Michelle Cooper took her time. When Temwa Chawinga sent a slow ball to the space in front of her—a ball Chawinga only had because of a turnover Cooper had caused—she moved laterally with it, waiting for it to come across her body. She timed her steps and her shot perfectly. The moment she arrived to the ball was when she had maximum space from both Emily Sonnett and Ann-Katrin Berger, who were moving toward her from opposite directions. But once each piece was aligned—Berger and Sonnett out of the way, the ball on her preferred right foot, and her body faced up toward the net—she pounced. Without any superfluous touches, she slotted the ball inside the far post, past Berger’s desperate reach.
She could afford to be patient. It was only the third minute of the match.
But that wasn’t enough for the 22-year-old Kansas City Current forward. Eight minutes later, Vanessa DiBernardo sent a gorgeous pass from just outside the center circle through Gotham’s defense. At first, the ball looked like it had nowhere to go; Cooper had been positioned so far wide that she was omitted from the bottom of the camera frame. But sure enough, she shot out into the picture, and yet again converged onto the ball with such aplomb and wherewithal that she again only needed one touch, this time to thread the needle for an onrushing Chawinga, who of course netted it with authority. Kansas City was up 2-0 within 11 minutes, and Cooper hadn’t made it look particularly hard.
Cooper’s performance on that rainy afternoon in New Jersey wasn’t all that remarkable considering the year she’s having. In just six appearances for the Current, she’s got three goals and two assists, good enough to top the league in both goals per 90 minutes, and combined goals and assists per 90. She’s also been a consistent call-up for the USWNT after impressing coaches at the Futures camp in January, and she’s nabbed a goal and an assist in her six international caps this year.
That Cooper has hit her stride in 2025 is a relief to those who have followed her career. During her college years—2021 and 2022—she seemed destined for glory. In her freshman season at Duke, she scored oodles of goals which earned her the ACC Freshman of the Year award. Between college seasons, she led the US U-20 team to the 2022 CONCACAF Championship, earning the Golden Boot and Golden Ball along the way. In her sophomore season in Durham, she scored oodles more goals, and won the Hermann Trophy, which goes to the best player in college soccer. She’s in good company: Michelle Akers, Mia Hamm, Christine Sinclair, Christen Press, and Catarina Macário have also won the honor. After just two years at Duke, she entered the 2023 NWSL College Draft and was taken by the Kansas City Current with the second overall pick.
Her 2023 season, however, wasn’t what she may have hoped. Her coaches moved her from the 9 to a wide attacker, and it took her a while to adjust to the new position. Despite playing in 21 games, the forward only notched three goals—two of which were penalty kicks—and made one assist. The Current, which had been through a merry-go-round of coaches, finished the season in second-to-last place. In 2024, her personal stats only got marginally better: three goals and two assists in 21 regular season games. To her credit, she maintained an integral role as the team shot up the standings to a fourth-place finish, a testament to her growth as a professional and trust in manager Vlatko Andonovski’s vision.
This year, her persistence is paying off. She is one of the most important players on the best team in the NWSL, and has made a promising case to stay on the national team among a deep pool of forward talent. A hip injury sidelined her for April and most of May, but her performance since—an assist for the national team on May 31 and the aforementioned goal and assist against Gotham—suggests it hasn’t slowed her down at all. Cooper is an exceptional player, having an exceptional year.
Watching Cooper’s goals and assists in 2025, what strikes me most is her economy of touch. She is so smart, and so skilled at being exactly where she needs to be, that many of her most lethal plays are only one or two touches. She doesn’t have to be particularly crafty—not that she can’t be when she wants to—because she reads plays and sets herself up so well within them that she’s several steps ahead of everyone else, perfectly positioned to inflict damage in the blink of an eye.
Take, for example, when the Utah Royals traveled to Kansas City on March 29. The Current opened the scoring with a fantastic team play that resulted in a Chawinga goal off a one-touch assist for Cooper. Fifteen minutes later, Cooper wanted more. After Debinha forced a turnover, the Brazilian sent Chawinga dribbling toward the box with acres of space. On the other side of the box, Cooper was making a restrained run toward the far post which opened up plenty of room to move. Chawinga’s searching cross bounced awkwardly in front of net, but that didn’t matter for Cooper, whose strategically uneven step allowed her to hammer it home.
Cooper can be the architect of her own goals, too. On March 15, she stunned the Portland Thorns when she outmuscled Jayden Perry well outside the box, created several yards of space, and shot a laser past Mackenzie Arnold. She was in an entirely unlikely spot and had her back to the goal, but with a few strides and even fewer touches she had made every piece fall decisively in her favor.
On Saturday, Kansas City will host Louisville and Emma Sears, another young player vying for a national team wing position. Cooper and Sears have a similar profile: fast, physical, and smart. Sears had a golazo of her own last week, too. With Mal Swanson, Sophia Wilson, and Trinity Rodman out indefinitely, there’s a golden opportunity for forwards to stake their claim on the USWNT. A number of players have stepped to the challenge, making the national team, and the leagues in which they clash, more competitive and more fun. Cooper is so young, and if her trajectory and tenacity tells us anything, she’s got a shot to hold some coveted roster spots for a long time to come. I don’t think she’ll waste it.
