Legacy not half bad, but Current pull out win on 69th-minute goal

For the first 68 minutes of their NWSL road game against the Current on Saturday afternoon in Kansas City, Mo., the Legacy prevented Temwa Chawinga, the two-time reigning league MVP and golden boot winner, from posing a scoring threat.

Until, that is, calamity struck in the 69th minute.

That’s when Chawinga rose up and buried a rebound that propelled the Current to a 1-0 victory over the Legacy, who will stew over the stinging setback during the NWSL’s month-long hiatus for the men’s World Cup.

Legacy goalkeeper Casey Murphy made the initial save on Croix Bethune’s close-range shot, with Chawinga collecting the rebound. Jorelyn Carabalí kept Chawinga’s attempt out on the goal line, but the ball fell back to Chawinga and the Malawian striker buried it.

The loss marked the 11th time this season the Legacy (2-7-3, 9 points) have conceded first — the lone exception was a 2-2 draw against North Carolina in which they let slip a two-goal lead in the second half.

“Scoring early is what we’re missing right now,” said defender Sophia Lowenberg, who made her NWSL debut as a second-half substitute after graduating from Boston College earlier in the month. “Capitalizing on those chances is what will really help us in the end.”

Kansas City (7-5-0, 21 points) moved into fourth place and extended its undefeated streak at CPKC Stadium to 23 games, an NWSL record.

Boston outshot the Current, 8-4, in the first half. The Legacy held a 2-1 edge in shots on target over one of the league’s top-scoring offenses through 45 minutes.

The Legacy have fired 45 shots on target but converted just 11 across 12 games this season, and their minus-7 goal differential is the third-worst in the league. Saturday’s result marks the fifth time the Legacy have been shut out.

Legacy coach Filipa Patão insisted that “nothing needs to change,” and that her team will spend the break focusing on “the same things” they have all season.

“Every time someone asks me ‘What needs to change?’ because we lost, and we had the same principles and dynamics that bring us victories or draws, [that means] they are not watching the game,” Patão said.

As the Legacy lost steam and struggled to maintain possession late in the second half, the coach subbed off striker Aïssata Traoré, who has scored two of her three goals this season in the 90th minute or later.

“We needed players that can hold [the ball] a little bit more,” Patão said. “The team already was very tired in the final [minutes] of the game to [make] better decisions.”

The Legacy will return to the field July 5 to host Bay FC at Centreville Bank Stadium in Pawtucket, R.I.

“We [can] learn a lot from this game on how, when we do keep it so close, to then pull out results, whether it’s a point or three points,” Lowenberg said. “That’s what we’re going to focus on in the break, finishing those games out and getting the results we want.”