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NWSL Golden Boot winner Temwa Chawinga scored the Kansas City Current‘s lone goal in a 1-0 quarterfinal victory over the North Carolina Courage on Saturday at CPKC Stadium.
Chawinga also hit the ground and stayed there several times in the match, something that drew criticism from Current head coach Vlatko Andonovski after the victory.
“It wasn’t just this game. If you look at the season, every game they’re overly physical against her,” Andonovski said. “It’s not fair for Temwa. They’re targeting her. They’re going directly at her. And I just hope that as we go forward, she gets more protection from the referees.”
Chawinga was on her back deep into second-half stoppage time after a tackle by Courage reserve Bianca St-Georges, who then stood over Chawinga with her hands in the air and appeared to yell something at the Current forward.
Kansas City defender Ellie Wheeler rushed over and shoved St-Georges in the back, resulting in yellow cards for Wheeler and St-Georges.
“I think [Chawinga] has a lot of attention on her,” Current midfielder Vanessa DiBernardo said. “And just, I think when we see that happen over and over again, and her not get the calls that she should be getting, it gets frustrating, and you want to protect her and stand up for her.
“She does so much for us, offensively and defensively, and we really want to stick together and show up for our teammates, especially in moments like that.”
The Courage were whistled for just one foul on Chawinga during the game, per the NWSL’s official statistics.
Kansas City’s win sets up a much anticipated semifinal meeting next week with the Orlando Pride, the NWSL Shield winners and No. 1 seed.
Chawinga opened the scoring in the eighth minute on Saturday, finishing a counterattack on the fourth shot of a chaotic sequence. Her initial shot was saved by Courage goalkeeper Casey Murphy before Kansas City forward Debinha put the rebound off the post. The ball bounced off the post and back to Chawinga, whose next shot was blocked by North Carolina defender Kaleigh Kurtz. But the ball came back to Chawinga again for an empty-net tap-in.
“That was their one really bright moment,” Courage head coach Sean Nahas said. “We just gave the ball away cheaply in the first 10 minutes for whatever reason, but I felt once the game settled in, and we dictated it later in the first half, we just couldn’t muster final chances. We had the one that was called back — probably the right call — but we were never able really to get behind and that’s just been the story of our season.”
Nahas said his team, especially Kurtz, “did a fantastic job with Chawinga today.”
Chawinga entered the match listed as questionable due to a knee injury that caused her to miss last week’s regular-season finale. She scored 20 goals in the regular season, breaking the single-season NWSL record (previously 18, held by Sam Kerr).
After conceding the goal, the Courage dominated on the ball, finishing the game with 65% possession. North Carolina forward Kerolin, last year’s league MVP, started and played 75 minutes in the loss after missing last week’s game with muscle tightness.
But Kerolin’s return wasn’t enough to solve the Courage’s season-long scoring troubles. She came off the field in the 75th minute, 10 minutes after leading scorer Ashley Sanchez was removed from the match.
“We had to make a few changes just to throw numbers higher up the field, and obviously it didn’t work out,” Nahas said. “But you have to go for it, whether you lose 1-0 or 5-0, at that stage, it doesn’t matter. But we weren’t really providing anything dynamic in the final third.”
The Current finished the regular season 16 points clear of North Carolina despite being separated by one place in the standings.
Kansas City now travels to face an Orlando team that started the season unbeaten through 23 games and trounced the Chicago Red Stars 4-1 in Friday’s quarterfinal.
The Pride defeated the Current in Kansas City in June in a battle of unbeatens before the teams played to a scoreless draw in Orlando in September.
“Orlando showed in this season that they’re the best team, no question,” Andonovski said. “All we can do is congratulate them for a great season. But for us, we know that it’s going to be a hard task. We’re gonna enjoy today and tomorrow we’re gonna start preparing for Orlando.”