Losing Lavogez hurts KC Current, but team has specialized in overcoming such challenges

The Kansas City Current won in Texas last Sunday, but they were dealt a loss, too: Attacking midfielder Claire Lavogez is out for the remainder of the National Women’s Soccer League postseason after tearing her ACL during KC’s quarterfinal victory against the Houston Dash.

“I’m so sad and disappointed that I got injured at this moment of my career,” Lavogez said in a tweet on Thursday.

The Current thus find themselves in a familiar place, especially after their two marquee offseason additionals were both hurt very early in the 2022 NWSL campaign.

Lynn Williams tore her hamstring in the first match of the season, while Sam Mewis was ruled out for the year with a knee injury. And Mallory Weber tore her ACL in the first regular season match of the year.

Coincidentally, all of the above injuries, including Lavogez’s, involved the respective players’ right legs.

The Current, all season long, have kept repeating the same mantra: next woman up.

“There’s a cohesiveness and a harmony amongst the group, where they trust each other based on the idea that they see each other (step up) all day, every day,” Current coach Matt Potter told The Star.

“We have this idea of how we want to do things, how we want to play, and it really goes all the way back to preseason and living out the identity that we put together.”

Williams’ injury paved the way for substantial playing time for rookie Elyse Bennett and likely helped prompt the Current to acquire Cece Kizer over the summer. Mewis’ injury, meanwhile, opened the midfield for veteran Lo LaBonta to really grab hold of a box-to-box role, an opportunity that LaBonta has parlayed into a career season.

And then there’s last weekend’s hero, Kate Del Fava. Del Fava played as a midfielder off and on through the team’s first few regular-season matches. But when a team-wide bout with COVID hamstrung the KC roster during a two-game West Coast road trip, she soon enough found herself starting games at right wingback.

She has yet to cede the position. Last Sunday at Houston, she scored the game-winner very late in stoppage time, sending the Current forward to the NWSL semifinals and Sunday’s showdown against the OL Reign at Seattle’s Lumen Field.

But there are only so many ways in which the Current can attempt to fill Lavogez’s role. Losing her for Sunday’s game — and, should the Current beat the Reign, the Oct. 29 league-title game at Washington D.C — is an undeniable blow.

“She’s been an integral part of what we’ve been doing,” Potter said. “You can’t dispute that.”

The Current have regrouped since the announcement of Lavogez’s ACL tear on Thursday.

“... (P)layers have patiently been waiting for their opportunity in the time that she (Lavogez) has excelled,” Potter said.

Bennett, Addie McCain and Chloe Logarzo are potential replacements. But however the lineup shakes out, the woman who replaces Lavogez Sunday will have the team’s full confidence.

“We’ve seen in practice these other players have been playing well,” Potter said. “So now their opportunity is probably gonna come.

This story was originally published October 21, 2022 at 12:45 PM with the headline "Losing Lavogez hurts KC Current, but team has specialized in overcoming such challenges."