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Temwa Chawinga finds the again of the web for Kansas Metropolis Present (1:10)
Temwa Chawinga finds the again of the web for Kansas Metropolis Present (1:10)
Jeff Kassouf
Oct 25, 2024, 10:39 PM ET
SAN ANTONIO, Texas — Kansas City Current ahead Temwa Chawinga scored twice within the first half on Friday at Toyota Discipline to raise her staff previous NJ/NY Gotham FC, 2-0 within the closing of the inaugural NWSL x Liga MX Femenil Summer season Cup.
The brace was Chawinga’s fourth in all competitions this yr. She lately broke the Nationwide Girls’s Soccer League’s single-season scoring document. She has scored 20 targets in 25 video games, with one sport left within the season.
She opened the scoring on Friday within the twenty fifth minute when she bought in behind Gotham’s protection and chipped a shot over goalkeeper Cassie Miller.
Twelve minutes later, Chawinga struck once more on one other sequence that began with midfielders Claire Hutton and Lo’eau LaBonta. Replays confirmed that Chawinga seemed offside on the second purpose, however video assessment was not utilized for the Summer season Cup. “She is a finisher,” LaBonta mentioned about Chawinga. “You already know that she’s the Golden Boot chief, most likely about to be the winner. You simply give her the ball and he or she works magical issues.”
The Summer season Cup was held primarily through the summer time Olympic break for the NWSL and featured all 14 groups from the U.S. high flight competing with six groups from Mexico’s first division. Gotham FC and Kansas Metropolis gained their respective teams earlier than profitable the semifinals in August. All 4 semifinalists had been from the NWSL.
“There’s something to it, constructing a profitable mentality,” Present head coach Vlatko Andonovski mentioned. “You may’t win an enormous trophy if you happen to do not win the small ones. … It is a good behavior to have. Profitable is a behavior.”
An introduced crowd of three,668 followers turned up in San Antonio, which isn’t residence to an NWSL or skilled girls’s soccer staff. Toyota Discipline ‘s capability is round 8,000.
Gotham FC and Kansas Metropolis are third and fourth within the NWSL regular-season standings and are separated by just one level heading into the ultimate spherical of play. Kansas Metropolis began most of its ordinary beginning lineup on Friday, together with Chawinga, who was subbed off at halftime.
Gotham’s roster was stretched skinny by accidents and private commitments, in addition to worldwide absences through the FIFA window. Gotham signed seven nationwide staff substitute gamers forward of the match simply to fill out a full gameday roster. Amongst them was Mana Shim, who was a part of the staff’s NWSL Championship run final yr, and 14-year-old McKenna “Mak” Whitham.
Chawinga brace powers Kansas Metropolis Present to Summer season Cup title
