Michelle Cooper was understandably upset to miss the Kansas City Current’s 2025 playoff game against Gotham with a foot injury. She missed additional time early in this campaign after re-aggravating the injury, but finally got to play in a playoff game on Saturday as the Current hosted Angel City FC for the NWSL quarterfinals.
Both the Current and Angel City ended the 90 minutes scoreless as they headed into 30 minutes of extra time. A semifinal spot truly came down to the wire.
Then, four minutes into extra time, Kansas City defender Kayla Sharples hit the ground after contact with Angel City goalkeeper Angelina Anderson and midfielder Ary Borges. It was a controversial moment on the field as the video assistant referee (VAR) awarded a penalty kick to Kansas City.
The Current have typically turned to Lo’eau LaBonta for penalty kicks, but on Saturday, the coaches decided to put their trust in Cooper, giving her an overdue heroic playoff moment.
Cooper delivered with her first-ever postseason goal, which also turned out to be the game-winner, helping the Current advance to the semifinals for the first time since 2022.
“I always want to contribute and help my teammates when I can, so it was really shittyy last year when I got injured literally right before, but it’s part of the game. I supported them the best I could last year,” Cooper said in the post-match press conference. “To be able to actually impact the game in a way of scoring a goal in the PK and converting, it felt really good.”
Cooper admitted after the match that she had “complete confidence” in herself to convert the penalty kick because of the way the Current has prepared her.
“I think I just had a lot of confidence in that moment,” Cooper said. “Obviously we’ve been practicing PKs because we know it’s playoff time, so we want to be prepared for anything. But I had total and complete confidence because my team’s done everything right and I just wanted to prevail for them in that moment.”
Coach Chris Armas told reporters that the team had the plan to use Cooper for the penalty kick over LaBonta, who was also involved in the decision process. Cooper shared that LaBonta was excited for her to have the opportunity.
“It was an executive decision by the coaches at the end of the day, but I think [LaBonta] was more than happy for me and she wanted me to step up in those big moments,” Cooper said. “She kind of passed the torch in that way and gave me that confidence that I needed, the extra bit to just put it in.”
As for the controversy surrounding the penalty in the first place, the Current reiterated that they put their trust in the VAR. It’s difficult to argue against a video system that’s set up to accurately hand out penalties. It was just unfortunate for Angel City, as that one penalty led to the end of their season.
“As always, I trust the VAR,” Armas said. “… It’s always a tough call to lose a season on that if you’re them. But I trust that VAR got it right. I think the referees managed a really difficult game because it was very combative.”
Listen now to The IX Sports Podcast and Women’s Sports Daily
We are excited to announce the launch of TWO new podcasts for all the women’s sports fans out there looking for a daily dose of women’s sports news and analysis. Stream on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or anywhere you listen to podcasts, and make sure to subscribe!
The Current players knew they needed to find a way to win regardless of how the penalty was awarded. Defender Gabrielle Robinson, who led the team with 29 defensive interventions, emphasized Kansas City’s mindset about officiating when speaking in the post-match press conference.
“Officiating is out of our control,” Robinson said. “We’re just doing everything that we can on the field regardless of calls or not.”
If the penalty wouldn’t have fallen in the Current’s favor, the team had full confidence that they would’ve been able to still secure a win.
“I think we just have to go with whatever we get honestly at the end of the day. And, if we got that PK, awesome, but if we didn’t, we still had so much momentum and so many opportunities,” Cooper said. “I would hope that we would have at least put one of them in at the end of the day.”
The win was huge for the Current in more than one way. Angel City was seen as the favorite to win on Saturday, even though the Current haven’t lost at home since July 2024. Angel City won their previous 10 matches heading into the playoffs, but that didn’t scare the Current, as Kansas City had won their past five matches.
Angel City was specifically a team the Current wanted to beat, though, as Kansas City lost 2-1 to them in May and then tied 1-1 in August. The Current really wanted a win against them.
“They met the demands of such a tough, gritty game against a team that you can argue was the hottest in the league,” Armas said. “In their last 15 games, they’ve lost only one and our team was up for it. They talked about whatever it was going to take. That’s what our players talked about. It looked like there was no stopping them today. They were going to will it to happen.”
The Current will move on to face the winner of Gotham, setting up a revenge match of sorts for Kansas City against the team that ended their season in an upset last year. Gotham enters this year’s match as the top seed to fourth-seeded Kansas City.
Finding the game shouldn’t be the hardest part
SheScores is the women’s sports scoreboard, making it easy to follow women’s sports with scores, schedules and where to watch — all in one place.
