Kansas City Current, Chicago Stars FC Set to Meet Friday Night at CPKC Stadium
NWSL Kansas City Current

Kansas City Current, Chicago Stars FC Set to Meet Friday Night at CPKC Stadium

Published on September 25, 2025 under National Women's Soccer League (NWSL)
Kansas City Current News Release


KANSAS CITY - Six days after clinching the first National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) Shield in franchise history, the Kansas City Current is back in action at home on Friday, Sept. 26, to host Chicago Stars FC for Week 22 of the 2025 NWSL regular season. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. CT at CPKC Stadium. The match will serve as Women's Cancer Awareness Night, presented by The University of Kansas Cancer Center.

The contest will broadcast nationally on Prime Video with Lori Lindsey, Mike Watts and Kealia Watt on the call. The action will also air on the World Feed with JP Dellacamera and Marion Crowder, and Jillian Carroll Letrinko and Dave Borchardt will call the game on 90.9 The Bridge. Fans can also tune in to hear the match in English, Spanish or Portuguese on the KC Current App.

2025 NWSL SHIELD WINNERS

The KC Current made history on Sept. 20 by winning the 2025 NWSL Shield, presented by CarMax, following its 2-0 win over Seattle Reign FC at CPKC Stadium. This is the first time in franchise history the Current has won the Shield, which is awarded to the club with the best record during the regular season. The Current has remained at the top of the table since Week 6, and now no other team can surpass Kansas City in the league standings.

Kansas City became the fastest club to win the Shield in NWSL history, doing so with five regular season games left in the 2025 campaign. The previous record for fastest to clinch was with four matches remaining done by Seattle in 2014, North Carolina in 2018 and Portland in 2021. The Current is the seventh different Shield winner in the league's 13-year history. Head coach Vlatko Andonovski, who has won two NWSL championships and has twice been named the NWSL Coach of the Year, has now added the NWSL Shield to his decorated resume for the first time in his career.

HOME SWEET HOME

The Current has played 32 matches across all competitions (regular season, postseason, NWSL x Liga MX Femenil Summer Cup, The Women's Cup, Teal Rising Cup) at CPKC Stadium - the world's first stadium purpose-built for women's professional sports - since its opening on March 16, 2024. The club boasts an impressive 26-1-5 ledger all-time at CPKC Stadium across all competitions. In the regular season, the KC Current owns a 17-1-5 record across 23 regular season home games and has scored in all but two matches played at home. The Current has won 18 of its last 21 home matches across all competitions, having outscored opponents 48-9 in that stretch. The club remains the only team in the NWSL this year that is unbeaten at home.

CURRENT VS. STARS

Despite Chicago leading the all-time series at 5-3-2, Kansas City is unbeaten in its last four meetings with the Stars and has outscored them 14-7 during that stretch, including 6-2 in the last two meetings. The two sides have combined to average 4.3 goals per match over the 10 all-time regular season meetings, the highest scoring fixture between two current NWSL teams (minimum five games played). There have been at least four goals scored in seven straight meetings, the longest such streak in league history.

The last meeting between the Current and the Stars resulted in a 3-1 road win for Kansas City. Forward Bia Zaneratto opened scoring in the 34th minute with an assist from defender Hailie Mace before Zaneratto fed fellow forward Temwa Chawinga for another goal seven minutes later. Chicago forward Shea Groom put one back in the 51st minute before defenders Izzy Rodriguez and Kayla Sharples connected in the 60th minute for a Sharples headed goal.

#TEMVP

Forward Temwa Chawinga, the 2024 NWSL MVP and Golden Boot winner, leads the 2025 NWSL Golden Boot through Week 21 with 13 goals and two assists. She regained her lead atop the Golden Boot race with her 13th goal of the year on Sept. 20, which was the first header of her NWSL career. On Aug. 7, Chawinga was nominated for the Ballon d'Or, a prestigious annual honor for the player deemed to have performed the best over the previous season. It was the first such nomination of her career. She finished No. 17 in the final standings, announced on Sept. 22.

Chawinga has a league-leading six game-winning goals this year. That equals her own NWSL regular season record for the second straight year, a mark she shares with Crystal Dunn (2015), Midge Purce (2021) and Barbra Banda (2024). She has 12 career regular season game-winners - a club record - which is also the most of any player since the start of the 2024 season. Chawinga has scored 37 goals in 50 appearances across all competitions, with 15 of those being game-winning goals. She has scored at least once in two-thirds of her career regular season appearances (30/45); No other player in the league has scored in more than 17 games since the start of last season.

TOP OF THE TABLE

The Current remains at the top of the NWSL table for the 17th week in a row with 53 points and a 17-2-2 record. The team's 17 wins is already a new single season club record, surpassing the previous mark of 16 from 2024. Additionally, the Current checked in at No. 4 on the latest Opta Power Rankings from Sept. 11. The Opta Power Rankings are a global team ranking system that assigns an ability score to over 2,000 women's football teams on a scale between 0-100. Kansas City's score was 93.8 - the next closest NWSL team, Gotham FC, was ranked 10th with a score of 89.0.

Kansas City is on a 14-match unbeaten streak since its loss to Seattle on May 2, the fourth longest single season streak in NWSL history. It is the Current's third unbeaten run of 13 or more games in a single season, as the team has also done so in 2022 and 2024. Only two other teams in NWSL history - Orlando in 2024 and Seattle in 2014 - have ever gone on an unbeaten streak of 13 or more regular season matches. The Current has collected 38 points in their 14-match unbeaten streak, tied for the most in any 14-game span in league history. With 53 points on the year, Vlatko Andonovski is the first NWSL head coach to record multiple seasons with 50 or more points, having also done so in 2024.

SHUT 'EM OUT

The KC Current has 14 team shutouts on the year for a new NWSL single season record, snapping the three-way tie of 13 with Portland in 2021 and Orlando in 2024. Last weekend, the club extended its own league records to nine straight shutouts and 812 consecutive shutout minutes. The Current has not allowed a regular season goal in over 100 days, since the 88th minute against Racing Louisville FC on June 14.

Goalkeeper Laurel Ivory earned two of the Current's 14 shutouts and Lorena has been credited with 12. Not only do Lorena's 12 clean sheets lead the league, but they also extend her own single-season club record and are the second-most career shutouts in club history. She is one away from tying the career shutouts club record of 13 set by AD Franch from 2021-24 as well as the NWSL record of 13 set by Orlando's Anna Moorhouse in 2024. On Sept. 20, Lorena broke Moorhouse's 2024 league record for consecutive goalkeeper shutout minutes with a new active streak of 632 minutes.

GOALS GALORE

Kansas City has scored 40 goals across its 21 regular season games this year, the fourth club in NWSL history to score 40 or more goals in back-to-back seasons. Twenty-five of the team's 40 regular season goals have been in the first half with 13 in the first 25 minutes and seven in the opening 15 minutes - all more than any other team this year. The Current has 13 victories by two or more goals this season, the most wins by a multi-goal margin in a single regular season in NWSL history. There have been 17 NWSL players with three or more goal contributions since the start of the 2024 regular season, four who play for the Current: forwards Temwa Chawinga (41), Bia Zaneratto (15) and Michelle Cooper (13) as well as midfielder Debinha (15).

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Kansas City midfielder Debinha - Debinha's sixth regular season goal - and first ever penalty kick for Kansas City - on Sept. 20 proved to be the game-winning goal for the Current as they won their first NWSL Shield. It was her 20th career regular season game-winning goal, becoming the third player in league history to record 20 or more. The veteran midfielder is one of just four players in league history to win four Shields. Her eight total NWSL trophies - spanning Championships, Cups, Shields, and seasonal titles -rank second all-time.

Chicago defender Kathrin Hendrich - Hendrich, who earned bronze with Germany at the 2024 Olympic Games, joined the Stars this summer after helping the German National Team to a semifinal berth at the 2025 UEFA Women's Euros. Hendrich completed 50 of her 54 pass attempts (92.6 percent) in the Stars' match with Houston last weekend. Since her NWSL debut in August, Hendrich is one of three NWSL players with a pass accuracy rate of 90.0 percent or higher (minimum 250 pass attempts).

WOMEN'S CANCER AWARENESS NIGHT, PRES. BY THE UNIV. OF KANSAS CANCER CENTER

The Current and The University of Kansas Cancer Center are partnering for Women's Cancer Awareness Night on Sept. 26. The Women's Cancer Center at The University of Kansas Cancer Center, the only women's cancer treatment program of its kind in the region, focuses solely on breast and gynecologic cancers, along with improving the delivery of cancer care. The University of Kansas Cancer Center will sponsor the match's Ceremonial First Kick as the Current welcomes the Chicago Stars to CPKC Stadium. Click HERE to learn more about the Women's Cancer Center at The University of Kansas Cancer Center.

2025 NWSL PLAYOFF TICKETS

Having now clinched the Shield, the Current will enter the 2025 NWSL Playoffs, presented by Google Pixel, as the No. 1 overall seed. Kansas City will host a guaranteed quarterfinal match against the No. 8 seed in addition to a home semifinal match if the team advances. The NWSL quarterfinal game will be held the weekend of Nov. 7-9 with a potential semifinal game the weekend of Nov. 14-16 at CPKC Stadium.

Playoff tickets are now available for purchase HERE and parking passes will be sold at a later date. The NWSL regular season concludes Sunday, Nov. 2, and times and dates for playoff matches will be finalized after the last matchday.

Check out the Kansas City Current Statistics

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