Kansas City is undergoing a lot of change is the understatement of the 2021 NWSL season. They are part expansion and part relocation, have a new coach and a revamped roster. These changes stemmed from one moment in the summer of 2020.
August 26, 2020, the NBA and WNBA protested their scheduled games in response to the police killing of 29-year-old Jacob Blake of Kenosha, Wisconsin. These spurred additional protests that stretched to Major League Soccer. Comments towards MLS’ Real Salt Lake, by then owner Dell Loy Hansen about his team’s involvement in the protest, led to him announcing that he would sell his stake in both NWSL and MLS sides on August 30th.
December 7, 2020, the NWSL announced Kansas City as an expansion team for the 2021 season. While an expansion team on paper, they received contracts of 20 Utah Royal players. Some of those formerly of FC Kansas City, a defunct NWSL team sold to Hansen in 2017. In 2021, Kansas City can put this past behind them and return the city to a strong competitor in the NWSL.
Previewing Kansas City means looking back to the 2020 Utah Royals season.
2020 Season
Challenge Cup: fifth place, preliminary round. Lost in quarterfinals to Houston, on penalties.
Fall Series – Ninth place – 2 points.
Utah hosted the Challenge Cup without US National Team star Christen Press, who opted out of the tournament and signed with Manchester United in September. In their first match, Utah fought back from two goals down to draw the eventual tournament-winning Houston. Forward and league veteran Amy Rodriguez scored a goal in the second match of the Challenge Cup, and their only win in 2020, for a 1-0 scoreline against Sky Blue FC.
Kelley O’Hara, veteran league and World Cup-winning US defensive fullback played limited minutes in the Challenge Cup and opted out of the Fall Series. She was dealt to the Washington Spirit in December to be closer to her partner. This trade was attempted prior to the 2020 season but fell through.
They ended the Fall Series with the least number of goals in the league (3), drawing and losing to both OL Reign and the Portland Thorns.
To talk about the 2020 season, and one player that stood out for Utah but is now a concern, Beyond Women’s Sports spoke with Jackie Gutierrez. Jackie is the founder, and writer, for the women’s soccer site Women Kick Balls. Recently, she became part of the NWSL Media Association, which is an independent group of NWSL journalists.
BWS: Since there are so many returning Utah players, they’re a good place to look back. How would you describe their 2020?
Jackie: It’s kind of hard to pinpoint certain things, just because it was such a weird year, and then they’re going through their transitions. But overall, at the Fall Series, they didn’t do the greatest, I mean, ending up in ninth place, not where you want to be as a team. But I would say that they performed a little bit better during the Challenge Cup. Scoring wise, you never really saw a consistent scorer.
BWS: Who stood out for you in 2020?
Jackie: When I look at last season, I look at Tziarra King. I know she’s not with the Royals or Kansas anymore, and she’s now with the OL Reign, but I just was so blown away by her. Because, first off, she’s a rookie, so, not that there’s like low expectations, but I just think you don’t know what you’re going to get with them, right? And so then, to see how she was like the eighth overall pick, and then comes into the Royals and just like absolutely kills it, her first goal being a header, which I think those are always impressive, but also her equalizer against the Dash. She’s gonna be a really good challenge when they come up against her.
Offseason Moves
Just two weeks after Kansas City investors Angie and Chris Long purchased KC NWSL, they signed Argentine forward Mariana Larroquette. She is their first overall, and first international, signing post announcement. Larroquette is the second Argentine to play in NWSL history. The 28-year-old played professionally in her home country since she was 17 and joined River Plate Femenino.
King’s move to OL Reign brought three-team league veteran forward Darian Jenkins and the rights to midfielder Meg Brandt, who was playing overseas for Kolbotn in the first division women’s league in Norway. Both Jenkins and Brandt are currently in preseason camp.
Kristen Edmonds, former Orlando Pride forward/multi-position player, joined Kansas City on Jan. 30. The eight-year NWSL veteran can play forward or on the wings. Edmonds is another example of how Kansas City focused on improving their offense with a veteran presence this offseason.
On Wednesday, March 10, former NWSL veteran Ashley Nick returned to the league, signing with Kansas City. She joins the expansion side after spending two seasons with Juventus, in Italy.
Draft Picks
Round 1 – Kiki Pickett – Defender – Stanford
Round 2 – Victoria Pickett – Midfielder – Wisconsin
Round 2 – Lucy Parker – Defender – UCLA
Round 2 – Addie McCain – Midfielder – Texas A&M
Round 4 – Alex Loera – Midfielder – Santa Clara
Round 4 – Brookelynn Entz – Midfielder – Kansas State
The Kansas City 2021 NWSL draft brought in midfield and defensive depth. Utah ended 2020 with the second-most goals allowed in the four-match Fall Series, with eight. Kiki Pickett, who is finishing her spring season at Stanford before joining Kansas City, was called into the US National Team camp in 2019. The two-time college national champion can play on the backline and in the midfield.
Two of their five picks are already on the preseason roster. Second-round picks Victoria Pickett and Addie McCain reached three- and two-year deals, respectively. Pickett was part of Canada’s SheBelieves Cup roster but did not make any appearances for Canada.
In addition to the 20 rostered players, Kansas City inherited two 2021 NWSL Draft impacting trades from Utah. The new front office added two more trades of their own. First, sending $175,000 of allocation money to Sky Blue FC for the fourth pick in the first round. Kansas City was one of the four teams included in the trade sending Mallory Pugh and Sarah Woldmoe to the Chicago Red Stars. Their final pick was acquired in the King trade.
2021 Preview
Looking forward to this year, Kansas City has to work on bringing all of these new pieces together. Leading them is a fixture of Kansas City women’s soccer: Huw Williams. The Welshman was a founder of the original FC Kansas City and assistant coach in their back-to-back NWSL Championship-winning seasons of 2014 and 2015.
Stability at the head coach level will help this roster. In 2020 alone, the group of players relocating from Utah had four different head coaches. Utah’s first coach, Laura Harvey left for a job in US Soccer in January of 2020. After her departure, it was a rotating door of leaders until the Dec. 7 sale and relocation. Expect consistency on the bench to help build consistency on the field.
Rodriguez and goalkeeper Nicole Barnhart are two that were part of that 2015 winning side. They lead Kansas City after relocating to Utah and are back in Kansas City. There are five others that once played for FC Kansas City after 2015 that return after moving to Utah. Forward Brittany Ratcliffe, midfielder Lo’eau LaBonta, defender Sydney Miramontez, defender Katie Bowen, and midfielder Desiree Scott. Like Press and O’Hara, the Canadian international Scott opted out of competing in 2020. She is currently in preseason camp.
BWS talked with Jackie too about what she thinks about Kansas City in 2021.
BWS: What do you see ahead for them in 2021?
Jackie: When I look at their previous match record, it’s hard to find a consistent scorer and because of that, it makes me wonder how they’re going to work together in order to make that happen. Then, I wonder how they’re going to do that with a whole new mix of people and players on the pitch. So, I think that’ll be interesting, but because of Huw Williams and his history in a league of winning back-to-back championships, I think that’s a really good starting ground.
Overall, you have the Longs, who are new owners and have been making things happen so fast. Then you have Huw Williams, who obviously has a good standing in the league, and you have an incredible mix of players. All of these people and components are working together and in their first preseason match, they beat the Pride 1-0, so that’s something to start with. Considering the circumstances, it seems like they’re making the most of it, so, hopefully, they only go up from here and improve the record that the Royals had.
Kansas City NWSL starts their season in the Challenge Cup on Friday, April 9, against the Portland Thorns. They make their return to Kansas City for their first home match on April 26. It’s the first time the NWSL has played in Kansas City since 2017.
