The Kansas City Current continued rolling over the weekend as they beat Angel City at home 4-2. The Current dominated the first half before Angel City made a game of it in the second half. KC looks like a team with their sights set on a title run early in the season. Here is my breakdown of the match.
The Return of Desiree Scott
It has been a long and challenging road for her, but it was great to see Desiree Scott take the pitch for the Current. Something she hasn’t done in over a year. She has gone through a lot on and off the pitch, and it was great to see her back. She is an important part of this squad and a fan favorite. The reception the fans gave her was great and well deserved. She only came on for the last few moments of the match, but all that mattered to me was that she was back. I can’t wait to see her work her way more fully back into the squad!
Revamped Attack Looks Strong
The Current made some surprising and bold moves this past offseason. It was surprising (and sad) when they traded Cece Kizer to the Huston Dash. It was bold of them to sign Temwa Chawinga and Bia Zanerratto, and those to look deadly up front. Bia does great work getting herself into great attacking positions. She uses her height and physicality to get into great positions to win contested balls that come her way. She’s also very creative with her touches as she has no problem send players into the attack. She’s forming a fantastic partnership with Chawinga, a partnership I look forward to watching grow.
With Chawinga, the best word to describe her is this: FAST. She has to be one of the fastest players the Current have. She covers a ton of ground in such a short amount of time. Her speed is her biggest weapon as she gets herself into great scoring opportunities often. I can’t remember how many shots she had on goal, but she had quite a few. Chawinga finally found the back of the net in the second half, immediately restoring the 2 goal advantage for the Current.
DiBernardo Is Off To A Great Start
Vanessa DiBernardo continued her strong play in this match. She scored The first goal within the first 10 minutes of the match and added an assist late in the first half. It’s the second home match where she has opened up the scoring. She’s doing a great job at getting herself into positions to do some serious damage, and is taking full advantage of those opportunities. Hopefully she can keep this run of form after the team returns from the international break.
A Tale Of Two Halves…Again
Kansas City looked to be the more dominant side in the first half. I had a title for this blog article picked out, but the second half made me change it. Angel City seemed like a completely different squad coming out of the break, but so did the Current. The team didn’t seem quite as sharp and were punished for it not long after the break. They say that a 2 goal lead could be one of the most dangerous and sometimes teams let their foot off the gas pedal once they go up by 2. Chawinga answered the early goal, but Angel City cut the lead in half again late in the 78th minute.
Angel City appeared to level the match, but the equalizer was ruled offsides after a lengthy VAR review. The difference in play in the after the break could be concerning, but I have no doubt that the team will address it.
Issues With Set Pieces
The back line for the Current has played better overall this season so far, but they appear to have some issues of defending set pieces. The goals that Angel City scored were both off of set pieces, and from what I can recall, the team has had some issues with it in the first 3 matches. I’m not sure what exactly the issue has been as they seem to be marking their players in the box well. I think that, especially for this match, there is some bad luck involved here. The clearance attempts got blocked, so give Angel City credit for the pressure they put on KC. Hopefully this issue can get resolved moving forward as well.
KC Looks Like The Best In The League
When they Current are playing with their high intensity they look like the best team in the NWSL. They are a very attack minded squad that can put all sorts of pressure on defenses trying to slow them down. I think their attack will only get better as the team gels even more and when Debinha comes back from her hamstring injury after the break. I feel like the sky is the limit for the squad this year and I expect them to be at or near the top of the table all season long. Hopefully they can bring a NWSL championship to the city this season!
Next Up: The Current have a break this week before heading on the road to play Gotham on April 14th. Gotham is a tricky squad and it should be a fun match to watch. Go Current!
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