KC Current Lose Late to AFC Toronto in World Sevens

The Kansas City Current entered the final group stage game needing another win. They picked up one this morning, but they would have to vanquish AFC Toronto to give themselves the best chance to advance to the semifinals and a chance to play for $5 million. Toronto had a slim chance of advancing, so they would be motivated to fight hard for a win too.

Despite KC needing the result they would ultimately lose the game very late, in disappointing fashion.

Kansas City got off to a fantastic start with Toronto turning it over in the midfield and Ally Sentnor playing a simple ball to Alex Pfeiffer to placed it perfectly to go up 1-0 early! Pfeiffer is a heck of a goal scorer.

Due to the fast natured format, we’ll skip the narrative again and just go with highlights and big moments.

• 3′ Three straight chances by Toronto in around a minute that left KC with only emergency defending but KC kept them off the board.

In the 8th minute, a Kristen Hamilton turnover left Kansas City scrambling. In the end, the counterattack would get the best of KC with Hammy almost saving the ball off the line, but it trickled over after Kaylee Hunter got a toe to it. 1-1.

• 9′ KC had a fast break and Lo LaBonta tried to play it to Hopkins, since there is no offside, but a last second intervention saved it.
• 11′ The first dangerous corner saw Bayley Feist play one on the ground to a darting Ellie Wheeler, but the shot was partially blocked.

In the 12th minute, off a recycled set piece ball from a Tyler McCamey double save, former KC Current midfielder Victoria Pickett found Hunter out wide who scored from an impossible angle. 2-1 Toronto.

• 14′ Beautiful give and go from LaBonta but her final square ball was just out of Sentnor’s reach.
• 15′ Good LaBonta corner kick but again the potential shot is deflected out.

That’s how it would go into the half with Toronto up 2-1. Kansas City once again found themselves needing to come back to stay alive. They came out in the second half and absolutely stunned Toronto. 12 seconds into the second half they put together a fantastic team goal. Wheeler to Feist back to Wheeler and back to Feist who played a perfect ball on the ground to the back post run of Pfeiffer who got her second of the day! 2-2!!

• The game lost some rhythm after the hot KC start. Neither team could gain an advantage.
• 21′ Toronto looked like they scored but the ball had gone over the endline, and KC was given more life.
• 23′ Regan Steigleder with a rocket just over the bar.
• 24′ Elle Kershner earned a corner then on the next play forced the GK to dive for a save.
• 27′ Gabby Robinson goes the length of the field to force a corner.

In the 29th minute, disaster struck. Sentnor froze on the field when a pass wasn’t played to her feet. She reacted late and dashed to the ball and saved it from going out of bounds but over ran it and left it for Toronto (a play we teach our youth girls team never to do). Toronto immediately picked up the ball and countered and scored. 3-2 Toronto.

Despite there only being a minute left in the game, KC played with almost no urgency until the final 10 seconds when they scrambled up the field only to have the ball go out and the game to come to an end.

Technically, KC aren’t eliminated with the loss, as Kansas City, Toronto and Tigres all have one win. Tigres have to play Flamengo next. However, Flamengo are guaranteed to advance now and have nothing to play for. They also need Tigres to not score two goals, since apparently that’s the tiebreaker. (The KC Soccer Journal requested the rules from numerous sources but failed to get them.) Before this story could be published, Tigres scored two goals in six minutes and eliminated the Current.

The Current being eliminated in the group stage is incredibly disappointing. Kansas City not convincing their best players to go to the tournament really showed and they looked like a shell of the team that won the NWSL Shield during the 2025 season. Losing two out of three will leave a bad taste in the KC Current’s mouths. Not as bad as going out in the first round of the NWSL playoffs, but bad.

Kansas City will not play another game that counts until February 20th in the Challenge Cup against NJ/NY Gotham.