KC Current
Breaking: Kansas City Current Parts Ways With Head Coach Matt Potter
The Current are now looking for their third head coach in three years
The Kansas City Current announced that they have parted ways with head coach Matt Potter. No details were released other than it was related to issues around his leadership and employment responsibilities.
“We watch the play on the pitch, we keep a pulse on the locker room, and we are constantly evaluating ways to improve our club,” said General Manager Camille Ashton via press release. “Through our ongoing process of continuous improvement, we believe now is the right time for this change.”
The Current are in eleventh place with an 0-3-0 record and a -6 goal differential. While the team has struggled for results in the first three matches, they have been without their high-profile off-season signings and missing returning veterans. The Current started slow last season but bounced back to notch a thirteen-game unbeaten streak. That streak led them to a fifth-place regular season finish in the NWSL standings with a 10-6-6 record, They advanced to a spot in the NWSL Championship match. This was after Potter was hired in January of that year, taking over a team that finished dead last the previous season.
First-year assistant Coach Caroline Sjöblom will serve as Interim Head Coach starting immediately. Sjöblom will take the reins when the Current face the Houston Dash in their first match of the 2023 NWSL Challenge Cup. Before becoming a coach, Sjöblom had a successful playing career. She won a Finnish Cup Championship and made an appearance in the Swedish Cup. Once Sjöblom hung up her cleats, she lead a number of teams across Sweden. She earned her UEFA Pro Coaching license in 2018 and was named Sweden’s U19 National Team head coach in 2020.
The Current will be now looking for their third head coach in three years.
Kansas City is in Houston tonight taking on the Dash in the Current’s first match of the 2023 UKG NWSL Challenge Cup.
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Not good news for whatever is going on behind the scenes. Hoping there wasn’t mistreatment of players or sexism issues but a bit nervous.
Yikes. Sounds like he was with the team as recently as training yesterday. The wording of why he’s being released is a bit unsettling, but hopefully it does simply boil down to really believing transitioning to a new coach now is critical to turning things around. Accountability? Interesting concept.
Hope the team is supported and in a good headspace.
My guess is that this isn’t performance related but something behind the scenes.
Just trying to be optimistic and not over-speculate since there is very little info. Though I guess that makes me sound naive. Too many terrible things keep happening in NWSL and women’s soccer in general; I’m exhausted of it and I can’t imagine how the players feel at this point.
To me it sounds like someone believes that the something behind the scenes is a factor in, possibly driving, the poor performances. I always felt like Potter was too passive and slow to make changes (not PV level slow, but…). That might be completely wrong. It’s just the vibe I got.
I think I remember reading an article about a draft pick or a trialist this past off-season who had a bad experience with the team. I wonder if this is related
Minnis was her name. Or something like that. That’s an interesting thought because that whole (alleged) fiasco basically boiled down to someone or someones not doing their jobs and Minnis falling through the cracks on at least two occasions.
Okay, you’ve convinced me. I will treat your innocent speculation as gospel from now on.
That came down right as our website was transitioning (like literally the day after and it’s been a lot to deal with on the back end) and we definitely didn’t cover it enough.
I talked about it on a podcast, but never wrote it all up: https://kcsoccerjournal.com/for-the-glory-kc-have-sporting-kc-solved-their-defensive-woes/
Meg Linehan did at The Athletic though: https://theathletic.com/4371614/2023/04/01/kc-current-mykiaa-minniss-mistreatment/
As rock bottom goes, KC summer sports are rapidly heading into the molten mantle.
Between sporting, current, and royals I feel like it’s that Spider-Man pointing meme