**Kansas City, Kansas** – The Kansas City Current battled back from a two-goal deficit on Sunday night to end up rescuing a point against the Orlando Pride as both teams pushed their unbeaten streaks to eight games and four games respectively.
The hosts were first to test the opposition right on the quarter of an hour mark as they sought to open the scoring. The Current’s Victoria Pickett was in possession and spotted the forward run of teammate Kristen Hamilton in the penalty area. Playing Hamilton in, the forward had just enough time to get a shot off ahead of onrushing Pride goalkeeper Erin McLeod, but McLeod was big enough to stop the shot with her foot to kill the chance.
After another tame effort a few minutes later from the Current, it would instead be Orlando who scored the game’s first goal when defender Celia headed her side in front in the 25 ^th minute. On the ball outside the box trying to figure out her next move was Pride midfielder Erika Tymrak, who eventually lifted her head and saw her teammate Celia in the penalty area in front of her defender. Launching a cross into the center of the penalty area, Celia was then able to stay in front of her defender and produce a headed effort that rolled slowly past Current goalkeeper Adrianna Franch to go in front.
Though both sides would have looks on goal throughout the remainder of the opening half, at the halftime interval, Celia’s goal still stood as good enough to carry her side in with the lead.
However, just 23 seconds into the second half, Orlando’s night went from good to great as they were able to capitalize on a Franch mistake that saw Julie Doyle punt the ball over the line from inside the box. As Orlando broke up field, midfielder Kerry Abello was met by a sliding Franch in the penalty area, though the goalkeeper failed to keep the ball in her possession and looked to have briefly injured herself in the process. As the ball squeaked out, Meggie Dougherty Howard found it and played a pass into the center of the box for Doyle, who smashed home just a few yards out from goal to double her side’s lead.
Not going away though, the Current would pull one back in the 57 ^th minute through forward Elyse Bennett to spark the home crowd. Mace played the ball forward to Bennett from just inside the opposition half though the forward still had plenty to do. Dancing down the right side of the field, Bennett broke into the penalty area on a solo mission and ended up lifting her effort over McLeod to bring her team back into the match with over a half-hour to play.
Kansas City would only continue to pile on the pressure too, with efforts LaBonta and others kept out by McLeod as Orlando clung to its lead. However, in the 82 ^nd minute the Current would demonstrate their will to not go down as attacker CeCe Kizer showed a good bit of skill to bring down LaBonta’s through ball and score. As LaBonta lifted her through pass over the defense, Kizer still had to bring it down and get it around McLeod in pursuit of goal. Doing just that, Kizer was able to flick the ball over McLeod before powering a shot home to secure the equalizer.
In the second minute of five added on, Kansas City had one final shot to win the match through forward Kristen Hamilton. As both sides continued to fatigue, the Current managed to work the ball around the Pride penalty area where LaBonta played the ball across the goalmouth for Hamilton. Striking quickly, the forward was still denied by McLeod from close range as Orlando refused to concede a third.
In the end, both sides were able to preserve their respective unbeaten streaks as they settled for a 2-2 draw to close out the weekend’s action. For Kansas City, though it was unable to win a fourth consecutive game, it was able to extend its undefeated run to eight games while Orlando pushed its own to run to four games.

Match Highlights

Match Highlights