The Lo’eau LaBonta celebration is taking over the world

Everyone’s doing The Labonta!

Lo’eau LaBonta has officially started a worldwide craze.

Just over a year ago, the Kansas City Current midfielder scored a goal and followed that up with what we will awkwardly call the “fake a hamstring injury and quickly transition to a twerk” celebration.

LaBonta’s celebration was objectively fantastic, if not briefly concerning for Current fans. A year later, we can now also mark it as the beginning of a trend.

First, Minnesota Vikings running back Alexander Mattison did his own version of Labonta’s celebration, calling the midfielder “the inspiration” for his touchdown dance.

Fast forward to last month, when Mr. Taylor Swift himself, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce performed “The Labonta” on the practice field after returning from a knee injury.

On his podcast with his brother Jason of the Philadelphia Eagles, the Chiefs star said he “stole” the move from Labonta.

@newheightshow

Trav broke out all the moves at practice 🕺🏻

♬ original sound – New Heights

That brought us to this weekend’s Basque derby, in which Real Sociedad star Takefusa Kubo did his own Labonta tribute after scoring his side’s second in a 3-0 win over Athletic Club.

Labonta’s latest goal celebration probably won’t inspire a worldwide craze but hey, it was quite the hit nonetheless.

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KC Current’s Lo’eau LaBonta praises Patrick Mahomes, Brittany Mahomes’ ownership vision

KC Current midfielder Lo’eau LaBonta recently praised Patrick Mahomes & Brittany Mahomes for their vision as part owners of the NWSL team. | from @EdEastonJr

The connection between Kansas City Chiefs All-Pro Patrick Mahomes and the community has been a vital part of the winning culture of the city since he was drafted in 2017. He has committed long-term to remaining with the franchise and building the city with support for more sports franchises and attractions.

Patrick and his wife, Brittany Mahomes, are part of the ownership group of the KC Current of the National Women’s Soccer League, garnering more attention to the league. Patrick joined his wife officially in January of this year to help spread the word about the team and promote the league in the Kansas City community.

Lo’eau LaBonta has been a veteran of the Current and appeared as a guest on the morning sports show “Up and Adams,” hosted by Kay Adams, to share her appreciation for the Mahomes family and life as an athlete in Kansas City.

“Yeah, it’s unbelievable that so when we’re first year, I’ve been with this team now for almost ten years,” said LaBonta. “And when we were first here, you know, we, we didn’t have anything, we didn’t have the backing of the sport, or I mean the city. So it was really hard playing here. And then when they brought us back in, the owners were like, look at this, you know, teal rising, get them out there. My husband’s on the men’s soccer team here, and I think more people recognize me and shout out me in the streets than him, and we gotta keep them humble. You know what I’m saying?”

“I’ve been with this organization since the beginning,” said LaBonta. “And we come back because of the fans in the city. They just love their sports teams. And that’s 100%. You know, it’s not like, we have beaches or mountains. We have the passion for sports here. And that’s, that’s what keeps me coming back for sure, you feel it, like I said in the streets. And that’s what I love, you know, at the bars. I mean, it has nothing to do with the free shots that people are always buying me when I’m out. That has nothing to do with it. Nothing at all, but it’s definitely like Mahomes just said the other day, you know, I don’t need money. I’m good. I just want rings and stuff. Well, he also already owns this entire city. I think he has a stake in every professional team, but that’s because they’re buying into the love for the sports here”.

Mahomes has been active in trying to sway an NBA franchise and NHL team to Kansas City in recent years to promote the great sports town. The work he and Brittany are doing with the KC Current hasn’t gone unnoticed, with players speaking out in appreciation for the forward-thinking owners.

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LaBonta: KC Current players had no say in Potter’s firing

There seems to be a bit of a disconnect here

Matt Potter was fired as head coach of the Kansas City Current on Wednesday, with the club saying the decision was “related to issues around his leadership and employment responsibilities.”

“We watch the play on the pitch, we keep a pulse on the locker room,” said general manager Camille Ashton.

But Potter’s firing actually seems to have come as a shock to the locker room.

Just hours after their coach was fired, the Current defeated the Houston Dash 2-0 in their Challenge Cup opener on Wednesday. Following the game, two of the club’s top players, Lo’eau LaBonta and Cece Kizer, spoke to the media.

LaBonta was asked directly if she’d ever had any negative interactions with Potter, to which she replied: “No.

“Not to my knowledge, no,” she continued. “I’ve done numerous interviews with Matt and about Matt, and Matt literally just did one for me. And we’re very truthful people. We had no knowledge that this was going to happen at all. We didn’t have any say in it. It was news to us and where the whole shock came from.”

Kizer was also asked about Potter and said she felt the same as LaBonta.

LaBonta said before the game she took some time to check in on her teammates, all of whom she said were surprised to hear of Potter’s dismissal.

“What are your initial feelings?” LaBonta said she asked her teammates. “I think everybody just said ‘shocked.’

“But I think this team is so competitive and so motivated to win. It wasn’t, ‘All right let’s sit in our feelings,’ it was, ‘What’s next, how do we solve this, what are we going to do now?’

“I thought it was going to be a lot of questions. And I really didn’t have any answers, but we were leaving it open to people to ask or say anything. And then we had a couple of players who don’t usually speak up, speak up and say, ‘Let’s go now, we have to stay focused on the game.'”

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How the Portland Thorns handled the Kansas City Current en route to an NWSL championship

A masterclass in control gave the Thorns their third NWSL title

The NWSL championship game ended up being a fairly decisive 2-0 win for the Portland Thorns. A tumultuous season off the field didn’t manifest at all in the final, where they pounced on an early mistake to get a lead over the Kansas City Current, and never looked back.

It was an impressive, imperious kind of performance, and one built around a perfect blend of individuals stepping up, good management, and calm leadership. The clash of styles went decisively in their favor from minute one, leading to celebrations at Audi Field heading towards the Rose City Riveters on the north side of the stadium rather than to the Blue Crew behind the opposite goal.

Here are four major factors that explain how the Thorns earned their third star:

Experience pays off

There were aspects of Saturday’s final that recall the 2019 NWSL championship, in which the North Carolina Courage jumped all over the Chicago Red Stars and effectively put the game to bed in the first half-hour.

To be clear, Kansas City certainly had a better day in DC than Chicago did in Cary. For one thing, it has to be said that the Red Stars were very much not a model club at the time, while Current players are glad to tell anyone that asks how the investment in them has brought them to a better place mentally. When the going gets tough — and it did in the first half of this game — Kansas City has a mental toughness that hasn’t been depleted by their own coach or ownership. It matters on the field.

Still, there were some broad similarities that gave a hefty edge to the traditional power in this game. The Thorns have a roster full of players with championships, and a larger staff of people who have operated through the strange barrage of requests and activities that come with a championship weekend. Kansas City, an organization with barely two years of existence in their current form, can hardly be blamed for being a little behind Portland on this front. They’re doing amazing things, but some gaps can only be filled out with time.

This also hits on the field, where the Thorns have a squad full of players who were indisputably leaders for title-winning teams in the past: Becky Sauerbrunn, Christine Sinclair, and Meghan Klingenberg all started, and Crystal Dunn came in off the bench. Emily Menges and Tegan McGrady were on the bench as well. That’s a group that has collectively been in the starting lineup for eight NWSL championship wins.

Kansas City’s players had alluded to the value of the experience AD Franch and Kristen Hamilton brought when they came in via trades last year, but when it comes to appearing in and winning an NWSL final, they were the list for the Current. Desiree Scott mentioned more than once that despite having seemingly been through everything one can go through in women’s soccer, she’d never played in an NWSL final before. There’s experience, and experience in this particular maelstrom.

All of which is a long build-up to the most decisive factor in this game: the Current showed some nerves. Their defenders seemed to be less instinctive and certain than normal, and the entire group’s first touch was not up to the regular standards they’ve set over the year. Portland’s structured, counter-pressing approach took advantage of the apprehension in the ranks time and again.

Thinking long-term, Kansas City will benefit immensely from going through this experience, and it would be foolish to bet that this group — after such a rapid turnaround this year — caught lightning in a bottle. They’ll be back, and be better when they make their return.

On Saturday, however, the difference in experience showed.

Unsung heroes

Smith’s powerhouse performance, summed up with the perfect celebration for the moment, got deserved plaudits, as did Franch for making numerous saves to keep KC in the match.

However, it would be remiss to not mention that Sauerbrunn’s vaunted organizational ability was on full display. The Current’s nebulous, improvisational shape going forward can be a nightmare to sort out, especially given the speed found throughout their team. And yet, Portland always seemed to know exactly what was being cooked up, and Sauerbrunn was at the heart of those solutions for 90 minutes.

Natalia Kuikka also has to be recognized for a quietly superb performance at right back. The Finnish international had a bit of a mid-season lull this year, but rounded into form and stood out against a KC attack that skewed pretty heavily towards attacking her side. The Current really tried to find a way through, attempting 10 dribbles out towards the touchline in Portland’s half, and only one from Kizer worked out positively.

Those red triangles are all where Kansas City dribbles didn’t pan out. There were also no key passes (those are the yellow squares above) from Kuikka’s flank, and only two successful crosses, one of which came deep enough that it’s more of a midfielder’s job anyway.

Sauerbrunn looked at ease, but only because she was putting on a masterful show in terms of thinking the game and denying Kansas City by superior positioning. Kuikka, meanwhile, had a ton of more tangible work to do, winning tackles and individual battles. If you want to know how Bella Bixby ended up without having to make a single save on a night where the game state and attack-minded opposition should have meant a lot of work, look no further than these two (very different) performances.

Adjustment analysis, part one

Both coaches made interesting moves, with Portland making their big change before kickoff and Kansas City opting for a major shift as the game was going on.

For the Thorns, Rhian Wilkinson elected to make an enormously difficult choice, keeping Hina Sugita — a sleeper Best XI candidate after a thoroughly impressive first year in the league — on the bench in favor of Sinclair.

Asked post-game from a crowded Audi Field media room about that change, Wilkinson said it was “a huge decision, and it was a really hard decision,” before adding that for the challenge of Kansas City, she wanted a more clear structure. “I played a really distinct six, eight and 10 in the midfield, and Hina for me, she’s an eight or a winger,” explained Wilkinson. “I think Rocky (Rodríguez)’s been flying the last few games, so she just sort of started ahead of her.”

The Thorns had deployed a 4-3-3 for their semifinal against the San Diego Wave, with Sugita and Rodríguez both operating as attack-minded No. 8s having the freedom to go forward. Wilkinson said that against the Wave, she wanted her team to focus on playing through lines more, whereas she shifted her side into more of a 4-4-2, with Sinclair being available for passes to feet rather than in behind.

“I wanted to play with the front two, and Sincy’s one of the best in the world at reading that front-two position and being alongside Sophie and feeding her,” said Wilkinson. “It wasn’t a breaking the lines type of game like in San Diego, where we played two eights-tens.”

It’s the kind of gambit that could have blown up in Wilkinson’s face, but in the end, the team she put on the field created a Portland Thorns kind of game. That’s no mean feat against a Kansas City team that has thrived at forcing just about everyone into a style that favors the Current.

Adjustment analysis, part two

Matt Potter had no surprises in his starting lineup, with the exact same 11 that started the semifinal being picked for the final. He did make a shift, though, pushing Lo’eau LaBonta higher and playing with Scott and Alex Loera as a double-pivot as opposed to Scott being the lone holding presence.

That change didn’t really come off, though Potter said post-game he saw moments where their play through the middle went as planned until it came time to play the final ball.

Where things were really going awry was along the back line. Sophia Smith told Pro Soccer Wire on Thursday that she felt like she’d find more space against a back three, and it turns out the forward knows what she’s talking about. Kansas City was struggling to protect its defenders from being isolated, with support arriving late or not at all, and for the first 30 minutes, they had to make plenty of emergency blocks at full stretch just to keep the score at 1-0.

Potter’s answer ended up being to convert Kate Del Fava from a right wingback to a true right back, staying home to support Addisyn Merrick and shifting Kansas City into a back four. Further forward, the domino effect saw LaBonta and Hamilton have to trade shifts providing width on the right, while most of the Current’s attacking thrust ended up centered on Hailie Mace on the left.

Potter wasn’t thinking purely about stopping the bleeding, though, and said he made the change in part to take advantage of the spaces Portland’s more rigid structure left open.

“Well, I think they were attacking well in wide areas, but when they create the structure that they do, it creates pockets of space in the midfield that we wanted to try and take advantage of,” Potter told reporters after the match. “By keeping Kate home a little bit for a period of time, the hope was to get Kristin Hamilton and Cece (Kizer) on the ball in central areas a little bit more.”

“You’ve got to give up things to get things and there’s a risk/reward factor in the game,” added Potter. “The identity of this team’s lived all year is to have no fear, and to try and take the game to the opponent. Why would we change that because we’re here? We are what we are, they deserved that opportunity to go express themselves again, and you know with a little bit of a ball bouncing one way or another, then maybe we are talking about a different game.”

As much as Portland managed this game in incredibly efficient fashion, Potter’s not off-base by saying that the Current just needed a bounce. Specifically, the bounce that cost them the second goal is one that could have easily played out with the ball nestling into Franch’s gloves, or not skipping so hard off the grass that Addisyn Merrick could have cleared it away before it got over the line. While the first half was triage for Kansas City, the second half saw them gain some footing, only for that goal to put things out of reach.

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Portland Thorns, Kansas City Current promise a classic clash of styles at NWSL Championship

Audi Field is the site of what looks like a potential NWSL classic

The Portland Thorns will take on the Kansas City Current in the NWSL Championship Sunday, with kickoff set for 8:00pm at Audi Field in Washington, DC.

It’s an unprecedented occasion for the league, with a primetime broadcast on over-the-air CBS (with streaming on Paramount+ in the US, and Twitch for international viewers). It also pits two very different teams together.

Portland is the traditional power, but they’re going through difficult times off the field in the aftermath of the Yates investigation. Kansas City, meanwhile, only moved back to the Midwest two years ago, and finished at the bottom of the table in 2021. However, massive off-field investment has changed the club, who are now striving to join the Thorns as carrying a certain top-class cache going forward.

There’s also the tactics at play: Portland loves to dominate possession, controlling games and making their opponents chase shadows. KC, meanwhile, has been extremely effective at making games more frenetic and chaotic, an environment they tend to thrive in.

Read further for an in-depth preview of each team, including quotes, analysis, and projected lineups.

Four thoughts on the Kansas City Current’s stunning late win over the Houston Dash

The NWSL playoffs opened with a relentless thriller

The NWSL playoffs started off with a bang, as a high-tension affair in front of a huge crowd saw the Kansas City Current stun the Houston Dash to sneak out with a 2-1 victory.

An early penalty kick from Lo’eau LaBonta silenced a huge Houston crowd, but Sophie Schmidt’s expertly-taken volley got the home side level in the 21st minute. Both teams then had numerous outstanding chances go narrowly awry, setting up a dramatic finish. In the tenth minute of stoppage time, Current wingback Kate Del Fava, with virtually the last kick of the game, guided a cross that sneaked past Ally Prisock over the line.

For Houston, it’s a truly hard-luck result. For one thing, it’s the latest stoppage-time game-winner in NWSL history. They also out-shot KC 20-6, and though the Dash had to dodge some bullets in what was an end-to-end game, they’ll also wonder how the heck they didn’t win this one.

“It is football, it was cruel with us today,” said Dash interim head coach Juan Carlos Amorós, and you could hardly argue with him. However, KC will want it put on the record that having AD Franch in the form of her life, and a standout display from veteran Kristen Edmonds, was also a big factor.

Here are four takeaways from this one, plus the highlights:

Dash’s day, regardless of the result

A team that has historically struggled to get any attention in Houston finally got the big stage. Yes, this team got some love for winning the 2020 Challenge Cup, but do you remember 2020? Covid safety measures meant fans were pulling up in their cars to applaud from a huge distance, and then everyone went back to toughing out a miserable year. That team celebrated hard, but they also celebrated in isolation.

Today, after years of near-misses, big misses, and frankly some neglect from their former owners, the Dash got their party. A crowd of 21,284 turned up for the first Houston playoff game ever, setting an NWSL record as well as a club record.

 

The important thing here is that the Dash, for the first time in their existence, seem to have a way forward. There’s a path for this team to not just have this one playoff appearance before fading into mediocrity, but to be a year-after-year playoff team. Juan Carlos Amorós has found a system that works (and entertains), and numerous players have taken clear steps forward as individuals.

There is, in other words, reason for a casual fan to buy tickets, and that’s how you truly break through. The people that showed up to PNC Stadium for the first time got drama, tension, and end-to-end play. The tactical stalemate that infects so many knockout games in leagues everywhere was simply not part of the equation.

It’s a brutal loss, but for the Dash, it’s also the start of something.

NWSL Celebration of the Year watch

Lo’eau LaBonta appears to be dead set on making sure KC celebrates every goal, and Pro Soccer Wire is hopeful that this drive spreads league-wide.

This week, it’s a Rockettes tribute, as the Current’s celebrations are expanding into full-team productions rather than one person putting on a display.

Lavogez’s injury is a challenge

It wasn’t all good for Kansas City, who watched Claire Lavogez carried off with a worrisome-looking injury.

“Claire’s too early to tell,” KC coach Matt Potter told media after the match. Potter indicated that Lavogez did manage to come to the bench on crutches later in the second half, but it’s still a potentially difficult injury to navigate for the Current. As they’re currently built, Lavogez is the one player who sometimes slows the game down, adding a bit of pause to a team that can otherwise skew towards being go-go-go.

KC also struggled with the more human concern of seeing Lavogez in such obvious pain. Multiple Current players checked in on her, and it took the entire team about 15 minutes to regain their tempo and focus levels. Houston very nearly put themselves in front during this spell, and while the Current deserve massive credit for sorting themselves out, it also makes one wonder how they’ll cope if the French veteran is out next weekend when they take on OL Reign.

Salmon sub raises eyebrows

On one hand, Amorós made a bold substitution that nearly worked like a charm. In the 75th minute, he pulled Ebony Salmon — the Dash’s leading scorer — for veteran winger Elizabeth Eddy, moving Michelle Alozie into the vacated No. 9 role.

Alozie caused the KC back three fits, and in stoppage time found herself in alone on Franch. It’s exactly the situation you want for your striker, but Franch was in heroic form all night, and produced arguably her biggest save of the year to block Alozie’s angled shot. The Current would go on to score the winner six minutes or so later.

However, that’s the kind of chance Salmon has been burying since being traded from Racing Louisville, and like he said, sometimes the game is cruel. With Salmon having just returned from international duty with England, it’s fair to wonder whether 75 minutes was all she had to give on the day.

“I think we needed a bit more on that forward line. I think Liz was coming with fresh legs,” explained Amorós when asked directly about the choice. “Nothing more than a tactical, technical decision.”

Enjoy the highlights from a wild one

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Lo’eau LaBonta offers up an NWSL Celebration of the Year frontrunner

We’re making up a very important award

Lo’eau LaBonta is in good form, on the soccer side and the entertainment side.

The Kansas City Current midfielder bagged a late equalizer for her side in a 1-1 draw with Angel City FC Friday night. Just moments after the visitors had taken the lead, LaBonta drew a foul in the box, and then got up to fire home the penalty kick, preserving a Current unbeaten run that is now 11 games long.

LaBonta is having a career year for Kansas City, with the goal taking her total up to five in the regular season, along with four assists, and made NWSL’s Team of the Month for August.

She also seems ready to push the league forward on the celebration front. After firing a typically powerful penalty kick into the upper corner, LaBonta gave the home fans a brief scare, feigning a glute injury before…well, let’s say she made it clear she had no such injury.

It’s equal parts twerking and Willy Wonka. Just tremendous work from LaBonta, and worthy of further consideration.

LaBonta said after the game that celebrations in women’s soccer tend to be more like what Angel City offered up when Cari Roccaro gave them the lead: the scorer raises their arms, teammates rush in for a group hug, and that’s that.

“Female soccer players tend to just all go to each other and ‘Kumbaya,’ and we love that,” LaBonta told reporters after the game. “I think we really want to start making it a little more fun and having individual celebration. So, that was sent to me on Twitter, and I said ‘bet.'”

LaBonta does have some challengers to best when it comes to the NWSL Celebration of the Year, an award that should exist in reality but is currently just contained within this article.

Washington Spirit and U.S. women’s national team forward Trinity Rodman may be her strongest competition. Rodman and teammate Ashley Sanchez have had a few Tiktok-inspired celebrations throughout 2022, and have shown no signs of turning towards a more conventional celebration.

Rodman most recently offered up an iconic pose after powering through the North Carolina Courage defense to score.

Portland Thorns striker Morgan Weaver offered up another, more obscure celebration earlier this month, offering up some kind of high-stepping, hand-swinging puzzler.

A rare Becky Sauerbrunn goal earlier this year brought up another candidate, with Sauerbrunn recently explaining that it was a tribute to her partner doing the same pose before—you guessed it—a keg stand in college. There are few times college keg stand behavior should be replicated, but this was indisputably one of them.

https://www.instagram.com/p/ChaJGe2FKpW/

Pro Soccer Wire will of course keep you up to date on all NWSL Celebration of the Year candidates, and hopefully more players will take up LaBonta’s challenge to really push the limits.

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