THE RIPPLE EFFECT:

Kansas City Current II begins play with two dominant victories

The Kansas City Current’s official affiliate team, Kansas City Current II, opened its inaugural season last weekend with a pair of matches. Current II is coached by Kansas City Current director of soccer operations Huw Williams and is playing in the Midwest Conference of the Women’s Premier Soccer League in the summer of 2022.  

Current II’s roster features an emphasis on local talent, with most of the team’s roster hailing from the Kansas City metropolitan area. 17 of 21 players on Kansas City’s roster are active Division I soccer players and the remaining two, defender Grace Coppinger and forward Saige Wimes, are high school seniors entering a Division I program in the fall. 

After playing in one preseason match, Williams’ squad began play with two road matches in Iowa against divisional foes. On Friday, May 28, Current II made its WPSL debut in impressive fashion, sliding 12 goals past Quad Cities Rush in a 12-0 victory. Kansas City scored 10 goals in the first half, and midfielder Lily Farkas and forward Brie Severns each recorded a hat-trick in the win. 

Even though a majority of Current II’s roster has Kansas City roots, Williams said that his group has more experience playing against each other at the high school, club or collegiate level than with one another. The team’s relative unfamiliarity with operating as a cohesive unit made Friday’s performance even more impressive. 

Yeah, to be honest, we didn't know what to expect,” Williams said of Friday’s WPSL opener. “The quality of the opposition was not a factor for us coming into the game. We were just focused on us, focused on us executing some of the challenges that we had provided to our players, and they responded very well.” 

Two days later, Current II was met with a bit more resistance in the first half against Iowa Raptors FC. After scoring two goals through the opening 45 minutes, Kansas City eventually wore down the opposition and recorded five goals in the second half. Current II forward Caroline Kelly, a Kearney, Missouri native and a member of the Saint Louis Billikens at the collegiate level, scored five goals in the team’s 7-0 win.  

“We have a group of very good players, very good athletes that are wanting to get better,” Williams said.  

Current II’s dominant start has placed them atop the Heartland Division of the Midwest Conference in the early juncture of the regular season. Kansas City has six regular-season games remaining, starting with its second and final meeting with Quad Cities Rush on Saturday, June 4 at 4:00 p.m. CT at the Kansas City Current Training Facility. Current II home matches are closed to the public for the 2022 season.  

Winning games is certainly a priority for Williams in Current II’s inaugural campaign, but so is developing and identifying talent that could help shape the future of Kansas City women’s soccer. As Current II continues to develop, Williams stressed the importance of maintaining organizational tenants while having fun along the way. 

First [our goal is] for [the players] to have a blast doing what they're doing. For us as a club, [our goal is] to be able to identify talent,” Williams said. “... This season gives us the opportunity to evaluate players as people as well and how they would fit into our culture here in Kansas City.