Kansas City Current earn first road win 2-1 in Houston

The Kansas City Current earned their first regular season road win and extended their unbeaten streak to five games Friday evening with goals from Lo’eau LaBonta and Hailie Mace. The Current took advantage of scoring right before half and again less than a minute into the second to claim all three points. The 2-1 victory over the Houston Dash improved their record to 3-4-3 with twelve points and moved them up the table to just outside of the playoff zone.

Despite the teams coming out of a break for International play, both the Dash and the Current were missing players. Kansas City was without captain Desiree Scott with Canada and backup keeper Sydney Schneider with Jamaica. Houston was missing eight players for international duty but recently picked up Ebony Salmon from Louisville to bolster their lineup.

With Scott out, Current coach Matt Potter called on Alex Loera to fill in at the defensive mid spot.

The first half was relatively even statistically with both teams having stretches of time where they were the better team, but KC goalkeeper Adrianna Franch was called on to make the tougher saves.

The two teams started to separate their fortunes for the evening right before half when a corner kick fell to Hailie Mace who tried to cross it back across the goal. The ball was blocked by Houston’s Shae Groom in the box. The referee did not hesitate to point to the spot and give Groom a yellow card.

Veteran midfielder LaBonta laid claim to the ball and then blasted her chance from the spot down the center of goal in the 43^rd minute. The Current tried to add another before half time, but the teams went to the locker room with a 1-0 game in favor of the visiting Kansas City side.

The Current grabbed hold of the game right after half. Within the first minute of the second half. Mace moved the ball to CeCe Kizer on the right side. Kizer ended up dribbling towards the endline before slicing the ball back across the box where Mace slotted it home through traffic to make it 2-0 for Kansas City.

Houston doubled their efforts but was unable to break through Kansas City’s backline and the stellar work in goal of Franch. At least not without a little luck and help from Kansas City. The Current almost held onto the shutout but fate struck again when a ball was redirected into goal by Elizabeth Ball and the final was 2-1 for Kansas City.

NWSL Match Report

Match: Houston Dash vs Kansas City Current

Date: July 1, 2022

Venue: PNC Stadium, Houston, Texas

Kickoff: 7:37 p.m. CT/8:37 p.m. ET

Weather: 89 degrees, sunny

Attendance: 5,007

Discipline

9’ Kansas City – Loera (yellow)

42’ Houston – Groom (yellow)

54’ Houston – Eddy (yellow)

71’ Houston – Hanson (yellow)

90+2’ Houston – Salmon (yellow)

90+7’ Houston – Prisock (yellow)

Scoring

42’ Kansas City – LaBonta (PK)

46’ Kansas City – Mace (Kizer)

90+10’ Houston – Ball (OG)

Lineups:

Houston: Campbell, Ashley (86’ Jacobs), Naughton, Prisock, Groom (67’ Ogle), Salmon, Anderson (67’ Gomera-Stevens), Eddy (86’ Gareis), Visalli, Viggiano (86’ Farquharson), Hanson

Substitutes Not Used: Dederick, Gramaglia, Rosa

Kansas City: Franch, Edmonds, Ball, Leach (61’ Merrick), Loera (89’ Rodriguez), LaBonta (90’ McCain), Pickett (77’ Curran), Kizer (61’ Bennett), Hamilton, Mace, Del Fava

Substitutes Not Used: Miller, Johnson, Nolf