Amy Rodriguez does it again as FC Kansas City Wins NWSL Title

— -- PORTLAND, Ore. -- FC Kansas City doesn't have the most wins in the National Women's Soccer League over the past two seasons. But it won the final game in each of those seasons.

It's unlikely the NWSL's first back-to-back champions would prefer it any other way.

Behind a second-half goal from Amy Rodriguez on Heather O'Reilly's cross, FC Kansas City defeated Seattle Reign FC 1-0 in the championship match on Thursday night in front of 13,264 fans at Providence Park. Seattle entered the game as regular-season champion for the second year in a row, doing so in dominant fashion for the second year in a row, but Kansas City celebrating back-to-back championships at the end of the night.

There is more to come from Providence Park, but here are three observations on the final.

O'Reilly gets the last laugh

That Rodriguez scored the winner is a given -- she seems to score just about every goal for the team in the postseason, including all three in the past two championship games.

But it was another World Cup champion who put the ball on her head for the winner.

O'Reilly didn't see much of the field in winning the World Cup title with the United States that was a long time coming from one of the team's longest-serving internationals (even at only 30 years old). But she had everything to do with winning a second championship on the year. As she has been ever since returning from Canada and settling in for her first season with FCKC, O'Reilly was simultaneously on the flank and in the middle of much that went right for her team.

It was O'Reilly who got into open space on the left flank and delivered the cross on the goal. So starved for service at times in the first half that she held her hands plaintively in front of her as if begging for scraps, she got her chance in the second half and did what we've grown accustomed to seeing her do for more than a decade, from the University of North Carolina to the national team and now FC Kansas City.

More chess than fireworks

Before the final, Seattle coach Laura Harvey compared the games between these two teams to chess. For much of the night in Portland, that seemed a more fitting analogy than the fireworks that accompanied the national anthem.

The game was a good advertisement for the ability of two teams to neutralize each other, and that's no faint praise for teams as skilled as these. The tension produced was enjoyable, and in spurts even gripping. There was subtle excellence, like Merritt Mathias making a run that cleared an entire side of the field for Kim Little or Lauren Barnes holding her nerve to launch a push forward rather than booting the ball to safety.

There just weren't many snaps, crackles or pops. When Megan Rapinoe ripped a shot from at least 25 yards that sliced wickedly and slammed off the far post in the 63rd minute, the groans and gasps that came out of the stands were different than any sounds that preceded them. In that moment, Rapinoe showed the kind of fireworks these teams are capable of but struggled to produce against each other.

It was a game of quality and thankfully ended with the product of some of that quality, rather than penalty kicks after extra time. It just wasn't a game likely to linger in memories.

No joy for Kim Little

Not long before FC Kansas City scored the game's only goal, Little was taken down by Becky Sauerbrunn on a foul that earned the defender a yellow card. Little got up and did little to hide her frustration. She thought she had won a corner kick off the ensuing free kick but again could only look on in frustration when the call went the other way for a goal kick.

It was that kind of night for someone who is still as good a candidate as any for the intangible title of best player in the world.

Give credit to FC Kansas City, which shadowed Little relentlessly, shuttling her between the back line and defensive midfielders Jen Buczkowski and Mandy Laddish. But it also simply wasn't Little's night, evident when Rapinoe played her in during the first half, only to see an open look at goal go directly at FCKC keeper Nicole Barnhart, and still evident when she ended the game on the ground after a collision that beat the final whistle by seconds.