Championship Match preview: Atlético Madrid vs. KC Current

There is no denying that 2024 has been special for the Kansas City Current, from opening their very own stadium to racing towards the top of the league standings in wins and goals scored. The one thing that’s missing to this point is any sort of trophy. Well, the Current have a chance to change that Saturday night.

The Women’s Cup is a series of miniature tournaments that feature some of the best teams from around the world. In 2021, Racing Louisville defeated Bayern Munich; in 2022 OL (Seattle) Reign took the title over Louisville; last year Atlético de Madrid bested AC Milan to win. Things changed a little in 2024 as the plan became to have four tournaments across the calendar with the winner of each meeting in February 2025 for the overall crown. Thus far, Gotham and Juventus have each notched a tournament title. At 8:00 this Saturday, Kansas City will lock horns with Atlético de Madrid to join those two sides in the winner’s circle.

The Kansas City-hosted edition of this tournament is significant in another way as it’s the first time teams from four different continents faced off–the closest any of these teams are from each other is the nearly 5,000 miles Kansas City is away from Madrid. In Wednesday’s first match, Atlético faced INAC Kobe Leonessa from Japan. With the score knotted at 1-1, the match was decided on PKs as Madrid’s keeper made three saves in the shootout to carry her side to victory and a spot in the finals. Just a couple hours later, the Current used a heavily rotated lineup to thwart Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies F.C. (from South Africa). Spaanstra, Cooper, and DiBernardo all found the back of the net and newly acquired keeper Almuth Schult faced only three shots in earning a clean sheet in her first minutes with KC.

These results set up an enticing championship match as one of the top European sides meets one of the top American sides under the lights of the first professional women’s soccer stadium. Atleti has never finished worse than 4th in Liga F and is coming off a third-place finish (behind Barcelona and Real Madrid) in the 23-24 season. Five times they’ve participated in the Champions League and are the defending Copa de la Reina champions. Midfielder/defender Sheila García Gómez has recently appeared for the Spanish national team, the reigning World Cup champions. This is a team that attacks well (53 goals scored last season) and defends especially well (only 22 goals against in 30 matches).

That top-notch defense will have their hands full going up against a Current team that knows a thing or two about scoring goals. Not only is Kansas City on pace to break the league’s scoring record (40 goals through 16 matches), but has added 15 in the five matches of these two international summer tournaments during the Olympic break (while only conceding 2). Averaging 3 goals per game for and 0.4 against usually gets the job done. Coach Andonovski was able to rest and rotate many of his key contributors on Wednesday and so the team should be fresh come Saturday night. Additionally, KC will be in midseason form while Atleti is participating in this tournament as part of their preseason as they ramp up for the start of their regular season in about a month’s time.

As great as things are going right now for the Kansas City Current, if they can’t capitalize on this magical season with some hardware, it may ultimately be viewed as a disappointment. The good news, though, is that they’ll have several chances to start filling up their trophy case: they’re three points off the pace for the NWSL Shield, their stadium will host the league’s championship match in November, they are set to play Gotham for the Summer Cup title in October, and most immediately they take on Atlético de Madrid Femenino for the opportunity to hoist the Women’s Cup medal in front of their home fans.

WHEN: Saturday, August 17 at 8:00 PM (Central Time)

WHERE: CPKC Stadium in Kansas City, MO

HOW TO WATCH: VIZIO WatchFree+

Record:

KC Current: 1-0-0 in The Women’s Cup; 10-5-1 (35 points, 2nd place in NWSL league standings)

Atlético de Madrid Femenino: 1-0-0 in The Women’s Cup; 18-7-5 (61 points, 3rd place in Liga F standings)

Last Match:

KC Current: 3-0 home win over Mamelodi Sundowns

Atlético de Madrid Femenino: 1-1 (win on PKs) victory over INAC Kobe