Bia and Pfeiffer Out Injured for the KC Current, what is the Fallout?

The Kansas City Current got a double dose of bad news this week. On Thursday, the club announced two significant injuries. First, the team confirmed reports from Bia Zaneratto herself that she was out injured and gave a timeline of 6-8 weeks for her return. They also announced that 16-year-old forward Alex Pfeiffer would miss the remainder of the 2024 season, and presumably some of the 2025 season, with a torn ACL and torn meniscus.

Both injuries will have an impact on the KC Current, but let’s get to the most obvious one first.

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Bia Missing is a Big Deal

This isn’t the first time in the 2024 season that Bia has missed action due to injury. Possibly this injury has remnants of the same injury that stole Bia from the squad earlier in the year. Bia has missed four of the 15 games the Current have played so far. She was out between the win on April 26th against Angel City FC and didn’t return until a late sub appearance against the Utah Royals on May 25th. The four games in between had the KC Current going 1-0-3, a pretty bad stretch by their standards. They suffered draws against the Houston Dash, Seattle Reign and Racing Louisville while edging out the North Carolina Courage.

It’s easy to see that Bia will be missed while she is out with her stress fracture. Since Bia has returned? 4-0-1 with 14 goals scored in those five games. Without Bia they only scored five, with three coming against Louisville.

As for who replaced Bia, it’s not clear. It was a mix of attacking midfielder Claire Lavogez playing center forward, Debinha as a false 9 and Temwa Chawinga just trying to do everything. We’ll have a better idea of what Vlatko Andonovski is thinking come Saturday night against the Orlando Pride. I wouldn’t mind seeing Michelle Cooper try her hand at CF or perhaps the return of Kristen Hamilton who hasn’t played since the second game of the season.

Whoever plays, it’ll be tough to replace the five goals and four assists Bia has delivered. That’s nearly a goal contribution per match.

Crushing for Pfeiffer

I’ll let Vlatko speak for all of us.

“My heart broke when I heard about Alex’s injury, especially at a time when she was playing so well,” said head coach Vlatko Andonovski. “She is a young player who we know will work hard to recover and grow stronger than she was before. We look forward to when she is able to step back on the pitch with us again.”

The loss of Pfeiffer is different than Bia. She’s only played 138 minutes (across 10 appearances) this season. Alex missing games likely won’t have as big as impact on the scoreline as Bia, but it feels like a lost chance. With the Summer Cup and the Women’s Cup coming up, surely minutes were going to be available for Alex as the team could afford to rest their stars in competitions that don’t mean as much as league play. There are still other young players who are going to have to get on the field, but it would have been cool to see Pfeiffer play a lot and maybe even start at times.

While time is lost, along with a chance at the U-17 World Cup, she’s young and she’ll be back.

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International Duty

Unrelated to the injuries, but it’s about to be a big six-week break in league play after the Orlando game as the Olympic break starts. That said, it won’t mean there is no KC Current to watch with the Women’s Cup and Summer Cup about to start. However, several KC Current players are getting the call to represent their countries and will miss all or some of those competitions.

First, Lauren Leal will be an alternate for Brazil as they head to Paris for the Olympics. She may not see the field without injuries to her country women, but she’ll spend the summer in Europe none the less. Stunningly, Debinha didn’t get called up and obviously Bia is out injured. Brazil face Spain, Japan and Nigeria in group play.

Also representing her country is Nichelle Prince who got the call from Canada. Prince only has three appearances for 110 minutes with the Current, but she still earned one of 18 spots with Canada. The Canadians will be guaranteed to play Colombia, New Zealand and France in the World Cup.

Finally, in preparation for the U-2o World Cup, Claire Hutton got another call-up. She’ll be in camp in Georgia with the USWNT U-20s from July 8th through the 16th for two games against Mexico’s U-20s. NWSL play returns for KC on the 25th of August, but immediately after Hutton may be off with the U-20s again for the World Cup from August 31st through September 22.

It’s also likely Stine Ballisager will get a call up from Denmark for a pair of games. The Danes play Belgium on July 12th and the Czech Republic on July 16th. That’ll potentially leave just one center back in Elizabeth Ball for the first Summer Camp game against Houston. Maybe Stine will be back, but don’t be surprised to see Sophie Braun move to CB if it’s needed.