The Kansas City Current started this season with a bang, christening their new stadium with a head-turning five-goal performance against the Portland Thorns. The catch, however, was that what could have been a franchise-defining blowout win turned into a 5-4 nailbiter in favor of Kansas City.
“The ones who know me know I’m terrified,” Current head coach Vlatko Andonovski said after that first match. “I can’t even think that we got scored on four goals.”
It was a recurring point of emphasis even though the Current remained unbeaten for the next 14 matches, namely because seven of them ended in a draw or were decided by one goal. By the Olympic break, Kansas City had a league-best 40 goals, but had surrendered 22 which was more than any other team in the top six and 10 more than Orlando who handed the Current their first loss, 2-1.
They needed change, so they used the summer transfer window to overhaul the entire spine of the defense. On Saturday, Kansas City opens its playoff campaign hosting the North Carolina Courage in a quarterfinal, and the Current hope their improved back line can complement a record-setting attack (57 goals) to win a championship.
First, they signed veteran defender Alana Cook through a trade with the Seattle Reign. They also picked up goalkeeper Almuth Schult, who led Germany to its first gold medal in 2016, and received defender Kayla Sharples in a trade with Bay FC.
Cook made a quick impact, starting the first match out of the break and recorded a team-high five clearances with two interceptions. Schult started in place of Adrianna Franch in goal the next match and saved three of the five shots on goal.
Sharples started in the third match and the Current earned their first points out of the break with a 1-0 victory against the Utah Royals. Utah entered with 1.2 expected goals according to FBRef but Schult saved all six shots on goal.
“This group is so strong,” Andonovski said after the game. “We made these changes in a really tough part of the season where we had a really tough stretch. Hard, tough games, hard opponents and that makes it even harder… I think it brought them a little big closer together, actually expedited the process of bringing these new players together.”
That kicked off a streak of just one goal allowed in six matches and ended their home slate similar to the way they started with a 4-1 victory against the San Diego Wave. They beat Chicago 3-1 on the road to end their regular season.
“I am very happy that we were able to do that because I think that we saw right off the bat that there was a difference in the way we defended,” Andonovski said. “Obviously we won the game 4-1 and we won a couple games maybe 3-0 but we were able to go in a game 0-0 and win a 1-0 game. Even though as a coach those are stressful and you don’t probably want to be in that situation. For us and our development and our growth as a team those moments were important. Those games were very important and they had a lot to do with that.”
Cook had some previous experience playing for Andonovski on the U.S. women’s national team. She lauded his approach and the relentless attitude he’s brought to the Current.
“One of the reasons I came here was to learn from Vlatko and his kind of defensive mind,” Cook said. “The way he’s instilled good habits, the way he’s taught us different things with stepping in front of a player, different techniques for doing those things, I think you’re seeing it all coming together and the stat sheet is showing that. We’ve gotten a lot more difficult to beat as the season has gone on and I think that something that we really pride ourselves on.”
Although one can point to the arrival of Cook, Schult and Sharples as a turning point for the team, they joined a solid foundation which now boasts the league’s lowest expected goals against an highest goal differential. And it doesn’t hurt that they’ve had defenders score six of their league-best 57 goals either.
With Sharples and Cook cemented at centerback, Andonovski has tested a few different combinations around them, shifting between a 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1 with players like Hallie Mace, Izzy Rodriguez and Ellie Wheeler
Now, the Current turn their sights to the NWSL Playoffs where they are a four-seed with home-field advantage hosting the North Carolina Courage. The teams split their regular season series with North Carolina winning the second match 2-1 in September. That was the last loss by the Current who ended the season with six wins and two draws.
“Everyone is willing to put their body on the line right now and we want to win that championship so whatever we can do to keep the ball out of the net is the biggest thing,” defender Rodriguez said.
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