KC Current
The Racing Current Match Preview
Forty-eight days ago, the Kansas City Current defeated Racing Louisville 4-2 at CPKC Stadium.
Forty-two days ago, the Current downed Angel City FC in the final league match before the international break, a win that would see KC eight points clear of second place in the NWSL.
Twenty and seventeen days ago, Kansas City bested a pair of Brazilian clubs to hoist the inaugural Teal Rising Cup, a competition that allowed the team to give significant minutes to some of their depth players and welcome others back from injury.
Teal Rising in Teal Town with some new hardware 🩵✨
This Friday the NWSL finally resumes play, having paused to allow England (with league players like Jess Carter) to defeat Spain to defend their Euros title, Nigeria (with league players like Asisat Oshoala) to defeat Morocco to claim the AFCON championship, and defending champs Brazil (with league players like Lorena) to clash with Colombia in the final of the Copa América Femenina this Saturday.
It’s been a long break for the team in first place. They entered the break having won six in a row and on pace to break the league record for wins in a season. Many pundits have already awarded the Shield to the Current but six weeks away from competitive soccer can create rust. KC had no trouble scoring goals against the Racing defense seven weeks ago, but how will these teams look having not clashed with other NWSL opponents in such a long time?
*An interesting note, both Louisville and Kansas City played a pair of tournament matches against Brazilian sides over the break, and both teams took home titles. In fact, both teams played Palmeiras–the Current in the opening match of the Teal Rising Cup, a game they easily won 3-0 and Racing in the championship match of the 2025 edition of The Women’s Cup, a game they won in a PK shootout (after also winning the semifinal against São Paulo in shootout fashion).
The Current should enter Friday’s match relatively close to full strength. Obviously, one notable absence will be in goal as Lorena is still with her national team hoping to help them capture another Copa title Saturday. Additionally, Alana Cook remains out for the season and fellow center back Gabby Robinson has yet to officially come off the “season ending injury” report, though that could be happening very soon. (The team potentially created a roster spot for her when they loaned Jereko to HB Køge.) It seems like superstar attacker Debiniha may be nearing her return from a knee injury. That would just leave Kristen Hamilton as someone who has been dealing with an injury that’s kept her out of action the whole season.
One of the biggest cheers during the Teal Rising Cup was when Alex Pfeiffer entered the match after a year’s absence with an ACL injury. She, along with other young players like Mary Long and Katie Scott could be primed to contribute more to the first team as they had large rolls in bringing home the trophy last month. Flora Marta Lacho could also see increased playing time as she was the engine through which a lot of the action flowed during the tournament.
Hey everyone, Alex Pfeiffer is back ❤️After being out for 379 days with injury, she made her long awaited return for KC!
With all that said, it will certainly be exciting to see first-teamers like Chawinga, LaBonta, DiBernardo, Bia, Cooper, Hutton, Mace, (recently re-signed) Sharples, etc. out on the field together for the first time in a month-and-a-half.
This will be the Current’s first trip to Louisville since last October when they earned a 2-0 victory over their hosts. However, this isn’t the same Racing team that has missed the playoffs in every previous year of their 5-year existence. (In a curious coincidence, they have finished exactly 9th every season they’ve completed.) If the season ended today, Racing would earn its first trip to the postseason as they currently sit in 7th. However, beyond just a place in the top half of the table, they have also earned some impressive results, including closing out the first half of the season with a 2-0 over the defending champs Orlando Pride. Racing has won three of their past four matches (five of their past six if one counts The Women’s Cup games) with the only defeat in that stretch the 2-4 setback in KC.
Kansas City be like 📈📈📈 Which teams do you expect to make some movement when we return from international break? @carmax.com | #RoadToTheShield
This match is an important one for both of these teams. For Kansas City, a win would further establish them as the team to beat and would eliminate any concerns of stalled momentum thanks to the break. For Louisville, a win would mean they would have defeated the top two teams in back-to-back matches and galvanize the fanbase for what could potentially be their first postseason run.
Racing is the closest team that the Current have to a “regional” rival, as Louisville is 507 miles from KC (compared to 510 to Chicago and 743 from Houston). Even once Denver enters the league, that city is 605 miles from KC. Current supporters have proven to be good travelers with significant numbers of fans showing up everywhere from Chicago to Orlando. The team could benefit from another nice away crowd as they look to jumpstart the stretch run.
WHEN: Friday, August 1 at 7:00 PM (Central Time)
WHERE: Lynn Family Stadium, Louisville, KY
HOW TO WATCH: Prime Video
Record:
KC Current: 11-0-2 (33 points, 1st place)
Racing Louisville: 6-2-5 (20 points, 7th place)
Last Match:
KC Current: 1-0 home win versus Angel City FC
Racing Louisville: 2-0 home win versus Orlando Pride
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I really hate the NWSL broadcast deal. Here I was all ready to watch the regular season Current again, and whoops, it’s on Amazon Prime which I sure as heck am not signing up for just to watch a handful of scattered matches.
It is so much better than MLS behind a double pay wall. Especially in the city where most of the games are on 38.
What MLS double pay wall? You don’t need AppleTV to subscribe to Season Pass, despite lots of ill-informed people claiming so online.
And I’m not in the city so the NWSL broadcast deal functionally locks me out of many games. I’d much rather pay for a one-time NWSL “season pass” than have to constantly juggle which subscription I do or don’t have. If urban locals have an OTA option, good for them, but it doesn’t change the barrier for everyone else (including if I want to watch other NWSL games).
Hopefully, the increased visibility/interest will push some provider to step up as a single source. The multi-channel approach is how they were able to expand their contracts so much, but it is annoying – and I say that as someone who somehow has Prime (shhhhh). I think everything is on the NWSL+ app, but I may be wrong and that is only the games that don’t “make” the other outlets. Plus, the app is very laggy. Fortunately, the Current have been featured a lot, so not only are they not relegated to the app, they are often on YouTubeTV, which is my poison of choice for my entry streaming portal.
Have we figured in Ally Sentnor into the game calculus? Holy Shit!
Just noticed Vanessa DiBernardo announced her pregnancy and is out on maternity leave. Shitty timing V…