Despite late goal, Kansas City Current can’t complete comeback vs. OL Reign: Recap
The Kansas City Current fell back into the losing column on Saturday against the OL Reign, as a Current comeback fell short in a 2-1 loss at Lumen Field.
Izzy Rodriguez scored Kansas City’s only goal in the 91st minute. The Current nearly tied the score in dramatic fashion in the 93rd minute, but Seattle goalkeeper Phallon Tullis-Joyce fell on the ball to snuff out the Kansas City comeback hopes.
The Reign outshot the Current 11-5 in the game, with six shots on goal to Kansas City’s three.
“It’s a (frustrating) feeling that we didn’t tie this game,” interim head coach Caroline Sjöblom said. “I think we deserved that today with the overall performance. And also, I think goals change games. And today when we didn’t get the goal with the offside, we kind of lost momentum. So that’s frustrating. I think we should have earned a tie.”
Reign defender Sofia Huerta broke a scoreless tie with a penalty-kick goal in the 36th minute.
The Current appeared to tie things up with a goal from Michelle Cooper in the 59th minute, but the goal was overturned after review, sapping Kansas City’s momentum and putting the club back in a 1-0 hole.
“I think the way we played during that momentum, we deserved a goal,” Sjöblom said.
Kansas City allowed another Reign goal in the 68th minute, when Jordyn Huitema snuck one past Current goalkeeper Cassie Miller, with an assist from Huerta, to make it a 2-0 game.
It took the full 90 minutes for the Current to finally hit the back of the net; Kansas City avoided the shutout when Rodriguez kicked a ball past Tullis-Joyce.
While it wasn’t as satisfying as a draw, Sjöblom was still happy that the Current managed to at least make things interesting in the late stages of the game.
“It always feels better when it’s only one goal up,” Sjöblom said. “But at the same time, we’re really frustrated. We wanted to tie, so that’s what we talked about in the circle after the game.”
The loss comes after last week’s encouraging 1-0 Current win over North Carolina, which snapped a five-game losing streak. The Current have now lost six of their past seven games, but Sjöblom is encouraged by the fight that her team has shown of late.
Instead of rolling over to a shutout loss on Saturday, the Current put a scare into the 8,271 fans in the Lumen Field stands, which Sjöblom credits to some key Kansas City players finally returning from injury.
“I think we are on a good journey,” Sjöblom said. “Especially in the second half, when we get more and more possession, we get Morgan Gautrat back on the field, and also Elizabeth Ball coming back. When we have all of those (players) on the field, I feel like, ‘Wow, now it’s starting to look really good.’ Hopefully we can play them more and have bigger depth on our squad, and then we will really be dangerous.”
Up next, the Current will face the Chicago Red Stars in Challenge Cup play at Children’s Mercy Park. That match will take place at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, June 14.
