Chawinga back from injury in 2-1 Current come-from-behind win

Kansas City Current midfielder Debinha celebrated her first-half that tied the score against Gotham FC. The Current went on to win 2-1.

The Kansas City Current exacted a measure of revenge on Saturday afternoon, rallying from a first-half deficit to beat Gotham FC 2-1 at CPKC Stadium, snapping a three-game losing streak and delivering some payback against the club that ended the Current’s record-breaking 2025 season in the playoffs.

Midfielder Debinha equalized in the 37th minute off a clever assist from Temwa Chawinga, who was making her first appearance of 2026 after 168 days on the sideline. Forward Michelle Cooper then drilled the winner in the 60th minute, set up by Ally Sentnor, to lift the Current (2-3-0, 6 points) to ninth in the NWSL standings.

The victory extended Kansas City’s remarkable dominance in the all-time series against Gotham (1-2-2, 5 points), as the Current remain unbeaten in regular season play against the New Jersey club at 6-0-5.

Forward Temwa Chawinga played 40 minutes in her first game back after a lengthy stretch on the injury report.

Chawinga makes instant impact

The biggest cheer of the afternoon came before a ball was kicked, when Chawinga’s name was announced in the starting lineup. The Malawian forward, the 2024 NWSL Golden Boot winner, had not played since suffering a foot injury that kept her out of the 2025 playoff loss to Gotham in November.

Head coach Chris Armas started Chawinga on a carefully managed workload, pulling her just before the half after roughly 40 minutes of action. The decision to substitute her before halftime rather than risk additional minutes in the second half raised some eyebrows, but Armas defended it as carefully considered, based on the player’s workload to that point.

“Many people probably wonder, what’s wrong with this coach? Why are you taking her out?” Armas said. “Once she reaches that threshold, that amount of minutes, the decision was made to take her off. What if that’s not the best thing for Temwa, and then ultimately the team? So science and art, both, but I think it was right to side with the science.”

In her limited time, Chawinga drew constant attention from Gotham’s back line and delivered a decisive moment. After Croix Bethune played a long diagonal ball to Cooper on the right wing in the 37th minute, Cooper drove forward and crossed to Chawinga at the top of the six-yard box. Chawinga flicked the ball behind her for Debinha, who rolled a finish into the bottom left corner to level the match at 1-1.

The assist made Chawinga the first player in franchise history to record 10 or more regular season goals and 10 or more regular season assists.

“The attention she draws from the opposition, the confidence she gives our players emotionally, the quality that she brings onto the pitch,” Armas said of Chawinga’s debut. “She’s also very smart with her runs and with the ball, so she gets a nice assist on the day.”

Gotham strikes first

Kansas City nearly took the lead in the opening minutes. Following a corner kick in the fifth minute, Debinha fed Bethune’s through ball to defender Kayla Sharples, whose header banged off the crossbar before Gotham cleared.

Gotham weathered the early storm and grabbed the lead in the 29th minute. Forward Jaedyn Shaw, who also scored the opening goal against Kansas City in last year’s playoff match, curled an effort into the bottom right corner past goalkeeper Lorena to make it 1-0. Savannah McCaskill was credited with the assist.

For the fifth consecutive match, the Current had conceded the first goal, a trend Armas acknowledged is not what the staff wants.

“Most teams in the league, 65 percent of the time you get scored on first, you lose,” Armas said. “We’ve won two games now after going behind. It’s something we don’t want, but we certainly want to score first like we did last year a lot.”

Michelle Cooper slipped the ball past the attempted block from Gotham defender Lilly Reale for the game-winning goal.

Cooper completes the comeback

The Current came out sharper after halftime. Armas said the coaching staff adjusted the team’s pressing structure, asking Cooper, Sentnor and the rest of the front line to be more aggressive with the wind at their backs.

“We made a couple little adjustments, changed our press a little bit and said, let’s really go after them,” Armas said. “We can pin them in a little bit. We have the wind, they’re against the wind, and I think we got on top of that right away.”

Sentnor delivered the key moment in the 60th minute, intercepting a loose ball in the attacking third and curling a pass wide for Cooper on the right. Cooper took a touch forward and drove a low shot through the legs of a Gotham defender and past goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger. It was Cooper’s 13th regular season goal, tied for fourth in franchise history, and her fifth career game-winner.

Cooper, who missed the 2025 playoff loss to Gotham with an injury, called the victory deeply satisfying.

“It was huge for us to get the win, for them to come into our house again and think that maybe they have that momentum or maybe they have that edge,” Cooper said. “Take it right away from them. Being able to get three points because of that was huge.”

The goal itself was a validation for Cooper, who has been working her way back to full fitness after her own injury layoff.

“It’s definitely a relief,” Cooper said. “It is hard to come back from injury naturally, but it is nice. We have a lot of the same girls on the team still. So just finding my footing again was really a big thing for me.”

Defense holds firm

Kansas City’s back line had to earn the three points down the stretch. Defender Izzy Rodriguez made a crucial block on an effort from Gotham’s Sarah Schupansky in the 75th minute. Sharples came up with a sliding challenge in the 83rd minute to deny a goal-bound shot from substitute Jordynn Dudley. In stoppage time, Lorena made a diving save on a long-range strike from fellow keeper Berger to preserve the lead.

The match statistics reflected a scrappy, efficient performance from the home side. Gotham dominated possession at 63.6 percent to Kansas City’s 36.4 percent and completed 557 passes to the Current’s 315. Even so, Kansas City generated the better chances, putting six shots on target to the visitors’ four.

Bethune was a standout in the midfield, leading the team with nine recoveries, three successful dribbles, and two tackles won, while also orchestrating the transition to attack with 12 passes in the final third.

Bethune’s versatility unlocks new formation

Armas deployed an unconventional 4-2-4 shape that pushed Bethune into a deeper role alongside Lo’eau LaBonta. The formation put four attackers on the field simultaneously, with Cooper, Sentnor, Debinha and Chawinga all starting.

“If you play a typical 4-2-3-1, when defending it’s a 4-4-2 or 4-2-4. But next to Lo, oftentimes it’s another six,” Armas explained. “We knew that if we play a 4-3-3 in attack, that puts a lot of creative players on the field at the same time. Defensively, it puts Croix in a role to play next to Lo like a six. And she’s really intelligent.”

Armas praised Bethune’s defensive work, suggesting her two-way performance could strengthen a potential case for a U.S. Women’s National Team call-up.

“She has this mentality, you can be dangerous with the ball and equally dangerous when you don’t have the ball,” Armas said. “And this was clear today.”

Ally Sentnor spotted Michelle Cooper ahead on the right side and slipped the ball through to set up the game-winning goal.

Cooper and Sentnor connect ahead of USWNT camp

The Cooper-to-Sentnor connection on the winning goal carried extra significance. Both players have been called up to the U.S. Women’s National Team for three friendlies against Japan beginning Apr. 11 in San Jose, Calif.

Sentnor, the 2024 U.S. Soccer Young Female Player of the Year, said the goal-scoring link was something the two have been working toward.

“We’ve talked about how we want to be able to connect more, the two of us, and to be able to bring that onto the pitch and score was super exciting,” Cooper said. “We know we want to come out stronger in the second half, and the importance of starting the second half faster than we did the first is the biggest game changer for us.”

Sentnor described the partnership as natural, noting that both players prefer tight combinations rather than playing far apart.

“We’re both players that want quick, tight combinations, so we’re not looking to be too far from each other,” Sentnor said. She added that the connection provides good momentum heading into the international window. “Even just having that connection today, it’s a little spark going into camp.”

Forward Amelia White created a late scoring chance with a run up the left side.

Looking ahead

Armas pointed to the contributions of young players like Laney Rouse and Amelia White, who entered as late substitutes, as evidence that the team’s depth is growing.

“We believe in young players,” Armas said. “A lot of coaches aren’t bringing those players on in that kind of pressure. Either we’re going to be about development or we’re not.”

During the international break, Kansas City will host the Teal Rising Cup, featuring the Current, Club América from Mexico’s Liga MX Femenil, and Brazilian clubs Corinthians SC and SE Palmeiras. The Current’s first match is Thursday, Apr. 9 at approximately 8 p.m. against Corinthians at CPKC Stadium.