KC Current describe playing in inaugural CPKC Stadium match
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The vibes were the same as game day for the previous two years for the Kansas City Current at Children’s Mercy Park.
But not for the Current players and coaches themselves.
Before the game, players arrived at CPKC Stadium off the team bus to cheering supporters. They were in their own fashion styles but with uniformity as all players wore black KC letterman jackets with teal letters.
For head coach Vlatko Andonvski who was a coach for FC Kansas City in the first National Women’s Soccer League match in 2013, the thought of coaching in the first stadium made for a professional women’s soccer team hit him as he got off the bus.
“When I saw the fans,” he said. “There was a moment that actually for a second I felt like, ‘oh my gosh, this is happening.’
“It was it was wild. It was energetic. It was enthusiastic.”
Andonovski also urged his team to stay calm during the match in a pregame talk in the locker room.
“I had to calm the atmosphere a little bit down because I didn’t want them to get burned out when they get on the field.”
Fans packing the stadium covered in red and teal. The stadium littered with soccer enthusiasts and little girls who hope to be on the pitch as a professional someday. The supporter group, KC Blue Crew, beating their hearts away on their drums and chanting for their club.
Co-owners Brittany and Patrick Mahomes leading the first-ever ‘KC Baby!’ chant inside the brand new stadium.
But on a sunny and windy March day in Kansas City, the Current set a new standard across women’s sports by not just opening the first stadium built for a professional women’s soccer team, but winning electrically.
“There was a lot around this game,” veteran midfielder Lo LaBonta said. “[Andonovski] was just trying to set the tone, you know, play the style we’ve been playing this entire preseason. And I mean, it worked right.”
In a 5-4 win over Portland Thorns FC, the Current opened the match with a dazzling attack from their world-class Brazilian attackers, Debinha and Bia who went back and forth making runs into Portland’s box.
After four Current shots went wide (including three from Bia), Debinha picked off a pass from Portland goalkeeper Shelby Hogan. Debinha’s shot went through Hogan’s legs and bounced off Hogan and midfielder Vanessa DiBernardo scored the first goal in CPKC Stadium history in the 22nd minute.
“It’s special,” DiBernardo said about her goal. The 31-year-old has been in the NWSL for a decade and has seen how far the league has come from playing at high school stadiums and practicing on downtrodden and forgotten fields.
“I think what this club is doing and setting the standard and building the stadium and people showing up and supporting it and just women’s soccer growing in general. Where we started with this league and where we are now, it just shows the growth and how much players have put in and really pushed the standard and how much we’ve kind of really had to fight for ourselves. And it’s just the start.”
DiBernardo began the onslaught of the Current’s five goals with the first three coming within 10 minutes of each other in the first half.
Rookie right back Ellie Wheeler fired in the second goal in the 25th minute off of a cross into the box from Mace that bounced off of Portland defender Marie Müller.
Wheeler also became the 400th player to score a goal in NWSL history.
“Very emotional. All good emotions. It was like a surreal moment,” Wheeler said. “I saw the ball bounce in the box, and I realized, like, I was gonna get there. I was like, my brain was going crazy but at the same time, I’m like telling myself to be calm, and just put it in the back of the net. I’ve done it a bunch of times. And then after that, I was just like, swarmed. And I was so excited.”
Kristen Hamilton subbed in for Debinha in the 32nd minute after the Brazilian went down with a hamstring injury.
After several shot attempts, Bia received a beautiful through pass from DiBernardo to notch her first goal as a member of the Current in the 34th minute.
The Thorns responded just before the end of the half with a goal from U.S. women’s national team forward Sophia Smith in the 43rd minute who netted a brace on the day along with Portland’s Janine Beckie.
The second half continued the barrage of scoring with Hamilton and the 16-year-old forward Alex Pfeiffer set a new record by being the youngest player to score a goal in KC Current and NWSL regular season history.
The U.S. youth national player subbed in for Bia at the start of the second half.
Malawian forward Temwa Chawinga also made history as the first player from Malawi to play in the NWSL.
Pfeiffer and 18-year-old midfielder Claire Hutton (who played the full match) impressed their peers and Andonovski Saturday with their performance.
“We’ve talked a lot about trust and performance in how we select this team,” Andonovski said, “I trusted Claire. Young players like Claire, they want to see that from the staff, from the coaches.
“She’s got ability to back it up. She’s a great player. She’s got an unbelievable potential. The thing is with Claire, we knew that there will be mistakes. And as a staff we said, our job is to limit those mistakes and make sure that that they’re not costing us the game, but we have to accept the fact that they will happen because that is part of those developments.”
“Pfeiffer coming in we were talking to her a lot like this is a huge atmosphere,” LaBonta said about the young player. “We want people to come to this team, play, be gritty but be who they are and shine through and that’s exactly what we saw in Pfeiffer and Hutton, especially today. I love it and I’m so excited to see where they go.”
The Current weren’t without flaws though with Portland bringing the match within one goal with six minutes of stoppage time remaining.
“We put a bunch of goals in, in the beginning, and then I think we were too calm at one point,” LaBonta said. “But that’s a way to I think to start the season and open the season and I couldn’t ask for anything other than a shutout but that was great.”
A storybook ending to a game-changing day on a game that put women’s soccer on national television, something that is becoming common with the Current as they opened the 2023 season hosting the Thorns on national TV.
A day that ended with co-owners Chris and Angie Long popping champagne bottles in the Pitch Club with fans. Pfeiffer walked with Brittany and Patrick Mahomes as they exited the stadium with a police escort.
Brittany Mahomes stopped to give LaBonta a congratulatory hug before LaBonta spoke to the media.
LaBonta’s husband, Sporting KC legend Roger Espinoza, was also in the Pitch Club along with another Sporting legend Graham Zusi.
A stadium that has already set the trend for women’s soccer around the world with every NWSL owner and city looking to emulate the Current.
“There haven’t been any questions asked about the use of not just public funding, but public influence to be able to get a stadium built or the stadium was privately financed,” NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman said. “They needed a lot of support and trust from the city. And that has happened for men’s stadiums and arenas for decades without question.
“It has allowed for those businesses to not only survive but thrive for the long term and none of that has ever been available to women’s teams. And I think that’s the wholesale change that we’re going to see going forward because we’re getting calls not just from owners around our league, but also from city officials to say ‘how can we think about this differently for our community because we do actually recognize now that this is a community asset. And we want this to be a thriving business like the men’s teams.'”
The Longs have also been open to sharing how they got the stadium built in less than two years.
“They have personally toured at every step of the build here, all of our owners in the process and answered questions and even been made available to city officials around the country,” Berman said. “I know they’re excited about having been a pioneer in this space, but their legacy will actually be that they won’t be the last and that’s how they view this investment. They want for other ownership groups around our league to do what they’ve done. And they’ve been showing up as a partner for the last two years. And I’m sure we’ll continue to do that as they continue to innovate.”
As Kansas City embarks on their 2024 NWSL season, the club has always embraced their dedicated supporters who routinely attended Sporting KC’s Children’s Mercy Park for the previous three seasons.
But CPKC Stadium only hosts the Current and was built specifically for the Current.
A historic stadium that will consistently have a sold-out, exhilarating atmosphere can only boost the Current’s ultra-talented roster.
“I didn’t want to play down the game for all the significance of the game itself before the game,” Anodnovski said. “But now, the reward. I’m happy for the three points, but I can say that I’m so much more excited about the stadium, about the atmosphere, about this moment.
“This is something that will change the world of women’s soccer. I mean, this is the beginning of a change. And this organization, this game, [these] owners, myself too, we’re a part of this.
“And it’s very emotional. And as much you know we wanted to win the game. I think this is the moment that we’re much more proud of.”
“It’s a new goal,” LaBonta said. “We’re getting to the point where female athletes are only going to have to focus on their game at the end of the week, and they’re not going to have all these other fights for equality and all that.
“We still are but I hope that young girls see the stadium and think that when they get to this age, it’s going to be equal pay, they’re gonna have their own locker room, own stadium. And that’s the goal.”
