Temwa Chawinga Leads KC Current Past Portland 3-1 for NWSL-Record Ninth Straight Regular-Season Home Win

Portland showed up having kept seven clean sheets in its first 11 games, per the club, and took a 14th-minute lead. Kansas City answered with three goals and a reminder that CPKC Stadium plays by its own rules.

Temwa Chawinga scored the go-ahead goal in the 63rd minute and set up Haley Hopkins' stoppage-time dagger, Lo'eau LaBonta equalized before halftime, and the Kansas City Current came from behind to beat the Portland Thorns 3-1 on Sunday in front of 11,500 fans. According to the Current, it was the club's ninth consecutive regular-season home win, the longest such streak in NWSL history, and it stretched its regular-season home unbeaten run to 22 matches, tied for the league record.

Wilson Strikes, LaBonta Answers

The opening stretch was end to end. Portland blocked early efforts from Croix Bethune and Michelle Cooper, and then the Thorns went the other way and scored. In the 14th minute Sophia Wilson darted down the left after a throw-in, collected a pass from Pietra Tordin and finished with her left foot from the left side of the six-yard box.

Kansas City kept coming. Mackenzie Arnold had to push an Izzy Rodriguez effort over the bar in the 31st minute, and Lorena answered at the other end by saving an M.A. Vignola drive in the 38th. The equalizer arrived in the 41st minute. Bayley Feist lofted a ball forward, Ally Sentnor pounced on a loose touch from a Thorns defender and spotted LaBonta unmarked to her left. The captain drilled a low shot past a diving Arnold.

The Current said it was LaBonta's first goal of the season, the 26th of her regular-season career and her 22nd for the club, the second-highest total in franchise history. Lorena then stopped Wilson in the 43rd minute, and the teams went into the break level.

Two Goalkeepers, One Busy Afternoon

Vignola came off at halftime for Mimi Alidou, and the second half opened like a goalkeeping showcase. Lorena stretched to deny Reilyn Turner in the 46th minute and dove to stop a Wilson near-post shot in the 47th. Arnold responded with saves on Feist in the 48th, on Cooper and Bethune in a single sequence in the 53rd and on Rodriguez in the 55th. Each keeper made five saves on the day, and both earned them.

The Turning Point: LaBonta Steals, Chawinga Finishes

The goal that decided it started with LaBonta's defending. In the 63rd minute she picked off a pass near midfield and steered it to Bethune, who drove forward and split the Portland defense with a pass to Chawinga bursting down the left. Chawinga took one touch to settle and fired low into the bottom right corner.

The Thorns were blunt about how it happened, noting that reigning league MVP Temwa Chawinga was left unmarked on the counter. That is a bad person to leave unmarked.

According to the Current, it was Chawinga's sixth regular-season goal of the year and the 41st of her NWSL career. Bethune's assist was the 15th of her regular-season career in just her 48th NWSL match, the fourth-fewest games needed to reach that mark in league history, behind only Lauren Holiday, Tobin Heath and Kim Little. The club added that since both players entered the league at the start of the 2024 season, no active player has more assists than Bethune or more goals than Chawinga. Kansas City has built a pretty good partnership out of that.

Portland Pushes, Kansas City Punches

Portland went for it. Olivia Moultrie and Jayden Perry came on in the 72nd and 73rd minutes, and Moultrie immediately whipped in a cross that Perry headed toward the bottom left corner, only for Lorena to save. Moultrie later dragged a shot just wide, and Marie Müller sent one over late.

Then, in the 93rd minute, Chawinga killed it. After Kansas City cleared a Thorns set piece, she won a loose ball near midfield, raced down the left and drew two defenders at the top of the box. That left Hopkins wide open on the right, and the substitute, on for Sentnor since the 76th minute, hammered a first-time shot into the lower left corner. The Current said it was their first stoppage-time goal this season.

"It's great to win, but to come from behind shows a lot about what this team is about," head coach Chris Armas said. "Great three points against a team we're chasing."

Star Turns

Temwa Chawinga had a goal and an assist on two shots. The Current said it was the sixth time she has recorded a goal and an assist in the same regular-season match.

Lo'eau LaBonta scored the equalizer and made the interception that started the winner. Captain's performance, full stop.

Croix Bethune produced three shots and the defense-splitting pass for Chawinga.

Sophia Wilson scored and finished with six shots, three on target. She gave Lorena problems all afternoon.

Stats That Matter

• Shots: Kansas City outshot Portland 15 to 13 and put eight on target to the Thorns' six.
• Goalkeepers: Lorena and Arnold each made five saves.
• Set pieces: Portland earned eight corners to Kansas City's three and still could not find a second goal.
• Clean game: Neither team was shown a yellow card.
• Even split: Kansas City held 51.6 percent of possession.

What It Means

Kansas City moved to 6-0-5 with 18 points, bounced back from Wednesday's loss at Angel City and improved to a perfect 5-0-0 at home this season. It also flipped the script from a 2-0 loss at Portland on March 28. The Current host Boston Legacy FC on May 30.

Portland fell to 7-2-3 with 23 points, and its two-match unbeaten run since the loss at Louisville came to an end. The Thorns host the Utah Royals at Providence Park on May 30.

The Closing Take

CPKC Stadium is starting to feel like the final boss level of the NWSL: plenty of teams have taken a run at it, and nobody has figured out the pattern. Armas summed it up himself. "We're gritty, and we can win in different ways." Portland found that out the hard way.

Stats from ESPN's match data. Postgame quotes and club notes as reported by the Kansas City Current and the Portland Thorns.