Match Preview: KC Current at Denver Summit

The NWSL season resumes in earnest this weekend with the Kansas City Current making their maiden voyage to the Rocky Mountain State to clash with expansion side Denver Summit on Friday night. The league took the entire month of June off as the focus (and many venues and resources) shifted to the men’s World Cup. This was true in Kansas City as the Netherlands (recently knocked out by Morocco) made the Current’s facilities their basecamp.

Of course, the one exception to the void of women’s soccer over the last month was the NWSL Challenge Cup that took place last weekend between the Current and Gotham FC. The Dark Knights ended up securing the hardware, winning 2-0 over the Current. The match felt like the perfect illustration of one team taking advantage of their chances and the other…not. Kansas City created much better opportunities from the run of play. Bethune and Chawinga both found themselves one-on-one with Gotham’s keeper, but in both cases Berger was able to do just enough to block their shots. Even Cooper found herself wide open on a recycled ball with an empty net in front of her but skied her shot. By comparison, Gotham had exactly two shots on target and were gifted both of those chances. LaBonta tripped Howell at the very top of the box (with Howell’s back to goal) and Gotham was awarded a PK. Then Sharples changed her mind mid-pass and Dudley swiped the ball and carried it all the way in to score.

Depending on one’s natural attitudes, the Challenge Cup was either a sign of everything wrong with this team right now: they can’t finish their chances and their mistakes doom them. Or it’s an indication of how close this team is to the unstoppable force we’ve watched the past couple of years: they’re generating quality looks that players like Bethune, Chawinga, and Cooper will usually finish and their errors are fixable. This Friday’s game, in front of an enthusiastic Colorado fanbase, should provide further evidence as to which perspective is more accurate.

Denver’s inaugural season has, fittingly, had its peaks and valleys. They set an American women’s professional sports record with over 63,000 fans packing Mile High Stadium for their debut home match back in March. However, that came amidst a 1-3-3 start to the season that saw them hovering around the bottom of the standings. Since those first seven games, though, they’ve won three of their past four and have climbed to ninth–one spot outside of the playoffs. Along the way, they’ve defeated teams such as Gotham and the Orlando Pride. Adding to this, they are about to welcome one of the sport’s highest profile athletes, Lindsey Heaps, as she transfers from European powerhouse Olympique Lyonnais. She could conceivably make her debut for the Summit this week, though she may wait for another week or so before officially donning the forest green.

Meanwhile, the Current are continuing the troubling pattern of being almost completely unable to get a positive result away from home. The team is 1-6 away from the friendly confines of CPKC Stadium this season, and this match in particular may present some challenging elements. Not only is it being played at elevation, but the Current’s manager, Chris Armas, was recently run out of his last coaching gig leading the Colorado Rapids. He finished last season in 21st place leading a team that called Dick’s Sporting Goods Park home.

Adding to these concerns, Kansas City may still be somewhat shorthanded. At least for now, Haley Hopkins is the starting #9 after the trade that sent Sentnor to Angel City. Also, as of a week ago, players like Debinha and Lorena were unavailable and players like DiBernardo and Alana Cook were still working their way back into full fitness. Despite all this, on paper the Current have a roster that should absolutely be able to head west and earn a positive result (a win) on the road this week. This will be Denver’s first taste of trying to defend the force of nature that is Temwa Chawinga and the skill and creativity of the rest of the Teal should prove too formidable for this upstart franchise.

One other relevant note, as we reported yesterday, the league’s free agency period has opened, meaning we learned which players are unlikely to return to Kansas City for the 2027 season. The element of this that seems especially perplexing from a KC roster standpoint is the fact that Bayley Feist, Rocky Rodríguez, and Vanessa DiBernardo are all set to potentially depart. Rodríguez and Feist have been largely holding down the defensive midfielder role this season (alongside Lo LaBonta) since the offseason exit of Claire Hutton. DiBernardo, though she’s yet to play this year as she works her way back from maternity leave, would similarly be a central midfielder capable of sitting deep. So, conceivably, 2026 may see the loss of four options at the #6 spot. One can only hope the front office is prioritizing finding a top replacement(s) as the absence of Hutton has likely been the single biggest factor in KC’s underwhelming record thus far.

WHEN: Friday, July 3 at 8:30 PM (Central Time)

WHERE: Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, Commerce City, CO

HOW TO WATCH: NWSL+ / 38 the Spot

Record:

KC Current: 7-0-5 (21 points, 6th place)

Denver Summit FC: 4-3-4 (15 points, 9th place)

Last (League) Match:

KC Current: 1-0 home victory over Boston Legacy

Denver Summit FC: 1-0 road win over Racing Louisville