Another bit of history today âœï¸
— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL)
Alex Pfeiffer becomes the youngest goalscorer in league history at 16 years, 4 months!
KANSAS CITY — On a historic day for women’s soccer in the United States, Alex Pfeiffer of St. Louis made some history of her own.
In the first game played in a U.S. stadium built specifically for a women’s soccer team, the 16-year-old became the youngest player to score in National Women’s Soccer League history, scoring what turned out to be the game-winning goal in a 5-4 victory for the Kansas City Current over Portland at CPKC Stadium on Saturday.
Pfeiffer, a St. Louis native who played club soccer for St. Louis Scott Gallagher, signed with the Current when she still was 15, making her the fourth-youngest player to sign with the NWSL. She’s also with the U.S. under-17 team, scoring eight goals in six games as the team qualified for the Under-17 Women’s World Cup later this year.
The train horn that sounds for Current goals at CPKC Stadium sounded early — and often — as the Current scored three times in the first half and led 5-1 into the second. The Thorns made it interesting, pulling within a goal in stoppage time.
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Vanessa DiBernardo scored the first goal in CPKC Stadium history, tapping home a rebound into an empty net. And then the goals just kept coming.
Next up was rookie defender Ellie Wheeler. The Current’s second-round draft pick blasted home a loose ball in the box to make it 2-0. New offseason signing Beatriz (known as Bia) quickly made it 3-0.
A strike from Sophia Smith pulled Portland to within 3-1 before the Current raced out further ahead in the second half.
Kristen Hamilton and Pfeiffer pushed Kansas City’s lead to 5-1, with Pfeiffer’s eventual game-winner coming in the 68th minute.
The Thorns then scored three unanswered, two from Janine Beckie and another from Smith, to make it 5-4 before the game ended in KC’s favor.
The Current won their first game under Vlatko Andonovski, the former U.S. national team coach, who also coached at FC Kansas City, one of the league’s founding teams that played from 2013 to 2017. Andonovski parted ways with the national team following the U.S. exit at the Women’s World Cup last year.
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and his wife, Brittany — part of the Current’s ownership group — kicked off the game with a “KC, baby!†chant.
Tom Timmermann of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.

The Kansas City Current opened their National Women’s Soccer League’s Work season on Saturday, March 16, 2024, in their new stadium, which is the first built specifically for a U.S. professional woman’s soccer team.