Marquee Matchup: Kansas City Current face Orlando Pride in showdown of two of NWSL's top teams

The Orlando Pride are in a place that they’ve never been before, riding a NWSL record 20-game unbeaten streak into the weekend. Forget the Pride never having been here, it’s a place that no other NWSL team has been before.

But the bigger they are, the harder they’ll fall. And there’s not a team in the league right now that isn’t aiming to end that streak. One of them is the Kansas City Current, who have good reason to be on the attack. They’ll play the Current Friday night, in a clash against two of the top three teams in the league. It’s a rematch of an earlier matchup this summer, which the Pride won 2-1 on July 6.

At the time, Kansas City had been on a 17-game unbeaten run dating back to 2023, which was ended by the Pride. Already, the Pride have clinched a playoff spot after falling short last season. The only thing left is to win a Shield and extend their win streak. So there’s plenty on the line.

“It is going to be a competitive game. Both teams want to go after it,” Seb Hines told reporters. “For us, it is a quick turnaround from the match against Chicago to playing against Kansas, who are also trying to win the Shield. I expect a competitive game.”

A Golden Boot Showdown

Coming out of the Olympic break, Kansas City’s Temwa Chawinga and Orlando’s Barbra Banda were tied atop the Golden Boot leaderboard. But since then, Chawinga has separated herself, bringing her total to 15 goals on the season – a Current club record. With seven games left to go in the season, she sits just three goals back of the NWSL league record set by Sam Kerr who had 18 with Chicago in 2019.

With the pace that Chawinga has been scoring – she’s currently on an eight-game scoring tear – it’s incredibly likely that she will pass that mark by the end of the regular season. Both Banda and Chawinga scored in that 2-1 result in July, and if there’s one thing that Hines is looking for heading into Friday it’s for his team to defend her better than they did last time out.

“She is a great player and her stats back it up as well. There is not another player like her in the league so we have to concentrate at all times and be proactive and we have to try and stop her sources as well to not allow her to get a run at us or a ball behind us for her to run after,” Hines said. “One thing about our team is our character and they take a lot of pride in their defending.”

All around, Chawinga has been one of the best players in the league this season, adding six assists onto her goal tally. That’s tied for second in the league with Sophia Smith, and gives her the most points of any player this season.

The arrival of Banda in Orlando, on the other hand, has helped catapult the Pride into uncharted territory. Her 12 goals on the season is a third of the team’s 36 total goals. And even if she’s shut out of a match, the defensive power needed to contain a player like Banda opens up the game for others like Marta and Adriana to do some scoring of their own.

The NWSL’s best offensive team vs. it’s best defensive team

Chawinga is on an eight-game goalscoring run. Her 15 goals are part of the Current’s 43 total goals – which leads the NWSL. Orlando doesn’t sit too far back, with 36 goals scored – good for third in the league. But they’re also the league’s best defensive teams, having allowed just 12 goals through 19 matches played. In their last seven games, they’ve allowed just one goal – the goal from Chawinga back in July. It’s a stark contrast to last season, when in 22 games the Pride allowed 28 goals.

Anna Moorehouse has 10 clean sheets on the season, with Emily Sams, Kylie Strom and Kerry Abello helping keep the back line locked down. The Pride’s offense has stuttered a little bit recently. Banda hasn’t scored since before the Olympics, and the team has scored just four goals in its last three games since returning from the Olympics.

If there’s one thing that Orlando has come to be known for, it’s their lock-down defense that turns into counter attacking pressure. That’s what makes them so dangerous for opponents. Pair that with the fact that the Current have allowed 28 goals on the season so far, and it could spell good things for the Pride. They’ve also not been as solid over the last three weeks as they were to begin the season.

A 1-0 win over Utah got them back on track after consecutive losses to the Washington Spirit and North Carolina Courage – two of their three total losses on the season. Will Orlando make it four? Can Orlando ride the wave to the postseason? What fun is sports if we’re not constantly looking ahead?

Following this weekend’s matchup, there are six games left in the regular season.

The Pride have some separation from second-place Washington, with 47 points to the Spirit’s 41 points. The Shield is well within their reach, but what about extending the unbeaten streak to the end of the regular season should they beat Kansas City? They’ll face Bay FC next. Earlier in the season, that wouldn’t have been a major issue. But the Bay has been on a bit of a run recently, resulting in them currently sitting in seventh place in the league standings and with a shot at the postseason.

A loss would deter that, with Angel City, Chicago, Seattle and Racing Louisville all sitting within five points. There’s other marquee matchups, including against the second-place Spirit and reigning champions Gotham FC before they finish the season against Seattle. Wins against Washington, Bay FC and Seattle were all just by one goal earlier this season, suggesting that those matchups could and likely will be close.

The moral of the story? Buckle in, folks, because it’s the best time of the season.