Amelia White scores her first NWSL goal and Kansas City stretches its league-record home unbeaten run to 25 in a 5-1 rout.
Down several of their biggest names, the Kansas City Current needed only five minutes to take control. Haley Hopkins buried a rebound in the fifth minute, and the goals did not stop. The final score was 5-1 over Racing Louisville FC on Wednesday night at CPKC Stadium.
Three goals came before the 20th minute, and Kansas City led 3-0 at the break. Hopkins and Debinha both scored twice, and White added the first goal of her professional career. The win lifted Kansas City to 9-7-1 and 28 points, good for sixth place. The Current have now gone unbeaten at home for 25 straight matches, a league record. Louisville fell to 3-11-2.
Attack from the first whistle
Head coach Chris Armas has preached one idea all season, and his team delivered it Wednesday. “Goals change games, and tonight you could see that,” Armas said. He told reporters the final slide of the pregame meeting carried a single word, “Attack. And this is what we wanted most of all, which is the DNA of our football.”
Croix Bethune threaded a pass through to Lo’eau LaBonta inside the area. Goalkeeper Jordyn Bloomer got down to reject the low shot, but Hopkins pounced on the loose ball to poke it home.
The second arrived 10 minutes later. Izzy Rodriguez worked a ball back into the box from the left, Hopkins headed it back across. Debinha met it in midair, with a low side volley into the corner of the net. Post-game, Armas did not hold back with his praise. “The side volley that she took, it’s world-class,” he said.
White supplied the third in the 20th minute. Bethune found White making an unmarked run up the center and slipped a pass directly into her path, with only the goalkeeper to beat. The rookie took the ball in stride and beat Bloomer inside the far post.
“It felt so good,” she said after the match. “As a rookie, I’ve given myself some grace with just kind of the production end, and just focusing on showing up every day and just bringing the most effort I can on the field every day.” She described her run in simple terms. “As soon as I saw [Bethune] have the ball, I was just like, okay, run,” White said of Bethune. “Just get on your horse and run and push the line and see what happens.”
Armas praised the rookie’s breakthrough. “There’s no better confidence that the players get themselves, the internal confidence that only the performances can give,” he said.
Hopkins pointed to the plan behind the barrage. “One of our objectives for the game was patience and upgrading our shots and not shooting from outside the eighteen,” she said. “Tonight it really just clicked, and you saw a lot of calmness and patience.” Armas saw the same thing. “Tonight they did seem to slow down, seek the extra pass, get close to the goal, take the extra touches, and it equals five goals,” he said.
Louisville had its moments, and Marisa Jordan preserved the three-goal cushion with a diving stop on a drive from distance by Courtney Petersen. The three first-half goals gave Kansas City its most productive opening 45 minutes since a 2025 meeting with the same opponent.
Early second-half success
The pattern repeated after the restart. Bayley Feist laid the ball off to Debinha near the top of the box, Bloomer could only push out the resulting shot, and Hopkins was there again to play back the rebound in the 48th minute. It was the first two-goal game of her NWSL career.
Hopkins kept it light afterward. She called them the “easiest two goals of my life.” Both came off rebounds inside the six-yard box.
A few minutes later, Feist picked off a loose Louisville touch in midfield and started the attack with a pass to Hopkins. She kept sprinting to overlap, and after Hopkins found Debinha in traffic, the two played a give-and-go that ended with Debinha sweeping a first-touch shot into the net near the penalty spot.
Louisville avoided the shutout in the 81st minute. Substitute Katie Scott caught Emma Sears with a rough shoulder-check in the box. A brief video review confirmed the penalty, and Scott picked up a yellow card. Taylor Flint sent Jordan diving early to her left and fired into the empty space behind.
Milestones all around
Debinha’s two goals lifted her career NWSL total across all competitions to 82 tied with Seattle’s Lynn Biyendolo at the top of the all-time list. In regular-season play alone she now sits on 58, sixth on the league’s career chart, within reach of Ashley Hatch at 59 and Alex Morgan at 60.
Armas said the forward’s form lifts everyone. “The better she is, the better we are,” he said.
Bethune picked up her seventh assist with her through ball to White, her incredible field vision giving her the Current season record with 13 regular season games remaining. She is also tied for the league lead.
Kolo Suliafu made her NWSL regular-season debut in the closing stages, coming on for Izzy Rodriguez at left back in the 65th minute.
Armas singled out the young defender. “For Kolo to get almost 30 minutes in the debut, I think it meant a lot for all of us,” he said. “I’m proud of her that she’s earned that.”
Playing without their stars
Kansas City produced its outburst without a long list of regulars. Forward Temwa Chawinga is away on international duty with Malawi, where she scored in an upset of Nigeria. Defender Kayla Sharples was a late scratch to recover from the Boston game’s wear and tear.
Armas returned again and again to the same theme, that the system, not any one star, drives the scoring. He noted that Kansas City has scored more than any team in the league this season, much of it without Chawinga. “We want to attack and score goals no matter who’s on the field,” he said. “Anyone can score with our style of play and can be the playmaker.”
Photos from Kansas City Current vs. Racing Louisville
