At times, there is just so much soccer we can’t keep up! Check out the Digital Crawl archives if you missed any stories. If you like a quick news round up, we do it on every episode of the For the Glory KC podcast.

How KC Soccer is Coming Together for 13-Year-Old Jake Hanna

If the World Cup has shown us anything, Kansas City has great people. We’ve welcomed fans from all over the world to our city with open arms.

Now one of our own needs help. One of our readers reached out an asked that we draw attention to a worthy cause.

An upcoming Overland Park 5v5 Soccer Tournament will give a portion of all registrations to COTA for Team Jake to help 13-year-old, Jake Hanna, with kidney transplant related expenses. Jake, a soccer player himself, has suffered from chronic kidney disease since he was three years old. 10-years later, his kidneys are at just 15 percent function.

You can read more of Jake’s story at the Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA) website.

Debinha Signs a New Contract

On Monday, the Kansas City Current announced a new contract for midfielder Debinha. Debinha was one of seven players that were already free agents and could technically sign a pre-contract with another team to join in 2027.

The team announced they were trying to work out a deal with her, but that new deal didn’t come until a couple weeks into free agency.

“Debinha is one of the best players in the world, and we are excited that she will continue her illustrious career in Kansas City,” said general manager Ryan Dell. “Above all, Debinha is a selfless teammate. She makes those around her better, and her passion and love for the game is contagious.”

Technically, Debinha had a mutual contract option through the 2027, but that had to be agreed to by the team and player for it to trigger. Instead, Daniel Sperry of the KC Star reports they declined that option and worked out a new deal.

The terms of that deal are only partially known. It’s a one-year contract through 2027 with a one-year mutual option for 2028. Presumably, the prior option was declined to re-work the terms of the contract.

Debinha has never played in every game since joining the KC Current during the 2023 season. She has played in eight of a possible 14 league games this season. The prior two seasons saw 22 appearances, but her inability to stay healthy for a whole year and the fact she turns 35 in a couple months, almost certainly means she isn’t paid what she was when she originally joined.

All that said, she was having an MVP season in 2025 before she got hurt. If she can get back to that form, the sky is the limit in Kansas City.

Sporting KC Injury & Visa Updates

Update: Emir Karic got his visa and is available.

On Tuesday, Sporting Kansas City had a portion of practice open to the media. Only four players missed practice. First, Emir Karic doesn’t yet have his Visa, so he couldn’t practice. Fellow international signing, Moises Mosquera has received his and is available. However, Rapha Wicky cautioned last week he’s further away physically having not played soccer since April.

On the injury front, nothing was specifically mentioned but three players weren’t available. Taylor Calheira is probably the guy who has played the most recently, partnering with Dejan Joveljic. He was missing alongside right back Justin Reynolds and Diego Borges. The latter two have missed a fair amount of time this season and it’s disappointing to see they are once again missing practice.

In Tuesday’s news conference, Wicky confirmed not only will they likely miss the game against St. Louis, but that they will “probably not be available this game or the next few games.” The official injury report dropped confirming their absence just before publishing.

Temwa Called Up

For the first time since February of 2025, Temwa Chawinga will go on international duty.

The back-to-back NWSL MVP will join Malawi for the 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON). For three weeks teams will gather in Morocco to crown the best women’s national team in Africa.

Malawi is paired with Nigeria, Zambia and Egypt in the group stage.

The NWSL doesn’t break for WAFCON so Temwa could miss quite a few games with the KC Current playing four times during just the group stage. For sure she’ll miss four KC Current games, but she could also miss August 14th against Gotham.

Sporting KC Podcasts: Peter Vermes & Cliff Illig

Last week, a couple Sporting KC related guests dropped by The Program for extensive interviews. First, Peter Vermes was on giving a detailed analysis of what went wrong for the United States Men’s National Team in their loss to Belgium, among other topics.

After Vermes, Sporting KC minority owner, Cliff Illig, talked through a lot of subjects, including why they chose to sell to Peter Mallouk and how the World Cup went in Kansas City and its future impacts.

Both were very insightful listens.

And if you missed it, Peter Vermes was on Heart and Goal Podcast last week (but it was recorded a few weeks back). Definitely another great listen.

Ted Lasso/KC Current Event

The KC Current hosted a Ted Lasso event during the England/Norway quarterfinal match over the weekend, and Kansas City’s Reddit was ablaze in hot takes. There was apparently only about three minutes of the actual Ted Lasso cast and a clip (viewable here) and otherwise everyone was seated in the sun, there was a lack of merch and just a general disorganization.

The original poster ranted and many others confirmed their version of events, with 300+ upvotes as of today.

Then the cast showed up at the Argentina/Switzerland World Cup game across town, which also left some with a sour taste.

Behind the Scenes with the USMNT

Paul Tenorio, Tom Bogert and Henry Bushnell did a fantastic look behind the scenes of the USMNT’s 2026 FIFA World Cup run. It’s definitely worth a read (gift link below).

Speaking of Tenorio, he also had some additional details from Florian Balogan after an interview of CBS Mornings on if his suspension being lifted was a distraction.

Soccerwise on Mo Salah

Bogert: “I wouldn’t call it likely.”

Quick Hits

• Former KC Current midfielder Desiree Scott is bringing a Northern Super League team to her hometown of Winnipeg. It’s the first NSL expansion team. They join in 2027.
• The USWNT announced they will host two friendlies with the defending Women’s World Cup Champions, Spain. October 10th in Washington, D.C. and October 13th in Philadelphia.
• Kansas City continues to crush it in the World Cup television ratings.

• The Best FIFA Fan Fest? Kansas City of course. At least according to Ray who I count on for all my Fan Fest reviews.

• Kansas City was very friendly to their visitors and led the 11 U.S. host cities in hook ups.
• And we should probably all go reply to this tweet and try to get a free poster from Sporting KC of this amazing World Cup mash-up to remember the run here in Kansas City.