Undefeated no more: Kansas City Current suffers first loss of NWSL season to Orlando

The Kansas City Current’s record unbeaten streak has ended following a 2-1 loss to the Orlando Pride.

The Current entered Saturday’s match boasting an NWSL-record 17-match unbeaten streak, dating back to last year. The club fell to 10-1-5 with the loss and, because of the result, now is tied with the Pride for that record streak.

Orlando is 11-0-5 this season, in addition to a win to close out 2023.

“One thing we can’t do is let the emotions get the best of us,” Current manager Vlatko Andonovski said. “We know that we’re a good team. We know that we can win big games. And we’re gonna go back on the field and learn from this, use this as a learning opportunity, get better and get ready for the next one.”

Barbra Banda put Orlando on the board first in the 37th minute. She passed KC’s Temwa Chawinga in the race for the Golden Boot (NWSL leading scorer) with a composed one-on-one finish against goalkeeper AD Franch.

“She’s so good,” defender Stine Ballisager said of Banda. “I saw it as a challenge. It’s nice to play against one of the best players and fastest players. I need to be smart, and I think we did a good job.”

Two minutes later, the Current’s leading goalscorer had an answer. Chawinga scored her 12th goal of the season with a coast-to-coast run and finish. The score was tied 1-1, as was the race for the Golden Boot.

The Current played the entire second half up a player after Orlando’s Carrie Lawrence was given her second yellow card — and thus a red card — in the 42nd minute. But the Pride didn’t deviate too much from their game plan, even with 10 players.

Orlando frustrated the Current in the middle of the field and looked for chances here and there. The Pride eventually earned a penalty kick in the 60th minute after Adriana was cleaned out by Franch after a shot attempt.

Marta buried the penalty kick. Orlando went up 2-1.

“Credit to them, they’re a great team,” Andonovski said. “We knew they’re gonna have a moment like that. On the other side, we also believed that we were gonna score a goal, but it didn’t happen.”

The Current certainly tried.

Andonovski brought on defender Lauren to play as a striker, with teammates lofting the ball into the box for her to head back down to others.

“It’s the last resort,” Andonovski said.

He explained that late in games, teams that are leading will move into two separate lines of six and three — or five and four — clogging space and making it difficult for teams to get behind them.

“We always say it takes about four to five minutes to create two opportunities on average,” Andonovski said, “if we keep getting the ball in, which we did.”

The Current threw everything forward for the remainder of the game but couldn’t find the equalizer — even with 10 minutes of stoppage time.

After the final whistle, the Pride flooded the CPKC field and players mobbed each other in celebration. Marta screamed into the camera, kicking an ice pack, shushing the crowd and making a “baby rocking” gesture.

Their celebrations were boisterous for a regular-season victory — albeit one between the top teams in the NWSL standings — and the Current definitely took notice.

“They deserve to celebrate,” Andonovski said after the match, noting it was a big win for the Pride.

“It wasn’t something obviously we were happy with, but it’s something we’ll definitely remember,” he added. “We have 10 games to go, playoffs ahead of us, and hopefully we meet them in the finals.”

Up next: The Current heads into the Olympic break, with its next competitive match on July 20 at home against the Houston Dash in the NWSL X Liga MX Femenil Summer Cup.

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