KC Current nets three goals, beats South African foe in Women’s Cup match at CPKC
The Kansas City Current made quick work of South African side Mamelodi Sundowns FC in a Women’s Cup soccer match at CPKC Stadium on Wednesday night.
The Current won 3-0 with a rotated front line. Vanessa DiBernardo, Alexa Spaanstra and Michelle Cooper scored for Kansas City, all in the first half.
The Current will face Atletico Madrid for the Women’s Cup championship at 8 p.m. Saturday at CPKC Stadium.
The match started out slow and cagey, as both teams looked to get a feel for the other over the first 20 minutes.
“We knew they were gonna be a good team, and we knew they were gonna come in with contact,” Cooper said. “We knew we had to stay in the game and couldn’t lose mentality. We couldn’t waver in what we were doing, and we had to stay focused on us. So that’s exactly what we tried to do throughout the match.”
The breakthrough eventually came. The Current finally started to figure out what worked, especially against the Sundowns’ well drilled offside trap.
“Once we got into it, we got the rhythm,” Current coach Vlatko Andonovski said. “We realized the problems that we had and how to solve (them). I think that we started taking the game over.”
Spaanstra’s goal came on a wicked shot from 20 yards out. It curled into the top corner to give the Current a 1-0 lead.
Cooper received a pass over the top from Lo Labonta in the 37th minute. She dribbled around Mamelodi Sundowns goalkeeper Andile Dlamini before finishing with a shot into an empty net.
Cooper credited Temwa Chawinga for her finish, as she picked up the idea from her teammate.
“That is basically what I’ve learned from Temwa,” Cooper said. “Dribbling the keepers is something I could do as well, and that’s exactly what I implemented into the game.”
The opportunity to dribble the keeper doesn’t come without the perfectly placed pass over the top from Lo LaBonta.
“Lo and I made contact and it was like, ‘Run!’” Cooper said.
DiBernardo added a brilliant goal from distance of her own, taking a shot on a short corner from a tight angle well outside the penalty area. Her strike nestled into the top corner.
Atletico Madrid — “Las Rojiblancas” — defeated INAC Kobe from Japan in a penalty-kick shootout after a 1-1 draw. Tatiana Pinto and Carla Morera scored in regulation for Atletico and INAC Kobe, respectively. Goalkeeper and captain Lola Gallardo stopped three consecutive Kobe penalties, while each of Atletico’s three penalty-kick takers converted.
INAC KOBE and Mamelodi Sundowns will meet in the Women’s Cup consolation match at CPKC Stadium Saturday, kicking off at 5 p.m. The Current-Atletico Madrid game will follow.
It will be the Current’s first chance to play for a trophy since the 2022 NWSL championship game. But, Andonovski said, that trophy or not, the next game is always the most important of the season.
“We never talk about the trophy,” Andonovski said. “All we talk about is our process. We just focus on the next game.
“For us, this game was the most important game this year. Next one as it comes, is gonna be the most important one. And right after that, the game in D.C. is gonna be the most important one.”
This story was originally published August 14, 2024 at 10:15 PM.