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Photo Copyright: Maria Lysaker for Imagn Images
With another heroic performance from Golden Boot leader Temwa Chawinga, the Kansas City Current defeated NJ/NY Gotham FC 2-0 Friday night to win their second trophy of the season.
This match was the finale of the inaugural NWSL x Liga MX Femenil Summer Cup despite its fall date. The Current also won The Women’s Cup on their home turf during the Olympic break. Gotham won a different edition of The Women’s Cup this March.
“I’m very happy first and foremost,” Kansas City coach Vlatko Andonovski said. “We fought for this trophy hard in the summer, played some really good teams, played semifinal and a great team in the final. So overall, a great achievement by our team and a very good tournament for us.”
Chawinga — who now has 22 goals across all competitions — scored a brace in the first half, finding the back of the net in the 24th and 36th, though the latter would have likely been called back if the tournament utilized VAR. Regardless, they both featured beautiful buildups with assists from Lo’eau LaBonta. It was her first career match with multiple assists.
Gotham was severely shorthanded in the affair missing several players to international duty and more to injury. Of note, that included starting goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger, as well as Jess Carter, Rose Lavelle, Jenna Nighswonger, Yazmeen Ryan, Emily Sonnett and Lynn Williams.
The Current were missing Stine Ballisager Pedersen, Hallie Mace, Hildah Magaia and Nichelle Prince. Outside of Mace, however, none of those players have started more than a dozen matches this season.
Given the odd timing of this tournament championship, Kansas City and Gotham will each return to NWSL play for one more match before the end of the regular season. Both have secured home-field advantage in the playoff quarterfinals, which are set to start Nov. 8.
Andonovski and LaBonta were firm after the match saying that while they will take a little time to celebrate, this won’t take away from the meaningful matches coming up soon.
“There’s something to it when it’s building the winning mentality, you can’t win a big trophy if you don’t win the small ones, whether it’s a Women’s Cup and then we have the Summer Cup and now we have the season,” Andonovski said. “Winning is a habit and I’m glad that as a team in this organization, we started building this habit, this mindset and I just hope that it takes us to the next one.”
The match also featured a special debut for a historically young player. Due to NWSL eligibility rules, Gotham’s 14-year-old prospect McKenna “Mak” Williams has not been able to compete in the regular season. However, she did sub in during the 66th minute on Friday night to make her first appearance for Gotham. Williams was signed in July to a guaranteed contract which will begin January 1, 2025, as well as a National Team Replacement contract which allowed her eligibility during international windows. At the time of signing, she was the youngest-ever contracted player in the league at 13 years old.
