Inside KC soccer: Current finally return to form & Sporting’s new starting GK
It took seven games for the Kansas City Current to do one thing: score first.
Croix Bethune and Michelle Cooper each scored their second goal of the season inside the game’s first 25 minutes to lead KC to a 2-1 victory in Cary, North Carolina, on Saturday.
The Current has won just once in North Carolina since the Kansas City franchise returned to NWSL play in 2021.
Head coach Chris Armas said it was more than just the goals that he was proud of in his team’s start to the match.
“There’s the start and the tone we set,” Armas said Tuesday. “Then honestly, (it was) more stressful for the team in the end. But the way they stuck together and finished it off, it’s not easy.”
The Current finally looked like the Current in Saturday’s match — for a couple of reasons.
First, KC turned the Courage over repeatedly in the first half, thanks to multiple counter-pressing wins (pressing the opponent after losing the ball rather than regrouping into a more conservative defensive shape).
Both of the Current’s goals were directly out of counter-pressing moments. It’s a hallmark of what made the Current so good in 2025, and was a reason why the team’s performance Saturday resembled flashes of the 2025 team.
Second, it was the defense, which, in a way, is linked to the first point. The Current doubled most of the North Carolina Courage’s defensive statistics and, in some cases, tripled them. The team won 64% of its duels overall and 81% of aerial duels while making more tackles, interceptions, clearances and more.
Veteran defender Elizabeth Ball said the difference in the team’s defensive performance was the level of aggression.
“We’ve been building every week, but we’re really focusing on being aggressive and making sure we win our individual battles,” Ball said. “If there was somebody that was getting the ball, we had to be in and around it.”
The Current’s recipe for success going forward needs to look like Saturday night’s performance. The club’s next test is the Chicago Stars on Mother’s Day at CPKC Stadium.
Sporting ends losing skid
It wasn’t pretty. But it wasn’t ugly.
Sporting KC picked up its first competitive non-defeat since March 14 in a 1-1 draw with the Seattle Sounders.
Sporting didn’t exactly steal the show. And it looked like it would be more of the same when the Sounders scored two minutes in. But Sporting pulled together and found a way to keep one of the best teams in the league from scoring again.
The team’s response when going down as often as it has in 2026 has been to capitulate. The game plan goes out the window as the team stresses about trying to regain a level scoreline, and instead, the game blows completely out of hand.
Take the 5-0 loss in Chicago, for example. The team could’ve responded to going down 1-0 by staying compact, not overcommitting to win the ball or sending too many numbers forward — and kept themselves in the game. But exasperation took over, and the goals snowballed into a lopsided loss.
Instead, on Saturday, the team went down 1-0 but kept its shape and, more importantly, its head. Dejan Joveljic capitalized on a gift of a back-pass from the Sounders captain, and Sporting earned a result against a Sounders side that had failed to win only twice in 2026.
“The reaction the guys showed was really good, not to panic, to stay in the game, to stay together, not do the same mistakes as we did in Chicago the week before,” coach Raphael Wicky said. “That was a good step. It wasn’t a win, but it wasn’t a loss.”
The road does get a bit easier up until the World Cup break for Sporting KC.
Remaining on the schedule are four teams that average fewer than 1.2 points per game. Sporting’s first 10 opponents averaged 1.67 points per contest, including four above the 2.0 mark.
For context, the 2025 Supporters’ Shield-winning Philadelphia Union had a 1.9 ppg.
The first test is a road match against the Portland Timbers on Saturday at 9:30 p.m.
Competition for Sporting goalkeeper job wide open
Stefan Cleveland started in net Saturday for Sporting KC. It was the first time in two seasons that someone other than John Pulskamp started in goal. And according to Wicky, it’s Cleveland’s job right now.
“I had a talk with John, had a talk with Stefan,” Wicky said. “I think the situation is clear, and right now, Stefan is in our goal.”
Keep an eye on that spot moving forward.
Debinha out long-term with a knee injury
Armas told reporters Tuesday that star forward Debinha will miss time with a meniscus injury. Armas initially said she would be out for months, but that the team would also learn more about the severity of the injury later this week.
Even in the short-term, she’d likely miss the Current’s next five games leading into the World Cup. The team doesn’t return to action until late July. So, conceivably, she won’t return to NWSL action for at least a couple of months.
Former Sporting KC star retires second all-time in MLS goals
Kei Kamara announced his retirement from professional soccer Monday.
Kamara, 41, starred for Sporting KC from 2009 to 2013, scoring 41 goals in 126 matches. He played for 12 different MLS teams and scored 147 goals in MLS, second only to Chris Wondolowski (171).
Daniel Sperry covers soccer for The Star. He can be reached at sperry.danielkc@gmail.com.