Comic-Con at CPKC as the Current host Gotham: Match Preview

Another week, another match in which the Current’s opponent will seemingly have much greater motivation than Kansas City.

After a successful trip west on Monday resulted in another win, this time over an Angel City team fighting for their playoff lives (the loss to KC was just about the nail in the coffin of their season), the Current return home to host a Gotham FC side battling for playoff position. While first place (KC) and second place (Washington Spirit) are pretty firmly set, the rest of the playoff field is tightly bunched together.

Gotham currently occupies 3^rd place with 35 points but is just a single point ahead of 5^th place Seattle Reign and only four points in front of 8^th place (the final playoff spot) San Diego Wave. With three regular season matches still to play, there could be a lot of shuffling. For Gotham, even as a top-two finish may be out of reach (Washington is at 43 points), they will absolutely not want to fall any farther than 4^th as the top four teams will get to host the quarterfinal round of the playoffs.

The upshot of all of this? Kansas City, a team with very little to play for, will again face a team with much to gain or lose.

What that meant the last time out was that Coach Andonovski had KC start a quite young (youngest ever lineup in team history) and rather inexperienced group for the late-night showdown in the city of angels. The Current trotted out four teenagers (plus Ally Sentnor is still just 21) and only Lo LaBonta over 30. This was far from a normal first-team lineup (two players earning first ever starts and one earning her second) and in a lot of ways it showed. Statistically, Kansas City was not the better team on Monday. They were outshot 16 to 5 and their only shot on target was the one goal of the game. The possession was nearly 2-1 in favor of the hosts.

And yet, Kansas City still walked away with a win, their record-setting 19^th of the season. The “KC Babies” held their own, but it was Michelle Cooper notching the winner less than 20 seconds after entering the fray. In fact, the goal occurred so quickly that CBS Sports, in all their wisdom, was still showing an ad when it happened.

Will Vlatko employ a similar strategy this time around, as Gotham comes to town? The Dark Knights would seem to pose a bigger challenge to the Current than the Halos did as Gotham is undefeated in their last seven regular season matches (eleven matches in all competitions). With that said, only four of those seven have been wins and they played Seattle to a 0-0 draw at home last weekend.

As referenced above, Gotham has also had a much busier schedule than most teams as they have been participating in the CONCACAF W Champions Cup group stage—playing four matches in that competition since late August. For what it’s worth, by winning the NWSL Shield, the Current have already booked a spot in next year’s edition of the Champions Cup.

A founding member of the NWSL, Gotham FC (formerly Sky Blue FC) has been one of the most successful clubs in the league over the last few years. They won the Championship in 2023, made it to the semi-finals in 2024, and are again in good position to potentially make a run this season. On top of that, they won the inaugural CONCACAF W Champions Cup this past May which earned them a spot in the first ever Women’s Club World Cup to be played in early 2028.

In addition to all this winning, they have also worked to build a roster full of high-profile players. Spaniard and reigning World Cup champion, Esther González leads the attack for Gotham and has been neck-and-neck with Temwa Chawinga for the Golden Boot lead all season. In goal, Gotham features German and reigning Olympic bronze medal winning keeper Ann-Katrin Berger, last season’s NWSL Goalkeeper of the Year. The defense features World Cup runner up and Englishwoman Jess Carter. And then there are all the USWNT players such as Rose Lavelle, Emily Sonnett, Tierna Davidson, Midge Purce, and the recently acquired Jaedyn Shaw. In a way, it feels appropriate this team is from the Big Apple as their roster construction feels akin to an organization like the New York Yankees buying a lot of stars.

One can’t help but notice a lot of differences between this approach and the way the Kansas City Current built their team. Outside of signing someone like Debinha a few seasons ago and then trading for Ally Sentnor this season, the focus of the KC front office hasn’t been simply on name recognition. For example, how many Americans could have identified Temwa Chawinga in 2023? Just a single season ago, who could have anticipated that Kayla Sharples would be a frontrunner for defender of the year? Players like Michelle Cooper, Claire Hutton, Ellie Wheeler were playing for college or youth teams before the Current signed them over the past few years. Even team captain Lo LaBonta was never a household name over her first decade in the league and has traveled with this core roster from FCKC to the first iteration of the Utah Royals and then back to Kansas City. Any notoriety these players are now experiencing is largely due to the success they’re having in KC.

These teams have met once already in 2025, a 2-1 win for KC when they traveled to NJ in June. In fact, in the entire history of this series, the Current have never lost to Gotham, posting an all-time record of five wins, five draws, and zero losses. Will that continue Saturday?

However it plays out, don’t be surprised if it’s a low scoring affair as these two teams feature the stingiest defenses and the only two keepers with 10 or more clean sheets in the league this season.

Oh, and for anyone showing up to the match, make sure to bring your teal!

WHEN: Saturday, October 11 at 4:00 PM (Central Time)

WHERE: CPKC Stadium, Kansas City, MO

HOW TO WATCH: ion / 38 the Spot / YouTube TV

Record:

KC Current: 19-2-2 (59 points, 1st place–locked in)

Gotham FC: 9-8-6 (35 points, 3rd place)

Last Match:

KC Current: 1-0 road win versus Angel City

Gotham FC: 0-0 home draw versus Seattle Reign