The Kansas City Current clinched the 2025 NWSL Shield at home on Saturday with a 2-0 victory over Seattle Reign FC at CPKC Stadium.
Kansas City forward Debinha opened the scoring from the penalty spot in the first half.
Temwa Chawinga scored in the second half for her 13th goal of the season, which is tied for the league lead.
Kansas City clinched the NWSL Shield quicker than any team in NWSL history by percentage of games played, with 21 of 26 games completed.
"It is a big trophy," Current coach Vlatko Andonoski said. "Winning the season, winning it with [a] statement is not like -- obviously any win is a win, it's important, it's good. But I thought that we won with a statement. We showed that, throughout the season, we were the best team in the league."
The 2014 Seattle Reign and 2018 North Carolina Courage each clinched the Shield in their 20th game of 24-game seasons.
That 2014 Seattle team lost in the final of the playoffs that year, while the 2018 Courage won the NWSL Championship.
Kansas City is now 16 points ahead of the second-place Washington Spirit with five games left to play in the regular season.
The Current will be the No. 1 seed in the playoffs and will host the No. 8 seed in November's quarterfinal. Saturday's shutout victory was Kansas City's ninth straight game without conceding a goal, which extends a league record.
The Current have not conceded a goal in 812 minutes and have not lost since May 2. Kansas City is approaching further historic dominance this NWSL season.
The Current are now one victory away from tying the single-season league record of 18 wins in a season, which was set last year by both the Orlando Pride and the Washington Spirit.
Kansas City is now within seven points of tying Orlando's record-setting 60-point season from 2024.
Only three of the 11 previous NWSL Shield winners have also won the NWSL Championship. Orlando won both trophies last year.
The NWSL Shield is the Kansas City Current's first in history.
It is also the first NWSL Shield for Andonovski, who is one of two coaches in league history with 100 or more victories. Seattle Reign head coach Laura Harvey is the other coach with 100-plus victories.
Andonovski won a pair of NWSL Championships as the head coach of FC Kansas City, the city's previous team that technically folded in late 2017 but whose history of relocations eventually led the birth of the Current.
Harvey was also Seattle's coach for its historic 2014 season. Andonovski, whose team beat Harvey's in both the 2014 and 2015 finals, said that he joked with Harvey before Saturday's game that she won a couple of NWSL Shields, so she could let him win one.
But on Saturday, Andonovski would not contemplate whether his 2025 Current team is the best in league history -- or if it needs to win the championship to confirm that.
"Honestly, I don't want to even think if we're anywhere close or better or worse than that team. I just want to be the best that we can be and continue to grow as a team. And if that means winning a championship, I would be more than happy to do it."