lynn Biyendolo's memorable goal and Claudia Dickey's best save of the year the only real separation between the sides – but since that loss, the Current have gone on an unreal tear, winning 11 and drawing 2, and have now gone eight straight matches without conceding a goal.

They are – by a wide margin – the best team in the league in 2025, and perhaps the best team in the history of the league, even comparing favorably to juggernauts like the 2016-2018 Courage and 2014-2015 Reign, and Seattle will have to be at their best to get a result.

Asked about Kansas City's remarkable success this season, Laura Harvey commented: "I think they just have threats everywhere, I think that's hard to play against. Obviously, Chawinga is a unique talent that you have to be willing to deal with, and by dealing with her, sometimes it opens up space for other people as well."

However, she struck a cautiously optimistic tone about the team's approach for the upcoming match, respecting the opponent but noting the Reign's strong play against them in 2024 and 2025.

"I think we're preparing to try and nullify their threats as much as we possibly can, knowing that we can cause them problems on the other side of the ball when we win it as well. You know, knowing last year and this year when we've played them, even though the scoreline when we came here last year wasn't great, we actually did pretty well against them for long periods of the game. We just had like a 90 second moment of madness where we gave up three goals. So, like, nullifying that as much as we can, trying to stay in the game for as long as we can, and believing in the game plan that we've got prepared for them."

Head-to-Head

The Reign are 6-5-1 all-time against the Current, including a 2-4-0 record on the road.
The Reign have scored 13 goals while conceding 12 in their 12 matches against the Current.

2025 record

The Reign are 8-6-6, +3 and sit in 6th place, in a virtual four-way tie with 3rd place Gotham, 4th place Portland, and 5th place San Diego.
The Current are 16-2-2, +28 and sit in 1st place, 13 points and a game in hand clear of their nearest competitor.
The Reign have scored 26 goals and conceded 23, while the Current have scored 38 goals and conceded 10.
The Current are an undefeated 7-0-2 at home, while the Reign are a respectable 4-3-3 on the road.

KC players to watch

Literally, the entire team: There are some standouts, but the thing that makes Kansas City such a scary side is that they are good everywhere, at every position, in every phase of play. Temwa Chawinga, Beatriz, Debinha, and Michelle Cooper are lethal up top. A midfield featuring Vanessa DiBernardo, Lo LaBonta, and Claire Hutton can be a nightmare scenario for any opponent – and the Reign have been soft in the midfield lately. Isabel Rodriguez, Kayla Sharples, and Hallie Mace help anchor a back line that allows few chances and creates plenty of their own. In goal, Lorena has 11 clean sheets and has allowed just 10 goals all year.

Kansas City has no weak point to exploit. It's an extremely talented team with very little turnover, coached across two seasons to a precision level of chemistry that few sides ever begin to reach for. There's no leeway to make mistakes against them, and they can beat you at your best from anywhere on the pitch.

Temwa Chawinga: With all of the above said, there are standouts on this good-top-to-bottom Kansas City side, and Chawinga has been a league standout since her debut match in 2024. The reigning league MVP and a strong candidate to repeat, Chawinga is aggressive and tenacious on the press, excellent as a hold-up player, and nearly undefendable on the break. With the speed to beat the defensive line and a quick, powerful shot that's difficult to read or intercept, Chawinga has 32 goals in 44 NWSL matches, and feasts on both small mistakes by opponents and consistent, quality service from Cooper and Debinha.

Absolutely peerless in her role. While she has been nursing a knee injury and her status may be questionable for Saturday, the Reign should be ready to play her, and will have their hands full doing so if she sees the pitch.

Lorena: Somewhat underappreciated in the Current's ridiculous run of form and shocking shows of attacking force, newcomer goalkeeper Lorena, who joined from Brazilian side Gremio FBPA in the offseason, has been one of the league's best. The last time she allowed a league goal was in June, in a 4-2 win over Racing Louisville. While Kansas City's excellent, well-organized defense exposes her to far fewer high-leverage chances than most goalkeepers face, she's also been both consistent and excellent against the chances she has seen, with 18 straight saves, seven straight clean sheets, and 0 goals conceded against 3.3 post-shot goals expected over that stretch. She's tall, quick on her feet, extremely good controlling aerials in her own six yard area, and doesn't give much away cheaply.

The Current would still be the best team in the league if Lorena were merely average, but she's playing like a top five keeper, and that stability from the back gives an already ruthless and free-flowing attack all the more confidence to go out and take the result they want.

What to watch

Precision pressure: The Current have actually dropped off some of their high intensity pressing from the early phase of the season – unsurprising, given the toll a long campaign and playing through summer in the lower midwest can take – but they remain extremely good at turning the ball over high up the pitch and creating chances off of opponents' mistakes. Kansas City comes out of the gate hard with relentless waves of pressure, looking to pounce and create chances and goals early, and far more often than not, they find the lead and relax their pressure in the second half. Playing with a lead, they allow a ton of possession but few opportunities for their opponents as they grind the game away, taking their transitional chances with Cooper, Chawinga, Debinha, and Beatriz as they come.

An attacking hydra: The Current have four players with five or more goals – Chawinga leads the way with 12, but Beatriz, Debinha, and Cooper have five each, and LaBonta adds four goals of her own from the midfield. They also have five different players with multiple assists, led by Izzy Rodriguez' five, and supported by Hailie Mace, Claire Hutton, Chawinga, and Cooper. When the Current step up the pressure to create chances, they have the personnel to find the gaps and exploit them from anywhere on the pitch. No team in the league creates as much danger or as many big chances as the Current (and they've done it with half as many penalty kicks attempted as their nearest competition), and no team in the league is better at snuffing out opposing opportunities and immediately turning them into dangerous moments in transition.

This is, in many ways, the platonic ideal of a Vlatko Andonovski team: a virtually uncrackable, deeply familiar defense that turns their defensive stops into unsavable chances on the other side of the pitch.

Containing the danger: While few teams have managed to take a result off Kansas City this year, there's a commonality to all of them: staying in the match early. When teams can keep the Current off the score sheet when they come out hard and blitz, they can force them to keep working, and, eventually, tire. It takes a lot of execution and at least a little bit of luck, as the Current are just that good at getting the chances even against great teams playing great ball, but a scoreless first half can force a team that would rather grind out a lead to keep pressing, and sometimes even expose themselves on the counter they normally feast on.

The Spirit demonstrated that an organized defense can hold off a determined press, and the Pride were able to grind out a scoreless draw of their own even after talismanic forward Barbra Banda went down injured early, frustrating Kansas City through 90 minutes and change. If the Reign can keep themselves in it early, they'll have an opportunity to secure points late.

"Ultimately, you know, it just lets you know that they're beatable," Sam Meza, asked about the Reign's distinction as one of just two teams to beat Kansas City this season, elaborated. "Obviously, they're a really great team, and they have so many excellent players and threats all over the field, but again, I think being able to be one of the few teams that has been able to beat them just kind of gives you a little bit of confidence. And honestly just a chip on your shoulder to go out again and try to do that again.

Injury / Availability Report

Seattle Reign

Pending league report

KC Current

Pending league report

How to Watch

The Seattle Reign will play the Kansas City Current away and CPKC Stadium on Saturday, September 20th at 4:30 PM Pacific. The match will air live on Ion.