* Barbra scored a brace for Orlando Pride to lead 2-0 by the 50th minute before Temwa halved the deficit with a breakaway finish in the 53rd with Elizabeth Ball equalising minutes later
* The goal was Temwa’s 10th of the season and 45th of her regular season career and she has now scored at least 10 goals in each of her first three NWSL seasons
By Duncan Mlanjira
Having played against each other at the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAfCON) Morocco 2026 in which Zambia beat Malawi Scorchers 1-0, Temwa Chawinga and Barbra Banda faced each other in the US National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) on Friday.
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The game between Temwa’s Kansas City (KC) Current and Barbra’s Orlando Pride ended 2-2 with the Zambian — whose lone goal earned the Copper Queens the victory over the Scorchers — scoring a brace.
KC Current Media reports that Barbra found the back of the net twice before KC Current scored two goals in a three-minute span to level the contest.
“In her first start since July 17, forward Temwa Chawinga halved the deficit with a breakaway finish in the 53rd minute,” says the report. “Just three minutes later, defender Elizabeth Ball capped a wild scramble in the Orlando penalty area with a second-chance finish to tie the match at two apiece.”
The report indicates that Kansas City and Orlando Pride traded chances throughout an end-to-end first half and in the waning seconds of the first half, the visitors went ahead courtesy of a breakaway goal from Barbra Banda in the 43rd minute.
The Current nearly found an equaliser before the halftime break when midfielder Debinha hit the crossbar and Temwa had a header from inside the penalty area go wide, but Orlando maintained their 1-0 lead after 45 minutes.
The visitors doubled the lead in the early stages of the second half through Banda’s second goal in the 50th minute, but KC Current’s second-half comeback began moments later.
In the 53rd minute, forward Michelle Cooper kickstarted a KC Current counterattack and raced towards goal and as Cooper entered the attacking third, she slid a ball between multiple defenders for Temwa.
The ball initially struck Chawinga’s back foot at the top of the 18-yard box, but she kept with the play and took a touch towards goal.
Chawinga then weaved through multiple defenders before steering a shot past Morché to put the home team on the board.
The goal — Chawinga’s 10th of the season and 45th of her regular season career — gave the Current an instant lifeline, and she has now scored at least 10 goals in each of her first three NWSL seasons.
Kansas City equalised minutes later after Ball capped a scramble in the Orlando penalty area with her first goal of the 2026 campaign.
The sequence started with a set piece served in by DiBernardo, and the ensuing loose ball fell to defender Izzy Rodriguez.
Both sides pushed for the winner but settled for the draw as the KC Current extended their league-record home unbeaten streak to 29 matches.
The result, according to the KC Current Media, marked the first time the club has come back from trailing by two goals to earn at least a point since October 15, 2023.
Temwa and Barbra share light moment after the match
Though Zambia beat Malawi at the WAfCON 2026 in group stages, the Copper Queens did not make it into the knockout stages.
The Scorchers made history by moving all the way to the final in which they lost 0-3 to Cameroon and by reaching the semifinals, Malawi qualified for the FIFA Women’s World Cup Brazil 2027.
Temwa also won the Golden Boot after scoring 5 goals — sharing Barbra Banda and Cameroon’s Marie Ngah Manga.
But Temwa finished the tournament with something the other two did not – two assists to go with her five goals, giving the Malawi forward a tournament-leading seven direct goal involvements.
Temwa scored twice in Malawi’s opening 3-2 victory over Nigeria before adding goals against Egypt, Ghana and Algeria as the Scorchers continued their historic run.
Her ability to both score and create made her one of the most influential attacking players in Morocco and her five goals matched the tournament’s joint-highest tally, while her two assists gave her the highest number of direct goal involvements among the leading scorers.
The Zambia captain Barbra Banda made an immediate impact in Zambia’s opening match, scoring four times in the 6-0 victory over Egypt.
Barbra and Cameroon’s Marie Ngah
She added another goal against Malawi and also registered one assist while the Cameroon forward Marie Ngah scored twice in the final against Malawi taking her to five goals but she never recorded an assist.
Temwa and her sister Tabitha finished Morocco 2026 with nine goals between them, accounting for a significant share of Malawi’s attacking output.—Additional info by CAFonline
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