Vanessa DiBernardo scored the primary purpose for Kansas Metropolis in its new stadium and the Present held off the Portland Thorns 5-4 on Saturday within the regular-season opener for the Nationwide Ladies’s Soccer League (NWSL).
Debinha‘s rebound shot deflected off Thorns goalkeeper Shelby Hogan and fell to DiBernardo, who scored within the twenty second minute. Rookie Ellie Wheeler scored moments later and the Present constructed a 3-1 lead by halftime.
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Bia Zaneratto, Kristen Hamilton and Alex Pfeiffer added objectives for the Present. Sophia Smith and Janine Beckie every had a two objectives for the Thorns.
Pfeiffer turned the youngest purpose scorer in league historical past at 16 years, 4 months.
The Present have been damage within the thirty second minute when Debinha, a finalist for final yr’s league MVP award, left the sport with what seemed to be a hamstring damage.
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It was the primary recreation at CPKC Stadium, which the workforce says is the primary U.S. stadium constructed expressly for girls’s professional soccer. The privately financed $120 million facility sits on the banks of the Missouri River and seats 11,500.
Saturday’s recreation was a sellout. It additionally was the primary NWSL recreation broadcast on ABC as a part of the league’s new media rights deal. The NWSL signed a broadcast deal value $60 million yearly that may function the league’s matches on ESPN networks, CBS Sports activities, Amazon Prime Video and Scripps Sports activities.
Zaneratto, who has performed in 4 Ladies’s World Cups for Brazil and was signed by the Present earlier this season, scored earlier than Smith made it 3-1 within the forty third minute.
Hamilton and Pfeiffer added second-half objectives to increase the Present’s result in 5-1. However Portland rallied with Beckie’s purpose within the 71st minute and Smith’s second within the 74th. Beckie’s second got here in stoppage time.
The Present received their first recreation below Vlatko Andonovski, the previous U.S. nationwide workforce coach, who additionally coached at FC Kansas Metropolis, one of many league’s founding groups that performed from 2013 to 2017.
Andonovski additionally coached two seasons with the Reign earlier than taking on the U.S. nationwide workforce. He parted methods with the workforce following the U.S. exit on the Ladies’s World Cup final yr.
Brittany and Patrick Mahomes, a part of the Present’s possession group, kicked off the sport with a “Ok.C., child!” chant.
Info from The Related Press contributed to this report.