The second half of the 2025 NWSL season is kicking into excessive gear on Saturday with first-place Kansas Metropolis Present dealing with second-place Orlando Satisfaction at CPKC Stadium (4 p.m. on Paramount+ and CBS). It is a matchup that can pit Kansas Metropolis’s calculated protection in opposition to Orlando’s relentless midfield.
The Present have a 12-point lead between them and Orlando, and whereas one sport will not flip the scales completely, it is a long-awaited assembly between two sides which have emerged as a pair of the league’s elite golf equipment.
In a league that is solely 13 years outdated, rivalries are nonetheless growing. Whereas Kansas Metropolis and Orlando haven’t got the lengthy historical past and even geographical relevance to level at as causes for rivalry lore, the 2 sides have the timing proper. The Satisfaction are the reigning NWSL champions and NWSL Protect winners. Kansas Metropolis have been a playoff aspect in two of the final three seasons (runners-up in 2022), and in 2024, Orlando eradicated the Present within the semifinal spherical. So positive, it isn’t Batman vs. the Joker, simply good old style lingering unhealthy blood.
Find out how to watch Kansas Metropolis vs. Orlando
- Date: Saturday, August. 16 | Time: 4 p.m. ET
- Location: CPKC Stadium — Kansas Metropolis, Mo.
- Reside stream: Paramount+ | TV: CBS
- Odds: KC -125; Draw +250; ORL +340
“That is simply going to be a very thrilling sport. Clearly, we now have some form of rivalry with Orlando, I assume in a way, simply because we have each received in one another’s houses to date. So I believe this shall be a giant sport. Final time they have been right here, they received the win, and that was actually exhausting for us. So, I believe we need to change that and are available out of this sport tremendous sturdy,” Kansas Metropolis defender Hailie Mace instructed CBS Sports activities.
Mace has been with the membership since its inaugural season and has been a backline staple since being traded there in 2021. She’s seen the rising pains and has labored with totally different goalkeepers since her arrival, however 2025 has a particular cadence to it with Brazilian worldwide Lorena in between the posts for Kansas Metropolis. The Present’s protection leads the league in clear sheets (eight) and is second general in recoveries (709) and interceptions (164).
“[Lorena’s] come into the staff and finished a very good job. It is wonderful that she’s tall and like will come out and seize crosses, corners, aggressive off of her line. That makes us as defenders really feel fairly safe, like when groups need to threaten us in behind, we all know we now have a goalkeeper that is going to come back off her line and are available out and get the ball crosses within the field. I really feel like that is the way in which groups are attempting to get targets in opposition to us. Early crosses, or simply discovering alternative ways to interrupt us down, or attempt to break us down. So it is actually wonderful to have a goalkeeper that is comfy and assured and coming in, securing the ball for us,” Mace stated.
Lorena’s first yr because the beginning goalkeeper for the Present comes with evolution from different teammates as properly. Defenders Kayla Sharples and Alana Cook dinner joined the membership through trades final yr and have been late mid-season additions within the membership’s playoff push that ended within the semifinals.
This yr, the defensive unit had a full offseason to construct up towards 2025, however typically, uncontrollable circumstances drive changes. Cook dinner sustained a season-ending ACL harm in Might, and veteran Eliabeth Ball has stepped up in her place. Outdoors again Izzy Rodriguez’s elevated performances have aided in engineered assaults and led to a U.S. ladies’s nationwide staff name up this summer time. They’re all only a sum of Kansas Metropolis’s defensive components.
“I believe now that we all know the system, we’re in a position to deliver that facet into the sport extra, as an alternative of all the time pondering like, ‘Oh, the place am I speculated to be?’ Everyone knows we’re in the correct spot, so now being aggressive in these spots helps us,” Mace stated.
“All of us positively really feel like we’re on the identical web page. Anybody can step into any of the positions, and everybody is aware of their function and is aware of precisely what must be finished. So, it simply makes our lives a lot simpler, realizing that everybody is aware of the way to play the function, and we’re all fairly acquainted with one another now.”
This season is barely totally different for groups. Kansas Metropolis nonetheless have a deadly attacker in Temwa Chawinga, however its defensive form has improved drastically. Orlando’s reliance on a steady midfield as supplied extra slender victories throughout their season report. The Satisfaction have not received a sport by a multi-goal margin since June and have solely three video games the place they’ve defeated opposition by two or extra targets. Kansas Metropolis will attempt to capitalize on that truth and ensure the offense flows by means of the protection.
“We now have the attacking firepower that each staff in all probability needs that they had. However I believe our staff is so good defensively and so disciplined, and we now have this construction that we’re very assured in, and I believe that is a giant step. An enormous space we have grown in since I have been right here,” stated Mace.
“I simply really feel prefer it’s very exhausting for groups to interrupt us down. And enjoying in a system the place you’re feeling like that, it simply brings a number of confidence to all people. So each time we step on the pitch, we all know that this staff goes to work tremendous exhausting defensively, after which the attacking aspect will come from that.”
Kansas Metropolis’s evolution from bleeding targets early final season to main the league in clear sheets is a notable turnaround. Defenders are deliberate when on the ball. Ensuring there’s motion to drive the opponent into uncomfortable positions or permitting attacking gamers to reset and be affected person to return to form “with a view to assault and construct,” Mace defined.
“I believe that is helped us be extra profitable. Hold the ball extra so we do not have to run as a lot, after which defensively, similar to mentality within the field. Being extra aggressive, being extra vocal, and being extra on the entrance foot,” she stated.
Because the season begins its descent into the playoff push, high groups can have targets on their backs. Kansas Metropolis, as league desk leaders this yr, are the group that everybody is chasing, even Orlando. The historically lengthy NWSL season means most coaches and groups do not actually talk about the desk and standings until a sure time. With simply 10 match weeks remaining, now could be the time when seasonal targets get extra actual.
However for Mace and Kansas Metropolis, they nonetheless have extra to show, one other gear they need to hit, they usually need to do precisely that in opposition to different elite groups.
“Clearly we speak concerning the desk and the standings and the factors that we now have, however actually, we have been speaking rather a lot about similar to getting good performances and enjoying properly … So, I believe extra so than getting factors, we need to construct these performances and be higher, in order that when the playoffs do come, we’re on the high of our sport and we’re enjoying tremendous properly. As a result of proper now, yeah, we’re getting factors, however I believe the performances want to come back earlier than the factors proper now,” she stated.
