There is no perfect way to start a playoff game, but a fifth-minute penalty kick opportunity is pretty close.

Kristen Hamilton earned it, in a sequence where the Kansas City forward appeared to get fouled more than once as she entered the 18-yard box in the Current’s 2-1 quarterfinal win over the Houston Dash on Sunday. When Lo’eau Labonta roofed the kick from the spot to give the Current a very early lead, the proverbial trumpets of destiny sounded.

All season, the Current have been game-state tacticians, uniting around an ethos to achieve a short-term goal. At times, that has meant either chasing a lead, fighting from a goal down or simply testing the waters in an even competition. The result is a cohesive sort of chaos, wherein Kansas City tries to disrupt the status quo to win, despite giving up goals more than they’d like to on the other end.

The best way to describe the Current is as a team full of gamers. They probably don’t relish putting themselves in a position to have to rise to the occasion, but it’s not a role they’re afraid of either.

From the opening whistle on Sunday, both teams pushed the tempo in an effort to come out on top of the transitional battle. The Dash couldn’t quite execute their chances early on, which left room for the Current on the counterattack.

Kansas City’s penalty evoked a scene from the 2020 Challenge Cup final, when Houston’s own penalty kick goal in the fifth minute set the stage for their 2-0 win and the first trophy in club history.

The Dash made more history in 2022, appearing in the playoffs for the first time. What they found in the postseason was an incredibly difficult task, with a result that hangs in the balance of the smallest of margins.

It's celly time! An icy PK finish from @L0momma gives KC an early lead!#TealRising | @thekccurrent pic.twitter.com/rNTRos9AU9

— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) October 16, 2022

Kansas City’s go-ahead goal and subsequent Rockefeller-style kick-line celebration lent an air of inevitability to their victory, but Houston didn’t forget their own principles in the moment. In front of a record crowd at PNC Stadium, the Dash’s comfort on the ball was evident, particularly with María Sánchez taking defenders on with confidence.

At the same time, Houston was forced into some positional adjustments, including slotting in Natalie Jacobs on the right flank. In the first half, the Dash didn’t always seem on the same page, and the Current’s hyper-talented left wing of Hamilton and Hailie Mace made life difficult. But Sanchez was undeniable, wearing Kansas City down on Houston’s own left flank to earn a corner that led to Sophie Schmidt’s half-volley equalizer in the 21st minute.

What a hit from @sophieschmidt13 to tie it up!!! 🔥@HoustonDash | #HoldItDown pic.twitter.com/LQ5Vb157TE

— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) October 16, 2022

From there, momentum started to bend in the direction of the Dash. Houston, however, finished the match with 20 shots but only five on goal, while Kansas City had six total shots and three on goal. Goalkeeper of the Year frontrunner AD Franch came up huge for the away team to keep Houston off the board. Dash manager Juan Carlos Amorós also made a questionable substitute in the 76th minute, replacing star striker Ebony Salmon with Elizabeth Eddy in what he later described as a tactical choice.

It’s easy to focus on Houston’s inability to break the deadlock, but the story of the second half lies within the margins of Kansas City’s off-the-ball defense. Kristen Edmonds proved essential as a 1v1 defender in key moments, backed up by Franch and Elizabeth Ball. The Current’s preferred three-back formation leaves outside center-backs vulnerable to individual battles with attackers, and the defenders’ willingness to try different tactics and put their bodies on the line bled into the Kansas City midfield on Sunday.

With Desiree Scott serving a red-card suspension, rookie Alex Loera had another strong match in the defensive midfield and fellow rookie Elyse Bennett acclimated well after Claire Lavogez exited with an injury. Lavogez couldn’t put weight on her leg as she came off in the 51st minute, and her injury seemed indicative of Kansas City’s experience even in victory.

Head coach Matt Potter decided to ride the game out with the players who had gotten the team this far, and outside of a number of excellent individual efforts, the Current struggled physically as the minutes ticked by. They squeaked out the win, but perhaps at a price for their semifinal matchup next Sunday against Shield winners OL Reign.

The quarterfinal contest looked destined for extra time, when Kate Del Fava stunningly put the game away in the 10th minute of stoppage time. In the last kick of the game (and the latest regulation goal in NWSL history), Del Fava ushered her team into the semifinals and left Houston with more questions about their quest to get over the top.

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?! Kansas City wins it in stoppage time!!!#TealRising | @thekccurrent pic.twitter.com/LzzpTKeKRI

— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) October 16, 2022

All season, the Current have seemed like dark-horse NWSL championship candidates, and getting through a game as tricky as this one could be step one to completing the fairytale.

Kansas City paid physically for this win, but they also did just enough to give themselves a chance at their next upset. When you’ve got a team that can handle anything, there’s likely very little that will make their opponent feel comfortable — all the way to the last minute of stoppage time.

Claire Watkins is a Staff Writer at Just Women’s Sports. Follow her on Twitter @ScoutRipley.

US swimming icon Katie Ledecky is back on top, earning her 22nd world title with a gold medal-winning 1,500-meter freestyle performance at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships on Tuesday.

Finishing with a time of 15:26.44, Ledecky now owns 25 of the top 26 times in the event's history and holds six World Aquatics Championships titles at that distance.

"Each one has meaning, and I love every race that I've had at Worlds over the years," the 28-year-old swimming star told broadcasters following her Tuesday victory.

That 22nd title brought Ledecky's combined Worlds total to an overall 28 medals, lifting the star to second on the all-time most decorated list where she trails only retired US men's star Michael Phelps's 33 podium finishes.

Earlier in the week, the Team USA standout took bronze in the 400-meter freestyle, coming in third behind China's silver-medalist Li Bingjie and Canadian sensation Summer McIntosh, who won the race with a time of 3:56.26.

Gold medals have been hard to come by for Team USA at this year's World Championships.

Other than Ledecky's win and the 100-meter butterfly title snagged by Gretchen Walsh on Monday, the US women have struggled to claim gold medals as they push to recover from the acute gastroenteritis that hit several team members at their pre-meet training camp in Thailand.

That stomach bug inhibited multiple US swimmers from traveling with the team to the Singapore meet, and saw contenders like 100-meter butterfly Olympic gold medalist Torri Huske pull out of initial heats.

"We're taking it a day at a time," said Team USA head coach Greg Meehan about the impact of the illness. "Obviously, this is not how we thought the first few days of this competition would go. But I'm really proud of our team."

How to watch Ledecky at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships

The 2025 World Aquatics Championships runs through Sunday, and US star Ledecky has two events left to swim at the meet.

On Thursday, she'll compete in the 4x200-meter freestyle relay, before facing another showdown with rival McIntosh in the 800-meter freestyle on Saturday.

Preliminary heats kick off the night before at 10 PM ET, with finals seeing staggered starts beginning at 7 AM ET.

Live coverage of the meet airs on Peacock.

UEFA Women's Euro 2025 made a splash across the pond, drawing an average of 458,000 US viewers per match across FOX platforms to mark a 97% viewership increase over the 2022 edition — making this year's tournament the most-watched English-language Women's Euro on record.

Building off the 2025 competition's previously reported record-breaking numbers, Sunday's grand finale between defending champs England and 2023 World Cup winners Spain averaged 1.35 million US viewers — a 53% increase in viewership over the last Women's Euro championship match.

Even more, the broadcast ultimately peaked at 1.92 million fans tuning in, making it the most-watched English-language Women's Euro Final on record.

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The historic viewership is a major win for broadcaster FOX, who secured the women's tournament's first-ever US media deal back in May.

Initially committing to live coverage of 20 of the tournament's matches, record returns motivated the broadcast giant to quickly pivot and air all 31 matches live as part of its FOX Sports Summer of Soccer campaign.

"More and more people are tuning in to watch soccer in the US," FOX Sports commentator and UWSNT vet Carli Lloyd told The Athletic. "There's just been an incredible amount of soccer on display, which has been fantastic for the sport."

As the NWSL preps for this weekend's return from an extended summer break, No. 4 Washington Spirit star forward Trinity Rodman is also hoping to re-take the pitch for the first time since April.

Rodman is currently back training with the team, rejoining her club after undergoing extended treatment overseas for chronic back issues.

"I'd never really dealt with something like that," Rodman admitted after an open practice earlier this week. "So, for me, mentally, it was very difficult."

"[I was] trying to function through pain, and kind of gaslight myself to thinking it was fine every day, when it wasn't," she said. "I can now kind of openly say, I was in pain all the time."

Rodman also admits that stepping away was, though difficult, the right call to make for her healing.

"Obviously, it sucks being away from the team and being away from soccer in general," she added. "But I got to work on things that I wouldn't have gotten to work on if I was in the team environment all the time, so I think that was a positive."

Rodman's availability fluctuated after she earned an Olympic gold medal with the USWNT in Paris last summer, with the soccer superstar featuring in just four Spirit games this season — and none since stepping away in April.

Now functioning pain-free, Rodman's next on-pitch challenge is balancing her competitive intensity with her newly found health.

"It's really understanding my body and acknowledging [when] it's in pain," she explained. "And not pushing through things that I shouldn't."

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Rodman eyes new contract amid NWSL return

On top of navigating her return to play, Rodman is also actively negotiating with the Washington Spirit for a contract renewal.

Her current deal expires at the end of 2025, and with interest in the US standout reportedly mounting from overseas clubs, the 23-year-old could eventually field multiple offers.

Considering her lack of minutes so far this season, the star called the assumed interest "a weird situation."

"I'm trying not to stress about it or put too much pressure on it," she said of the ongoing talks. "At the end of the day, I'm worried about health first.... Everything else can come next."

Wednesday's WNBA bill puts a heavyweight battle in the spotlight, as 2024 finalists and 2025 league leaders Minnesota will host reigning champion No. 2 New York in their first face-off of the season — with the Liberty hoping to rattle both the Lynx and the standings.

"I think common sense would say that those two teams probably should have played earlier in the season," Minnesota head coach Cheryl Reeve told media this week, referencing the apparent scheduling idiosyncrasies that delayed the championship rematch.

"It doesn't feel like a Finals rematch anymore, honestly," Lynx forward Napheesa Collier echoed. "It's a new year for us. And it's been so long, it's almost August, so it's just the two top teams going against each other."

Both squads enter the clash on uncharacteristic skids, as Minnesota and New York look to avenge recent losses while other WNBA teams jockey for positioning during the league's Wednesday night slate:

• No. 3 Phoenix Mercury vs. No. 6 Indiana Fever, 7 PM ET (ESPN3): The Fever must continue to contend without injured star guard Caitlin Clark, as Indiana faces a newly healthy Mercury side striving to steal back the No. 2 spot with a win.

• No. 5 Atlanta Dream vs. No. 11 Dallas Wings, 8 PM ET (ESPN3): After a disappointing Tuesday upset loss, the will Dream close out a back-to-back against a bolstered Dallas squad fresh off a big victory over New York.

• No. 2 New York Liberty vs. No. 1 Minnesota Lynx, 8 PM ET (ESPN): With a four-game lead in the standings, the Lynx aren't in danger of giving up their perch at the top, but a strong performance from the Liberty could provide a much-needed boost to the ailing title-holders.