Match Preview: Kansas City Current vs. Angel City FC
Children’s Mercy Park | Kansas City, Kansas – Friday, August 19 at 8:00 PM ET
Players to watch:
In the 4-3 win over North Carolina, Kansas City duo Lo’eau LaBonta and Claire Lavogez became the first pair of Current teammates to have both a goal and assist in the same match. Lavogez also joined teammate Elyse Bennett and Chicago’s Mallory Pugh as the only NWSL players this season to have a goal and an assist in a match they didn’t start. While it was Lavogez’s first goal, LaBonta tallied for the fourth time this season but, for the first time, it was a non-penalty goal as her other three strikes all came from the spot.
Angel City midfielder Savannah McCaskill scored the only goal in the win over Chicago and now has a team-leading five goals on the season, with all five coming in her last six games. In her 72 prior NWSL regular season appearances, McCaskill had scored six total goals. Prior to the 1-0 win over the Red Stars, Angel City had scored two goals in each of their previous three games. However, their 15 total goals on the year have them ranked second-to-last behind Gotham FC (11).
Match facts: The Kansas City Current and Angel City FC help kick off the weekend’s action across the NWSL with a Friday night matchup on CBS Sports Network that sees the Current welcome the visitors to Children’s Mercy Park for an 8:00 P.M. kickoff.
Kansas City has been on a tear as of late with the club’s unbeaten streak now sitting at 10 games (W7 D3) after a 4-3 road victory over North Carolina last Saturday. The Current are the third NWSL team ever (2018 Courage, 2014 Reign) to have a 10-game span with at least seven wins and no losses in league play, a sign of their dominance heading into the regular season home stretch.
Angel City, meanwhile, is coming off a 1-0 home win over Chicago on Sunday, despite having just 43.6 percent of the possession in the match. In fact, ACFC has won all three matches this season in which it has had less than 45 percent possession. The club does currently sit one spot outside the playoff line, though, and in their last two months they have split almost evenly their results (3W 2D 2L).
In the lone meeting ever between these two teams, the hosts Angel City notched a 1-0 win over Kansas City. In that match, the Current became the only NWSL team ever to lose a match 1-0 on an own goal while also receiving multiple yellow cards.
