When Katie Lampson scored in the 121st minute on a bitterly cold day last November to ensure Gotham FC would progress in the playoffs at the expense of the Kansas City Current, it hardly felt like a sign of doom and gloom for the ousted side. They won the NWSL Shield with five games to spare, won a record number of points and ultimately lost to a talented team that went on to win the NWSL Championship. The Current had not reached the mountaintop just yet, but they had already assembled a title-winning team and were undoubtedly well-positioned to compete again.
Nearly a year later, though, they are hovering just above the playoff line with five regular season games to go and no guarantee of a postseason run. The Current enter Saturday's clash with the Denver Summit on 38 points and in eighth place, the final spot above the playoff line. There is very, very little room for error.
The Summit, who have 35 points, can overtake them with a win thanks to their superior goal differential. They can both be outdone by the Seattle Reign, who enter the weekend with 37 points, but face bottom-dwellers Boston Legacy on Friday. For the Current, a win is the most straightforward scenario and at least possible for a team that boasts two-time NWSL MVP Temwa Chawinga and U.S. women's national team forward Michelle Cooper.
Things have hardly gone according to plan for Chris Armas' team this season, though, to the point that Saturday's NWSL matchup is anything but predictable. That's in large part because the Current themselves have been hard to pin down – their luck has swung like a pendulum this season, injuries hindering their progress over the course of the campaign. In many ways, the good news for the Current is that some of their issues are either out of their control or problems with straightforward solutions.
And yet, it is hard not to ask if the Current's slide down the NWSL table is a mess of their own making, fixable or not. Date: Saturday, Sept. 26 | Time: 12:30 p.m. ETLocation: CPKC Stadium -- Kansas City, Mo.TV: CBS | Live stream: Paramount+Odds: Kansas City Current -105; Draw +290; Denver Summit +210 There are few teams that look exactly the same without their best players, but this season, the Current have relied extensively on three players, their form almost entirely dependent on the availability of Chawinga, Cooper and Croix Bethune.
The trio has only played together 10 times this season; the Current essentially different teams when they're on the pitch compared to the days when even one player is missing. They have 21 goals from 24.71 expected goals, the per game average of 2.4 expected goals easily among the league's when isolated for those 10 games. Their output is not actually inadequate without the specific combination of Bethune, Chawinga and Cooper – they average two expected goals this season regardless of who's on the pitch, tied for first with the North Carolina Courage.
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