Where to watch Houston Dash vs. Kansas City Current Watch: Live Stream, TV Channel, Start Time

After a near last-place finish during the 2023 NWSL season, Kansas City Current is off to their best start in franchise history. The club is undefeated in six games, with a new coaching staff, new international players, new rookies and a brand new stadium – the first ever built for an NWSL team. Among all the new things in Kansas City’s many keys to early success include key performances from their veteran players.

Where to look

Date: Sunday May 5 | Time: 1:00 PM ET
Place: Shell Energy Stadium – Houston, Texas
TV: CBS | Live stream: Biggest+

Current midfielder Vanessa DiBernardo has been playing in the league since 2014 and was previously drafted by her ‘hometown’ team, Chicago Red Stars. After nearly a decade with Chicago, the Naperville, IL native signed a new contract with the Current as a free agent ahead of the 2023 season. The offseason excitement quickly diminished as she faced a concussions and the long grind of a losing season.

“I think our mentality from the beginning was ‘let’s take this season one game at a time, a long season.’ There are a lot of games. If we can just focus on the next game in front of us and learn from the previous game, and what we can do to be successful in the next game,” DiBernardo said.

“It’s been really great for us because we don’t look too far ahead. We don’t look at our past success because it’s over now. So what can we do to learn from our past, but be ready for the next game is exactly where I think our spirit and energy is going.”

She notes that her own preparation for this season was very different. Her personal goals were simplified. Not only get healthy, but also feel healthy. She wants to feel good and play consistently again, build up her fitness and play matches on the field again.

“My mindset after my injury last year has changed a little bit. I just realized how quickly it could be taken away from you,” she said. “I think I’ve taken away the pressure of just performing and being successful and ‘OK, look, you don’t know how long this is going to last. Let’s just enjoy it.’ So I think it’s just been a mental shift for me.”

Kansas City’s offensive firepower

Kansas City’s red-hot start to the season is exciting, with high-scoring games and already eleven different goal scorers. They are only the third team in league history to earn 16 points through their first six games of the season, and the previous two clubs to reach the milestone (2014 Seattle Reign FC, 2018 North Carolina Courage) went on to win the NWSL Shield . in their respective seasons.

DiBernardo jokes and smiles, telling everyone to “calm down, calm down” so as not to get too ahead of their long-term plans, but even she is having an incredible start to the 2024 season. The NWSL veteran has scored three goals, four assists given and are second in the team in terms of chances created (14), as they dominate the matches.

To her, Kansas City’s recent success is a sum of all the pieces, all of which ultimately come together to tackle a lengthy 26-game season one game at a time.

“The offseason brought us a lot of change, and I think what we did really well here among everyone was we really used that long preseason to all get on the same page. I think with the new players, new staff and new briefing We all learned and grew together. We used that time to lay the foundation for what we want to start the season with,” said DiBernardo.

“We know that what we start with is not where we want to end up. So I think it’s just going to be a process and we know it’s going to be a process. [and] I think we’re excited about that. For that growth. I think it’s something we missed last year.”

I appreciate the development of the league

It’s a valid perspective. One that comes from a player who has had to navigate many of the highs and lows of an NWSL career. Playing on college lawns, sharing lockers with students, dealing with nagging injuries, the disappointment of falling short in the playoffs and championship finals, and a Chicago franchise whose former owner was in charge under micromanaged dysfunction.

She has seen where the league started, its current rise and where it is going. Kansas City Current is part of the long-term vision and hope for higher standards in the league. When the Current had their 2024 season opener at CPKC Stadium, they added to league history by scoring the first goal in the new arena. The opening match made more history when the score ended with 9 goals, a 5-4 win for Kansas City over Portland Thorns, the highest score ever for an NWSL season opener.

It also served as the first win for former U.S. national team coach Vlatko Andonovski, who returned to NWSL after the Current hired him as its new head coach and sporting director in the offseason. Both coach and player have had lengthy NWSL careers, and prior to his return to NWSL, DiBernardo had played more games against Andonovski than he had with him as a roster player.

“It was no secret, I knew personally that he is great in this league. He has shown that he can be successful. When he was named head coach, I was excited because I had heard good things about him, and I was excited to experience that,” she explained.

“He’s leading us in a way that’s similar to someone who’s been in the league for so long, I understand that. The tactics he’s using to make sure that ultimately we’re where we want to be. So it’s been good. It’s been good.” I think that role is difficult to fill in this league. There aren’t many experienced coaches who have been in the league year after year after year and shown success. It’s something we really enjoyed.”

The impact of Temwa Chawinga and Brazil’s Bia Zaneratto

Being able to play alongside two talented international players has allowed DiBernado and the Current to reach the top of the rankings in just the first month of the season. Malawian international Temwa Chawinga and Brazil’s Bia Zaneratto have taken over the league with their clinical finishing and creativity on the ball. Each of them scored four goals in six games.

Chawinga’s intelligence in timing and positioning is next level and her ability to judge when to speed up or stop constantly shows off her presence of mind and tactical acumen. She is a real goalscorer with her four goals from 2.89 expected goals, the fifth highest in the league.

Zaneratto’s efforts to create for others and herself make her a dangerous player to mark with her constant movement. He scored more often in moments of brilliance, and her three assists put her behind only DiBernardo himself and Washington rookie Croix Bethune, who each have four. Their history of playing together abroad in China has also shattered some of the “learning curve” narrative that surrounds international players when they arrive at NWSL.

“I actually didn’t know they had played together before and I thought, ‘Ha, this makes sense now!’ So I think that definitely helps,” DiBernardo joked.

“Although they are both very experienced players and their quality is different. We all have different qualities. So I think we can complement each other because of that. The coaching staff has given us a kind of blueprint of ideas, to get us all on the same page , but still allowing us to keep our own personality and creativity in the way we play. It’s helpful to keep us on the same page, but not take away from who we are as players, we are there as a team. really growing.”

It’s been a bit of a roller coaster for Kansas City since they re-entered the league as an expansion franchise in 2021. They finished last in their first season before quickly recovering to a second-place finish in the 2022 NWSL Championship before settling for second-worst in 2023.

Andonovski is the fourth person to serve in a leadership role with the team in the team’s four-year history, but DiBernardo credits the franchise building blocks, resources and coaching staff for helping the roster build off a strong start to the season.

“That was part of what drew me to this club, their passion and resources to grow the game, and the expectation that this should be the norm. We had it with the training facility and that was like the first step , but with the stadium I think it’s so cool because it’s ours and it feels like ours. When we step on the field, we say, ‘This is our home and we want to protect it’ and we show our fans what. this is all about.

It’s been such growth since I first came into the league. So it was really cool to know that some of these young players coming into the league, this is all they know, and I’m really happy for them. Because for us older players it took a lot of work, but it’s something that hopefully they will learn [from] and still moving the game forward,” she explained.

DiBernardo’s hope for the league is that the success happening in Kansas City will be a standard for the future. The upcoming generation of players will enter the arena understanding that recent competitive landscapes are something new for the NWSL, and while reaching milestones is exciting, it is important not to stand still.

“Look at what we’ve done and what we’ve been through. This is something we have, but we’re not satisfied here. We still want to grow the game and take it to the next level.”