KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Chris Armas just might be the luckiest coach in women’s soccer.
First, he inherits the 2025 NWSL Shield-winning Kansas City Current from two-time league champion Vlatko Andonovski, who shifted to a full-time position as the club’s sporting director. That same team boasts two-time MVP Temwa Chawinga and goalkeeper of the year Lorena, who set a league record for clean sheets and consecutive shutout minutes, among other achievements.
And he’s aware that this kind of opportunity doesn’t come often.
“I’m coming into excellence, and I can now just get on that train that’s moving very fast,” Armas told reporters when he was introduced in Kansas City.
“I can run fast. I’m going to be in on it, and I can push the details and find ways to 1% in almost everything we do.”
At this point, the only thing that really seems to be missing from the Armas arsenal is experience in the NWSL. Armas comes to the Current after a two-year stint with the Colorado Rapids in Major League Soccer.
As an MLS veteran himself and National Soccer Hall of Famer, Armas is certainly familiar with the game, but hasn’t coached women specifically in over a decade. That experience came at his alma mater, Adelphi University, which competes in Division II.
So, how did the Current find their new coach? Well, it was a mutual friend – Jesse Marsch – who connected the two parties.
Chris Long, one of the club’s co-owners, said Armas’ name came up when he asked his old Princeton classmate if he had any ideas about who might fit the role. Marsch then called his old teammate and assistant coach, Armas, to gauge interest.
“He had a list of people that he wanted to recommend, but he kept just saying, ‘This is the guy, you’ve got to talk to him,’” Long revealed to reporters in that first press conference.
Marsch, now coach of the Canada men’s national soccer team, suited up for the Chicago Fire from 1998-2005 and won the 2003 U.S. Open Cup with Armas. Then, he hired his old teammate as an assistant coach during his tenure with the New York Red Bulls.
When Marsch left the club for Red Bull Salzburg in July of 2018, Armas took the reins and won a Supporters’ Shield. Armas stayed in New York through September of 2020, then spent a year with Toronto FC as their head coach before crossing the pond to work as an assistant for Manchester United.
Armas later joined Marsch’s staff at Leeds United, before returning to MLS as head coach of the Rapids.
When asked about transitioning back to coaching the women’s game, Armas didn’t seem concerned, choosing to focus on the style of play while drawing on his experience at Adelphi.
“When I saw the team play, I didn’t see men or women, I saw a team and said I can connect with that style of play,” Armas said.
“I coached women’s soccer in college in my early years, and what I can tell you is, from that experience, it was positive. The results were better every year, the connections that were made implementing a style of play that was just an amazing, positive experience. I’ll draw on that experience in the women’s game, and I’m sure that’s going to help me in this next one.”
And based on the way the players talked during the club’s media day, it seems he’s struck a chord. Players like veteran midfielder Lo’eau LaBonta also credited the way he’s been able to connect through his experience as a player.
“He’s been a player, he already talks to me like when he was a player as well, so I love that side of it,” LaBonta said at the team’s media day. “He gets it.”
She has even noticed similarities between the Current and Armas’ Rapids teams that have helped to bridge the gap as well.
“When we put some clips of his team last year with Colorado and compare it to our clips from last year, they’re exactly the same,” LaBonta said. “The only difference, I would say, is some of our language is different, and we’ve worked that out immediately. So again, the transition is so easy.”
It also helps to have most of the team’s core return, minus Claire Hutton, Bia Zaneratto and Haillie Mace. The Current also add 2024 Rookie and Midfielder of the Year Croix Bethune, who was acquired through a trade with the Washington Spirit on the same day Hutton departed.
The biggest outstanding question is when Chawinga and Michelle Cooper will return to the pitch. Their respective injuries held them out of the 2025 NWSL Playoffs and both started the year on the season-ending injury list.
Luckily, the team has nearly a month left before its first game, when Kansas City hosts Utah on March 14. The Current also picked up an exhibition win at the Coachella Valley Invitational this past weekend.
“We have a really hungry group,” Armas said on a Jan. 30 media call. “I think they’ve come in hungrier even this year. Wanted to do even better than last year. We all know that it was an epic season, but they’ve come back very hungry to push further.”