In unfamiliar territory, KC Current seek better result against Thorns in Portland

The Kansas City Current soccer team is coming off back-to-back losses, a rare position for the team in teal. KC fell 2-1 at Chicago and 3-0 in a road shocker against Seattle.

Now comes a Saturday afternoon test in Portland, with the Current is eager to respond in its fourth National Women’s Soccer League match of the season.

“We have to come out flying,” KC team captain Lo LaBonta said Friday. “Has to be intense. This team, our culture is that we respond. We go after teams.”

LaBonta cited Seattle’s recent response as an example. The Reign lost 2-0 at Portland and then proceeded to blank KC. At Portland, Seattle was up a player thanks to a Thorns red card and still lost ... even after the Thorns were assessed a second red card with 20-plus minutes remaining.

In Kansas City’s most recent outing, the Reign dropped all three of its goals on the Current in a 22-minute span — just the sort of barrage that KC used to inflict on opponents.

“We want to respond that way,” LaBonta said. “We want to go into this weekend, we’re coming off a loss, and we want to come and put a bunch of goals in the back of Portland’s net.”

The Current won its season opener 2-1 over Utah before losing two straight, both away from CPKC Stadium. And Kansas City, so far, hasn’t looked much like the team to which fans had grown accustomed the past two years.

A step back from the blistering pace the club was on last season was probably to be expected, but few would’ve projected things to be this rough.

The Current has fallen behind in all three of its games this season. Its defense has been shaky. KC trailed for 120 minutes in 2025 but has already surpassed that total in 2026. The Current’s six conceded six goals — after 13 allowed through all of last season — is another stat to watch.

Along with playing for a new coach — former Major League Soccer standout Chris Armas is leading an NWSL team for the first time — change permeates the roster. LaBonta and fellow standout player Michelle Cooper are on restricted minutes as they return from injuries.

Players playing out of position in the midfield has created a patchwork. Claire Hutton’s departure in a trade that wasn’t like-for-like is a factor, too. Throw in the fact that reigning two-time league MVP Temwa Chawinga has yet to play in 2026, and it becomes apparent the Current is simply trying to figure some things out right now.

There’s also the issue of travel. The league limits how many charter flights teams can take in a season. The only acceptable exceptions are when no direct flights between markets are available.

Unfortunately for the Current, every flight taken on the team’s ongoing three-games-in-seven-days road swing has been direct — meaning the KC players, members of a pro sports team, are flying commercial each step of the way. Time spent in transit mean fewer minutes left for training and recovery.

These things are presented not as potential excuses for the Current’s one-win/two-loss start, but as context around it. The reality is that much soccer remains to be played this season — more, in fact, with 27 matches to go, than was played throughout last year’s 26-game NWSL regular season.

LaBonta hopes the learning curve will begin to flatten and pay dividends as the lights of competition brighten.

“In years prior, we’ve started hot ... and then we’ve lost in the playoffs,” she said. “So I’d rather right now us struggle, get our losses out of our system, and then be very successful in the playoffs.”

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

This story was originally published March 27, 2026 at 6:03 PM.