Tuesday, November 5

NWSL roundup: Chicago Red Stars win opener, while KC Current hang on in launching of their brand-new arena

KANSAS CITY, Mo.– Vanessa DiBernardo scored the very first objective for Kansas City in its brand-new arena and the Current held back the Portland Thorns 5-4 on Saturday in the regular-season opener for the National Women’s Soccer League.

Debinha’s rebound shot deflected off Thorns goalkeeper Shelby Hogan and was up to DiBernardo, who scored in the 22nd minute. Novice Ellie Wheeler scored minutes later on and the Current developed a 3-1 lead by halftime.

Bia Zaneratto, Kristen Hamilton and Alex Pfeiffer included objectives for the Current. Sophia Smith and Janine Beckie each had a set of objectives for the Thorns.

The Current were injured in the 32nd minute when Debinha, a finalist for in 2015’s league MVP award, left the video game with what seemed a hamstring injury.

It was the very first video game at CPKC Stadium, which the group states is the very first U.S. arena developed specifically for females’s professional soccer. The independently funded $120 million center rests on the banks of the Missouri River and seats 11,500.

“I believe what this club is doing and setting the requirement, and structure this arena, and individuals appearing and supporting it, and simply ladies’s soccer growing in basic, I believe it’s simply incredibly unique,” DiBernardo stated. “Where we began with this league and where we are now, it simply reveals the development and just how much gamers have actually taken into it and actually pressed the requirement, and just how much we’ve type of truly needed to defend ourselves. And it’s simply the start.”

Saturday’s video game was a sellout. It likewise was the very first NWSL video game broadcast on ABC as part of the league’s brand-new media rights offer. The NWSL tattooed a brand-new broadcast offer worth $60 million yearly that will include the league’s matches on ESPN networks, CBS Sports, Amazon Prime Video and Scripps Sports.

Zaneratto, who has actually played in 4 Women’s World Cups for Brazil and was signed by the Current previously this season, scored before Smith made it 3-1 in the 43rd minute.

Hamilton and Pfeiffer included second-half objectives to extend the Current’s cause 5-1. Portland rallied with Beckie’s objective in the 71st minute and Smith’s 2nd in the 74th. Beckie’s 2nd can be found in interruption time.

Kansas City Current fans cheer throughout the inaugural match at CPKC Stadium on March 16, 2024. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

The Current won their very first video game under Vlatko Andonovski, the previous U.S. nationwide group coach, who likewise coached at FC Kansas City, among the league’s starting groups that played from 2013 to 2017.

Andonovski likewise coached 2 seasons with the Reign before taking control of the U.S. nationwide group. He parted methods with the group following the U.S. exit at the Women’s World Cup in 2015.

Brittany and Patrick Mahomes, part of the Current’s ownership group, started the video game with a “K.C., infant!” chant.

On Saturday,

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