Array
A tumultuous season in this country’s top women’s professional soccer league comes to a close Saturday night – the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) championship match pits the Portland Thorns against the surprising Kansas City Current.
The game starts at 8 p.m. ET at a neutral site – Audi Field in Washington, DC.
The Thorns are one of the league’s most accomplished and popular teams – this is their fourth appearance in the title match. Portland won NWSL championships in 2013 and 2017.
The Current were an expansion team last year and finished last in the league. The start to 2022 wasn’t any better as KC didn’t notch a win in its first five matches. But then 13 straight matches without a loss put the Current in position for a memorable worst-to-first turnaround.How they got here
KC qualified for the final with an impressive upset win over NWSL power OL Reign.
The Seattle-based Reign won this season’s NWSL Shield, meaning they had the best record, and their lineup was studded with U.S. National team stars like Megan Rapinoe and Rose Lavelle. But in front of a record 21,491 fans at Seattle’s Lumen Field, the Reign couldn’t turn their offensive pressure (they outshot KC 16-8, had 14 corner kicks to the Current’s 2, and possessed the ball 61% of the time) into any scores against KC goalkeeper AD Franch, and the Current clinched a 2-0 semifinal victory.
Meanwhile, in their semifinal match, the veteran Thorns appeared headed for extra time with another NWSL newcomer – the first-year expansion team San Diego Wave.
