Kansas City Current finished bottom of the table in the 2021 campaign, they endured a shaky first season in the NWSL, after playing 24 games, winning three, drawing seven and losing 14, with a record of -21 on goal difference under Huw Williams. After that, his dismissal as coach and subsequent move to a role in the team offices brought a man who would engineer change everything for the team: Matt Potter.
The former coach of the U-23 categories of the United States national team, and one-time central midfielder for current EFL Championship side Watford during his younger days, came to the team to try and change what had been a rather negative dynamic within the squad. In terms of results, and even personally, since it would later be known that Huw Williams was disrespectful to his co-workers and players, resulting in the club removing him completely from any role.
The start under Potter’s mandate was not the best: In their first five games, they lost four and drew one. They could not find victory, which meant that they accumulated eight games without winning. However, after that, the team played 16 games in the NWSL, where they only lost one, which allowed them to even find themselves first in the table at some point of the season, but their final position was in fifth place.
In the NWSL, the top two finishers go directly to the semi-finals, where they wait for the teams (3rd-6th) that will compete for a spot in playoff matches to reach that stage. KC Current beat Houston Dash 1-2 with a brilliant goal from Kathryn Del Fava in the 90+10th minute, to reach the semifinals. Where they faced the top of the table, the best team of the regular season, OL Reign. They emerged with a 2-0 victory. However, the final against the Portland Thorns ended in a 2-0 defeat.
This does not take away or move aside what the Potter team achieved — a total resurrection of what had been their previous season in the NWSL. A comprehensive facelift was given to the squad, without the need for many signings, but to find the right way to play the pieces of the team. That is why this tactical analysis piece will be a team scout report of Kansas City Current to review Matt Potter’s tactics within the 2022 campaign.
Attacking phase: A fluid and functional way to play football
Kansas City Current evolved into a much more fluid game, giving its players a lot of creative freedom on the pitch. This was what made his pieces ‘click’ between them in a much more relational and functional system, moving according to where the ball is and making quick combinations.
Matt Potter’s team is the one that passes the least among all in the tournament, but this does not indicate that they are a team that always looks for the long pass, although it is a tool they use sometimes. The main idea is that they make quick build-ups from the bottom, with patience to find the right pass to break. If they manage to progress between the lines, the plays begin to be resolved at one touch.
Tactically, they position themselves within a 3-4-1-2 or 3-5-2 in their matches, which has many conditioning factors due to the fluid movements of their players who rotate positions. Especially in the midfield, if the ball moves to one side, the midfielders always try to be very close together to fill that side and go to the other with quick combinations. The right side is the most common, to later activate the left.
In this example, we can see this type of quick sequence, previously the KC Current players will have given about 4-5 passes looking for the best option, the right-centre-back has found a free midfielder who executes an automatic pass to her teammate in front, which later progresses with a long pass to the other side of the pitch.
Lo’eau LaBonta’s role is quite important for her team, as the #10 seeks to move from her position as well and approaches the zone where the ball is. This adds a very high-quality player to solve one-touch plays, which moves the opposing block a lot and messes them up to continue progressing.
On this occasion, we can see that there are up to 6 players quite close to the base of the play. Where it starts with the pass of a centre-back to the midfielders, to then a brilliant pass of LaBonta to the space where a teammate would appear to look to finish later a very solid dynamic between them, which they perform with quite positive speed, with beautiful ball controls and one-touch passes that are very well executed.
Another important player on this team has proven to be the centre forward, Kristen Hamilton. Because she has a strong hold-up play, which generates a lot for her team through her touches, since if the central defenders don’t find a near teammate to pass, they look for her, who contains the ball and quickly looks for options around her.
In this play, we can see exactly that, with a resolution again between three passes, in one or two touches on the ball, always looking to attract many people to the ball to change, usually towards the left flank. This play would end in a rather dangerous shot after a cross from the left-wing-back, after receiving this last pass from said example.
However, they do not refuse to look for different ways to score or create opportunities that bring them closer to it. Sometimes some lanes are very congested, so they seek to use skills such as ball-carrying or fast throws into space to finish plays with even fewer passes, with in-behind runs from their attackers, normally from the inside channel to the wide spaces to then penetrate the penalty area and send a cross.
One of the things that identifies KC Current is their way of pressing high and attacking transitions methods after losing the ball: They seek to be lethal and vertical when they steal in the middle or last third, finding the fastest pass or penetrating with forward carries.
They have created many scoring chances or even plays that have ended in brilliant goals thanks to this pressure they exert on several players to steal and combine quickly, in order to free up the other side, where a player who stays wide open almost always arrives.
In the following example, we can see it more clearly: After recovery, the play ends in three brilliant passes, including a final assist to a fascinating touch, which takes a curve effect to reach the foot of the player on the other side. They attack space brilliantly, but after scoring, she was offside.
These types of in-behind movements are performed often by Kristin Hamilton, the forward who is quite mobile within her role, activating and supporting her teammates by descending from her zone or running to the sides to look for the ball. Chances created after turnovers are a constant in KC Current’s game.
As we can see again in this figure, Lo’eau LaBonta has moved to the wide channel, where after recovering the ball, it is activated with 3rd man movements — something quite internalized in Potter’s tactics. After that, she advanced a few meters with the ball at her feet to launch a through-pass to Hamilton who was already attacking space.
The way they score goals is straightforward, within the philosophy of stealing the ball and then performing cut-back crosses. The latter especially is something used in a great way. We can see in this example how after stealing, Alex Loera penetrated the box and executed a pass to the middle.
High-pressing and defending-issues
Arriving to the final part of the analysis, Kansas City Current shows excellent aggressiveness to steal the ball after losing it. They look to load the receiver of the ball with several players around them to eliminate spaces and stress her so that she rushes to make a pass that they will easily recover. A kind of counter-pressure that, when it must be organized, they performed a mixed marking, which transforms their shape between the different thirds.
When the opponent wants to create in a positional way, it is common to see KC Current employ a 4-3-3, with the wing-back deciding to join the midfield, thus freeing up Lo’eau LaBonta to press high and not leave her midfield line behind her weakened. However, this is not the only form they adopt, since they can constantly rotate between a 5-2-3 or a 5-3-2 at times.
In this picture, we can see the mentioned 4-3-3. The left-wing-back, in this case, advances to midfield to cover LaBonta, who is vital in pressing, since with a more zonal role, she jumps to where the ball is played, especially if it is to the rival side. Kristin Hamilton covers the first pass to #6 and on the other side in a zonal role, like LaBonta and CeCe Kizer.
However, when they want to move the block to one side and bring all the pressure, that is where the teams hurt them and the reason why they were the team that conceded the most goals among those classified for the playoffs of the competition. Teams found it very easy to draw them to the side and then release to the middle, whereby moving so many players, they left a completely empty space for the receiver to transfer and pass.
We can see it perfectly in the following example, where on this occasion, they seek to form a back-five to defend, where two of their midfielders are attracted very high, in addition to two of the forwards who also managed to move the block here. Behind, only the pivot remains; they cannot leave their zone since it would leave their defensive line completely open. The rival team managed to progress with a pass to the other side.
One of the ways they solved this was with one of the wing-backs joining the midfield to congest it and join the midfield line and not leave it so empty. Plus this change of shapes, Desiree Scott was pivotal in her holding midfield role, if the block didn’t leave as much space between the lines when they were moving it to another side, she could jump in and force the next receiver to return the pass back.
Their mixed marking evolves several times in the match. Normally their midfielders have a tendency to also stay in a zonal marking system, but they can change too. One of the forwards always seeks to cover the first pass to a centre-back or midfielder, whichever is tactically requested. However, it has also been seen that one of the midfielders looks to jump to press the next rival reception, in order to force them not to turn or even win the ball.
In this example it is clear, the KC striker decided to go and mark the rival centre-back, so she rushes her to make a longer pass because LaBonta already has her pivot blocked. Said long pass goes on the ground and is tightly pressured by one of the midfielders who jumped to try to force a turnover.
Conclusion
Matt Potter has put together an extremely solid team that, even with things to improve, has demonstrated an incredibly competitive mentality to overcome adversity and reach the final of the tournament, beating the best team in the regular season. With new faces to the squad and the correction of certain defensive errors, the team will be one to take into account and a possible candidate for the next NWSL campaign.
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