Gotham FC vs Kansas City Current preview: A curtain raiser as the season resumes | OneFootball

NJ/NY Gotham FC is back in action after nearly a month since their last game. They will take on the Kansas City Current in the NWSL Challenge Cup. The Bats earned the right to play in this match by virtue of winning the 2025 NWSL Championship, while Kansas City qualified by winning the 2025 NWSL Shield.

This will be a nice warm-up match for Gotham FC as they embark on the second half of the NWSL season. In addition to getting players like Mandy Freeman and Ann-Katrin Berger back from injury, they face a difficult stretch of games as they get back to NWSL play. Four of their first five games out of the break are against the teams ahead of them in the table, with three of those four being away games. Having the game to help them build back up should be very helpful.

Meanwhile, the Current's up-and-down beginning of 2026 sees them tied on points with Gotham at 21. After losing three in a row after an opening weekend win, they have won six of eight, with the last four victories all coming at home. So, this will be an intriguing match, and Kansas City will also likely use this game as a way to help refind their footing out of the break.

Now, initially, the Challenge Cup was supposed to be in New Jersey at Gotham's home stadium. It was instead moved to Columbus, the home of one of the two incoming NWSL expansion teams in 2028. While it will not be fair to use this game as a direct indicator of the potential success of the Columbus expansion team, it will be interesting to see how everything surrounding this match plays out in NWSL's first-ever match in the state of Ohio. Here is a preview of the NWSL Challenge Cup.

Gotham FC vs Kansas City Current preview

Date

The fixture will be played on Friday, June 26.

Time

The match is scheduled to begin at 8:00 PM ET.

Location

The game will be played at ScottsMiracle-Gro Field in Columbus, Ohio.

How to watch

The fixture will be streamed on Prime via Amazon Prime.

Weather

It looks like a wet one is in store for these two teams with a 70% chance of rain at kickoff. The temperature will be around 70 degrees throughout the match, with humidity around 90%. Sunset is scheduled for 9:04 PM, which should be around when the second half begins.

Injury report

The injury report looks amazing compared to previous months, but there are still players out. Bruninha (hamstring), Kayla Duran (knee - SEI), and Taryn Torres (knee - SEI) remain unavailable.

Players to watch

Gotham FC's Rose Lavelle is expected to have a large contingent of friends and family who will make the trip from her hometown of Cincinnati. Lavelle has missed the last few games due to injury, but should be available to start the game to kick off the second half of the season. Hence, she is someone to watch to see whether she plays like her normal self.

Michelle Cooper is another one to pay attention to. The Kansas City player has gone the last five matches for club and country without a goal contribution and could use this game to help refind her form. Prior to this barren run, she had two goals and three assists in her previous five matches for the Current, and KC will need her to get back to this version of herself if they want to continue rising up the table.

This is a tough game to call as it's not completely clear how these teams will approach it. While both will want to win this game, they may view it as a relatively risk-free game to try different things. Or, they will want to use it to help prepare for the rest of the NWSL season rather than just pushing for an outright win. A 1-0 win for Gotham is the prediction, with the lone goal coming from Lavelle. In reality, though, anything could happen, and fans probably should not be surprised.