Charles Jackson
After nearly finishing in last place during the 2023 NWSL season, the Kansas City Current is off to its best start in franchise history. The club is unbeaten in six games, with a new coaching staff, new international players, new rookies and a brand new stadium – the first built for an NWSL team. Among all of Kansas City’s new additions, many keys to early success include great performances from its veteran players.
Current midfielder Vanessa DiBernardo has been in the league since 2014, previously called up by her “hometown” team, the Chicago Red Stars. After nearly a decade with Chicago, the Naperville, IL native signed a new contract with the Current as a free agent ahead of the 2023 season. The off-season excitement quickly wore off as she had to deal with a concussion during her first year in Kansas City and the long routine of a losing season.
“I think our mentality from the beginning was, ‘Let’s take this season one game at a time, one long season.’ There are plenty of games if we can focus on the next game we have in front of us and learn from the last game and what we can do to be successful in the next game,” DiBernardo said.
“It’s been really good for us because we’re not looking too far ahead. We’re not looking at our past success because that’s over. So what can we do to learn from our past, but be ready for the next game is exactly to where I think our minds and energy are going.”
She notes that her preparation for this season was very different. Her personal goals have been simplified. Not just getting healthy, but feeling healthy. Wanting to feel good and play consistently again, to improve his fitness and return to playing on the field.
“My mindset after the injury last year kind of changed. I just realized how quickly it could be taken away from you,” she said. “I think I took that pressure off of just performance and success and just thought ‘okay, look, you don’t know how long this is going to last. So I think that was just a mental shift for me.”
Kansas City’s offensive firepower
Kansas City’s hot start to the season is exciting, with high-scoring games and 11 different scorers. They are just the third team in league history to collect 16 points in the first six games of the season, and the two previous clubs to set the mark (2014 Seattle Reign FC, 2018 North Carolina Courage) won the NWSL Shield in their respective seasons.
DiBernardo jokes and smiles and mentions that everyone should “calm down, calm down” so as not to get too far ahead of their long-term plans, but even she is having an incredible start to the 2024 season. The NWSL veteran has scored three goals, recorded four assists and is second on the team in chances created (14), while dominating games.
For her, Kansas City’s recent success is the sum of its parts, all finally coming together to take on a long 26-game season, game by game.
“The off-season brought us a lot of changes, and I think what we did really well here between everyone was really use that long pre-season to all get on the same page. I think with the new players, new staff, new briefing, we all learn and grow together and use this time to set the foundation of what we want to start the season with,” DiBernardo said.
“We know that the starting point is not where we want to end. So I think it’s just going to be a process and we know it’s going to be a process, [and] I think we’re excited about it. For this growth. I think it’s something we felt like we were missing last year.”
Appreciating the development of the league
It’s a grounded perspective. One that comes from a player who has had to go through many ups and downs in an NWSL career. Playing on college fields, sharing lockers with students, dealing with nagging injuries, the disappointment of falling short of the playoffs and championship finals, and a Chicago franchise whose former owner operated under micromanaged dysfunction.
She saw where the league started, its current rise and where it’s going. Kansas City Current is part of the long-term vision and hope for higher standards in the league. When the Current opened its 2024 season at CPKC Stadium, it made league history by scoring the first goal in the new arena. The inaugural game made more history when the score ended with 9 goals, a 5-4 victory for Kansas City over the Portland Thorns, the highest score ever in an NWSL season opener.
It also served as the first win for former U.S. women’s national team coach Vlatko Andonovski, who returned to the NWSL after the Current hired him in the offseason as its new head coach and sporting director. Both coach and player had long careers in the NWSL, and prior to his return to the NWSL, DiBernardo played more games against Andonovski than with him as a roster player.
“It was no secret, I knew personally that he is great in this league. He showed that he is capable of success. When he was named head coach, I was excited because I had heard good things about him and I was excited to experience that,” she explained .
“He leads us in a way, someone who has been in the league for so long, I understand. The tactics he is using to ensure that in the end we are where we want to be. Cool. I think that role is something that is difficult to achieve in this league. There aren’t many experienced coaches who have been in the league year after year after year and shown success. It was something we really enjoyed.”
The impact of Temwa Chawinga and Brazilian Bia Zaneratto
Playing alongside two talented international players helped DiBernado and the Current reach the top of the table in just the first month of the season. Malawian international Temwa Chawinga and Brazilian Bia Zaneratto took command of the championship with their clinical finishing and creativity on the ball, each scoring four goals in six games.
Chawinga’s intelligence in terms of timing and positioning is top-notch and his ability to assess when to accelerate or hold back constantly shows his presence of mind and tactical awareness. She is a true stealth scorer, with her four goals coming from 2.89 expected goals, fifth highest in the league.
Zaneratto’s efforts to create for others and herself make her a dangerous player to score with her constant movement. He scored goals more from moments of brilliance, and his three assists put him behind only DiBernardo herself and Washington newcomer Croix Bethune, who have four each. Their history of playing together overseas in China also shattered some of the “learning curve” narrative that exists around international players once they arrive in the NWSL.
“I actually didn’t know they had played together before and I thought, “’ha, that makes sense now!’ So I think that definitely helps,” joked DiBernardo.
“Although they are both very experienced players and their qualities are different. We all have different qualities. So I think that’s what allows us to complement each other. The coaching team gave us a kind of a blueprint of ideas, to put us all on the same page, but then allowing ourselves to still have our own personality and creativity in how we play. It’s helpful to allow ourselves to be on the same page, but not undermine who we are as players. really growing.”
It’s been something of a rollercoaster for Kansas City since they returned to the league as an expansion franchise in 2021. They finished in last place in their inaugural season and quickly rebounded for a runner-up appearance in the 2022 NWSL. Championship, then settled for second worst in 2023.
Andonovski is the fourth person to hold a managerial role with the team in its four-year history, but DiBernardo credits the franchise’s building blocks, resources and coaching staff for helping the squad build a strong start to the season.
“That was part of the reason I was drawn to this club was the passion and resources to grow the game, and the expectation that that should be the norm. We had that at the training center and that was like the first step, but with the stadium, I think it’s really cool because it’s ours and it feels like ours. When we walked onto the field, we thought, ‘This is our home and we want to protect it’ and show our fans what it is. and all that.
It’s been a lot of growth since I entered the league. So it was really cool to know that some of these young players coming into the league, that’s all they’re going to know, and I’m really happy for them. Because it was a lot of work for us older players, but it’s something we hope they learn [from] and still continue to move the game forward,” she elaborated.
DiBernardo’s hope for the league is that the success that is happening in Kansas City will be a standard in the future. The next generation of players will enter the arenas and understand that the league’s recent landscapes are something newer to the NWSL, and while reaching milestones is exciting, it’s important not to become stagnant.
“Look at what we’ve done and what we’ve experienced. That’s something we have, but we’re not satisfied here. We still want to grow the game and take it to the next level.”
