A Look Back at 2025 Wishes

The year 2025 is coming to a close and it’s that time again, time for those year end lists and those retrospectives on the year that was 2025. As I’ve done for a number of years, dating all the way back to when I was still doing my own site I took a look back at my 2025 wishes and seeing if they came true or not.

1. Silverware. The Kansas City Current fulfilled this wish this year, winning the NWSL Shield with a record breaking performance in the regular season. Let’s not talk about the playoffs.

2. Sporting KC Make the Playoffs. Speaking of playoffs, this wish did not come true. Sporting finished with just 28 points, 13 points outside the playoffs. KC finished at the bottom of the league’s Western Conference, just two points ahead of Wooden Spoon winner DC. The 28 points were the second fewest in the club’s history only ahead of the club’s 1999 season.

3. A National Team Regular for Sporting. This wish turned out to come true as Canadian Zorhan Bassong has been a regular call up for the Canadian National Team in 2025. Despite all the call ups for Bassong in 2025, Bassong earned just five caps for Canada in 2025, but he was a regular call up by Canada.

4. A DP Number 10. In terms of how Sporting KC played under Peter Vermes I’m calling this a successful wish. While Manu Garcia isn’t the typical 10, in the system KC played, Garcia was a 10. He finished the 2025 season with nine assists, which lead the team and was more than double second.

5. Return to Form for Sporting KC’s 2024 DPs. I’d say this one was a success. Despite Sporting’s overall performance in 2025, you can’t fault the team’s Designated Players, they delivered in 2025. Dejan Joveljic finished the season tied for 5th in goals scored with 18 to go along with 2 assists. Garcia, as mentioned earlier recorded 9 assists and had 2 goals to go with it. The season as a whole didn’t go well, but the fault can’t fall on the team’s DPs, who delivered.

6. KC Current Build on 2024 On and Off the Field. I’d say this was a successful wish for 2025. The Current had the best regular season in the NWSL’s history and ran away with the shield. Losing in the first round of the playoffs doesn’t change that success. A second MVP for Temwa Chawinga also reinforced the on field success. Off the field has been a success as well with the Current continuing to sell out CPKC Stadium and the development around the stadium continuing, along with the street car route down to the stadium coming along. I don’t think more recent questions about decisions like the rumors of Chris Armas becoming the head coach and Alex Pfeiffer’s leaving the team dampen that, at least not enough in 2025 to make this unsuccessful.

7. USWNT Call Up for KC Current Player. Claire Hutton, Michelle Cooper, Lo’eau LaBonta, Alana Cook, Izzy Rodriguez, and Ally Sentnor. All six of those players earned call ups to the UWSNT as members of the KC Current in 2025. Four of those six, Hutton, Cooper, LaBonta, and Rodriguez all earned their first caps with the USWNT in 2025. Hutton and Cooper both made ten or more appearances for the US this year.

8. Comets Finish Top 2 in the MASL Regular Season. Despite going 9-1 to start 2025, the Comets won just two of their final eight regular season games that saw them fall to fourth in the MASL’s standings. The league’s playoff format had KC playing the Milwaukee Wave in San Diego as part of the playoffs where the Wave defeated the Comets 11-7.

9. More Balanced MASL Schedule for 2025-2026. This is definitely better for the 2025-2026 season, though it came at a cost. The Comets will play every team in the league this season, but the league has also shrunk from 12 teams down to just eight. The Chihuahua Savage, Harrisburg Heat, Dallas Sidekicks, and Texas Outlaws all suspended operations. The league has spun it as a way to build around their stronger teams and grow for the future. It is still a little unbalanced as KC will play the St. Louis Ambush six times (all in their first ten games of the season) and the Baltimore Blast and Tacoma Stars just twice each. It’s a small win with the fact that they’ll play every team but not all the way there.

10. UMKC Build on 2024 NCAA Run. Ryan Pore’s Kansas City Roos finished off the 2025 college season with a share of the Summit League regular season title and made it all the way to the tournament final. For the first time in school history the Roos also hosted an NCAA tournament game against Lindenwood, winning 1-0. In the second round, the Roos fell 1-0 to Stanford, ending their season 12-4-5. I’d say this season definitely built off their performance last year.