Kansas City Current remain unbeaten with weather-delayed tie vs. Dash in Houston

The Houston Dash and Kansas City Current played the usual 90 minutes of soccer on Sunday.

But it took nearly six hours to complete this particular National Women’s Soccer League match, which kicked off at noon at Shell Energy Stadium.

The Current (5-0-2) and Dash scored on either side of a mid-match weather delay lasting four hours, for a draw that left both teams with a point.

“I felt that we created enough to win this game comfortably,” Current coach Vlatko Andonovski said. “On the other side, it’s not that they didn’t create anything, we gave ‘em a goal. But that’s the game of soccer.”

The Current took a 1-0 lead in the 24th minute when Temwa Chawinga scored her fifth goal of the season. Vanessa DiBernardo delivered the cross — her fifth assist of the year — and Chawinga got the ball past Dash goalkeeper Jane Campbell.

Then, severe weather in the area turned the 14 minutes allotted for halftime into a much longer break. For the next four hours the Current stayed ready, as the delay was initially for 30 minutes, and then continued to get pushed further back.

“The worst part is you cannot really organize anything because the delay is not ‘four hours, and we’re gonna start,’” Andonovski explained. “It’s 20 minutes, it’s 15 minutes, it’s 30 minutes, it’s 40 minutes, it’s 10 minutes.

“You’re constantly on the move, you’re constantly ready to go. And it’s a little bit exhausting, to be quite honest. The league wanted us to get this game done today, and here we are.”

KC player Alexa Spaanstra said some groups spent part of their unexpected downtime juggling the ball. Others rewatched the entirety of the first half, she said, while some took in a bit of the Formula 1 auto race in Miami, received soft-tissue treatment or even played a card game called Exploding Kittens.

“There’s a lot of different moving pieces, but I feel like we handled it pretty well,” she said.

The match restarted at 5:13 p.m. Central Time, the Current still holding a 1-0 lead. And that was the score until Houston rookie Amanda West netted her first professional goal in the 71st minute.

Current goalkeeper AD Franch spilled a cross and collided with teammate Ellie Wheeler, meaning neither Current player could get to the ball. West picked it up and tucked in a shot off the post.

Despite the mistake at the back, the Current had ample opportunities throughout the match. KC put 10 shots on target to the Dash’s two. A few seemingly golden chances didn’t result in shots or were stopped by Campbell.

“They didn’t create the goal,” Andonovski said. “We literally gave them a goal. On the other side, I don’t know what we needed to do today to score a goal. We did anything possible. … If you don’t score goals, you’re not gonna win the game.”

It’s a quick turnaround now for the Current. Kansas City will take on the Seattle Reign Wednesday night, with kickoff set for 9 p.m. Central.

Andonovski was already upset about his team’s grueling schedule this week, and Sunday’s long delay only served to exacerbate things: The Current missed their scheduled flight to Seattle on Sunday afternoon.

A team spokesperson confirmed the Current found a hotel in Houston and re-scheduled an outgoing flight for Monday. But the chaos put a dent in their plans for training and recovery ahead of Wednesday’s game.

The Current will now make its longest trip of the year on short rest to play a team coming off extra rest following a weekend match at home.

“We have by far the worst schedule in the league, and this just made it even worse,” Andonovski said.

Daniel Sperry covers soccer for The Star. He can be reached at sperry.danielkc@gmail.com.