KC Current motivated ahead of Saturday’s NWSL Championship Match at CPKC Stadium

The Kansas City Current fell one victory short of playing in the first championship game at CPKC Stadium.

It would have been the cherry on top of a dream ending to a storybook season.

Instead, for the second time in two years, the Current’s season ended close ... but not quite there.

On Thursday, ahead of Saturday’s match for the league title in Kansas City — Washington takes on Orlando, the team that eliminated KC in last weekend’s NWSL semifinals — Current players spoke about the loss and what’s to come.

Two years ago veteran KC midfielder Lo LaBonta sat at a table after the Current’s 2-0 loss to the Portland Thorns in the NWSL Championship Game. She attempted to wrap up the season and look ahead while dealing with fresh and raw emotions.

Circumstances were similar after KC’s road loss to the Pride in Florida last weekend. Alongside head coach Vlatko Andonovski, LaBonta was asked to compare and contrast her feelings from 2022 to what she’s experienced this year.

“I think that two years ago, we got to the final on pure momentum,” she said. “This year, this one hurts even more, because we had all the tools, right? We just didn’t fully execute ...”

KC Current co-owners Chris and Angie Long are on hand this week for pre-NWSL Championship Game festivities in and around the stadium they built. Like the KC players and coaching staff, they’d hoped to be playing host to the title match Saturday evening as a participating team.

Said Angie Long, “2022 was a magical year. It felt like we got there by sheer will and a team pulling together. But now, when you look at everything we built, I truly feel we are just getting started on a team. That is our goal, to be perennially competing for a championship.”

Much of what the club has accomplished this year was still in the conceptual phase two years ago.

The opening of CPKC Stadium along the Berkley Riverfront, in time for this season’s opener, is perhaps the most visible highlight of progress since then. There’s also a relatively new training complex on the north side of the Missouri River, which opened in 2022.

The roster has a firm foundation for the future, too.

Current players have competed for a season in Andonovski’s system. LaBonta and her teammates are able to focus on being the best they can be, both individually and as a team.

The roster has the star power and quality to content again in 2025.

For LaBonta and other more veteran Current players, these things set this year’s season-debrief conversations apart from those that took place in 2022.

“(We have) so much hope and fire for next year because we have those tools,” LaBonta said. “We know everybody who walks into that building wants to win and is going to give their all.”

Angie Long said the conversation around the team has shifted several times in the last few years. Fans of the team know the club is serious about winning.

“In 2021, it was sort of, ‘Oh, I think there’s a professional women’s soccer team in our city now,’” she recalled. “In ‘22 we’re competing, and people were so excited to be supporting the Kansas City Current. This year, it’s about, ‘Did you see what (KC star forward) Temwa (Chawinga) did and how she scored that goal?’

“People are getting into the hardcore soccer part of it, and truly knowing the players, knowing the game, and feeling like it’s their team.”

Daniel Sperry covers soccer for The Star. He can be reached at sperry.danielkc@gmail.com.