How did the KC Current soccer team reach Saturday’s NWSL championship match? A primer
Just started following women’s soccer? Don’t follow women’s soccer (you should, and might after reading this), but want to know more about the Kansas City Current?
Here’s a rundown of the basics about the National Women’s Soccer League club that will play for a championship on Saturday in the nation’s capital in just its second year of existence.
NWSL championship game: KC Current (10-6-6 regular season, 2-0 in playoffs) vs. the Portland Thorns (10-3-9, 1-0 in playoffs), 7 p.m. Saturday on CBS/Paramount+, live from Audi Field in Washington, D.C.
Road to D.C.: Portland earned the No. 2 seed (and quarterfinal bye) into the NWSL postseason, the Current the No. 5 seed. The Thorns beat the San Diego Wave 2-1 in the NWSL semifinals last weekend.
Where can I learn more about Saturday’s broadcast? We have a special rundown of those details here — it’s on CBS/Paramount+ in prime-time Saturday. But let’s get to the goods on Kansas City’s half of Saturday’s showcase showdown.
Some basics about the KC Current:
Who is the Current’s coach? Matt Potter, 52, is in his first season with the Current. A native of England, he formerly coached the women’s soccer teams at Washington State and Oklahoma. He also brings a wealth of international-level experience from years spent coaching the U.S. U23 squad.
Who owns the Current? The club has three principal owners — Angie and Chris Long and Brittany Mahomes. The former two are a KC power-couple in business, and Mahomes, formerly Brittany Matthews, has emerged as part of Kansas City’s new guard of entrepreneurship. Mahomes (yes, she’s married to the Chiefs quarterback) is a former college and professional soccer player in her own right, and together the three owners of the KC Current bring a diverse set of skills to the business of running a successful, no-nonsense pro-sports franchise.
Who is the Current’s general manager? Camille Levin Ashton, 32, is a former U-23 national-team captain and accomplished college player who won a national title with Stanford in 2011 and went on to play in the NWSL, as well as overseas. Most recently, before her hire by the Current this spring, she’d worked in talent acquisition for the WWE (yes, pro wrestling).
Who are some top players for the Current? There are more than a few top players on this “next woman up”-oriented club, but at the risk of overlooking others, we’ll share just several here ...
Lo’Eau LaBonta: The penalty-kick specialist leads the Current with 8 goals this season. She’s heart and soul of the Current, and half of a soccer power-couple in KC — husband Roger Espinoza is a veteran Sporting KC defender.
Kristen Hamilton, forward: Hamilton has scored 7 goals this year. She scored one of KC’s two goals in the Current’s 2-0 semifinal victory against the OL Reign last weekend.
Cece Kizer, forward/midfield: A KC native, Kizer started the season playing for Racing Louisville FC, but a midseason trade brought her to the Current. She’s been a goal-scoring machine (7 so far) but exited last weekend’s semifinal early after knocking heads with an OL Reign player.
Hailie Mace, defender: Mace plays all over the field. Look for her to make some long runs Saturday. She’s scored 4 goals with 2 assists this season.
AD Franch, goalkeeper: A native of Salina, Kansas, Franch was acquired from the Thorns last summer via trade. She’s been a rock in the net for the Current ever since, including this postseason.
A (very) brief look at the Portland Thorns:
The Thorns had for years been considered the class of the league, but the organization has more recently been the face of scandal in the NWSL thanks to toxic former coach Paul Riley. You can read more about that infuriating mess in this well-done story by the New York Times.
The quick lowdown on the Thorns now: They have a newish head coach in Canadian women’s national team veteran Rhian Wilkinson and a familiar-to-KC field general in former FCKC star and USWNT veteran Becky Sauerbrunn. Link off here for a more detailed look at Portland’s active roster.
Current and Portland Thorns head-to-head: The teams have played each other two times this year. Here is a recap of the scores from those games ...
April 30: Thorns 3, Current 0 (in Portland)
Sept. 18: Current 1, Thorns 1 (in KC)
OK, let’s get back to the KC Current ...
A closer look at the KC Current:
So this name, Current ... What’s that all about? The Kansas City club, awarded to local ownership late in 2020, began life as “KC NWSL” — for the first season, that was the team’s name. Then, at the end of last season (2021), the club announced its new name and unveiled its lineup of kits, or uniforms/jerseys. The new team name, Kansas City Current, was a natural: “The Current is so powerful,” co-owner Angie Long said when the new name was unveiled. “Both current in the water and the current of energy and motion. We’re super-excited about the name.” The signature teal-and-red color scheme remains.
Didn’t the Current lose a lot last year? Oh gosh yes. We’ll get to the reasons for that in a bit, but the record was plain rough: they went 3-14-7 in 2021. Here’s a fun fact — the Current finished dead-last in the NWSL with that record last season. The team with the best record in the league for 2021? The Current’s Saturday opponent, the Thorns, at 13-6-5. What a difference a year made for the Current.
What about this unbeaten streak? Oh, yes, The Streak. This season, from May to September, the Current didn’t lose a game. Not once. Their string of 13 consecutive matches unbeaten was the second-longest in the 10-year history of the league. After 113 days without being bested, the Current’s streak finally came to a halt in a mid-September 4-0 loss to the Red Stars in Chicago.
How they got here (in the playoffs): The KC Current beat the Houston Dash 2-1 in stoppage time in the league quarterfinals two weeks ago, then defeated the OL Reign 2-0 in the NWSL semifinals this past Sunday. Both victories came on the road — at Houston, and at Seattle.
What about this new stadium? OK, so against this backdrop of on-field activity, a lot has been going on behind the scenes for the Current. Since the Current’s inception, the Longs and Brittany Mahomes have believed in the importance of giving their team a place of its own to play. Hence the construction, now underway, of a purpose-built stadium in downtown KC that promises to be the jewel of the league.
Very exciting. But, then, where did the Current play this year? This season, the Current played at Children’s Mercy Park, the home of Sporting KC. It’s a gorgeous venue in Kansas City, Kan., and it was better suited to soccer than the Current’s first-year home a stone’s throw away — Legends Field, home of the KC Monarchs minor-league baseball team. The Current played home games at the nearby baseball stadium during their inaugural season.
What happened to Mewis and Williams? Sam Mewis and Lynn Williams were the Current’s two marquee offseason acquisitions, but neither has played really much at all this season. The two proven U.S. Women’s National Team stars (Mewis is arguably the best player in the world) were hurt before the NWSL season began and have not played since. That’s remarkable, right? That “next woman up” mentality has worked pretty brilliantly.
Future prospects: Organizationally, couldn’t be better. The ownership group recently broke ground on a brand new downtown KC stadium, which will be built along the Missouri Riverfront at Berkley Park and open in time for the 2024 NWSL season. The hope is that the new venue, construction this year of the team’s new training center in Riverside and ownership’s demonstrated commitment to the women who wear the uniform will make the Current a desired destination for top soccer talent for many years to come.
Fans’ support: It’s been there since day one here in Kansas City, which has been hailed as the Soccer Capital of America. The KC Current’s supporters’ group known as KC Blue Crew is the main fan group around the team. It’s an inclusive and tight-knit community of fans, women and men, who unite around their support for and love of the Current. The players and Blue Crew have a special bond that’s evident at any KC Current home match.
Give me the club’s narrative arc, in a nutshell: That’s a lot to fit into just one shell, but sure, let’s give it a whirl:
Owners Angie and Chris Long and Brittany Mahomes were awarded an NWSL franchise in December 2020. The team had little time to field a roster for its inaugural season (2021), but did just that. Known in season one (while figuring out a permanent long-term name) as “KC NWSL,” the team showed signs of competitiveness under head coach Huw Williams, who had formerly served as GM (and in other roles) with the now-defunct FC Kansas City women’s club. But KC NWSL would finish its first season ranked last in the league.
The answer to this malaise was a full-on personnel shakeup. Williams was reassigned to a technical-staff scouting and talent identification role. Ownership hired as his successor Potter, a former major-college head coach and widely respected USWNT assistant coach. Then came the hire of GM Levin Ashton. Mind you, all of this was taking place against the backdrop of those awful revelations about sexual misconduct involving coaches/former coaches across the league. A lengthy investigation at the league level was just recently concluded.
It’s important to note that the KC Current have steered clear of scandalous headlines, vowing to create and maintain a culture and oversight that will prevent such wrongdoing from occurring here.
Along with the hire of Potter and a new GM, the Current shook up their roster. Last offseason, the club’s first, included two major winter-of-2021/22 signings: battle-tested veterans Mewis and Williams. But ... both players suffered what would prove to be season-ending injuries early/during camp, and neither would play for the Current at all in year two of the franchise (although both remain around the club, undergoing rehabilitation).
With Mewis and Williams sidelined, other players would need to step up. And they have. This year’s reconstituted lineup rattled off the 13-match unbeaten streak in the middle of the season and ranked at or near the top of the standings (not to mention some key statistical categories) down the stretch. The Current were in the mix for a top-two league finish and accompanying playoff bye until the season’s final day — actually, until the final moment, when they conceded a stoppage-time goal that, combined with other outcomes on decision day, dropped KC to fifth.
And then the Current went on the road and played spoiler two weeks straight to reach Saturday’s title match.
And there you have it. Is it game time yet?
