Right place, right time approach is working for Kansas City Current’s Kristen Hamilton

When veteran offseason acquisition Lynn Williams was ruled out for the National Women’s Soccer League season before playing so much as a single game for the Kansas City Current, a valid and pressing question followed: Who would fill her shoes as a goal scorer?

Nearing the halfway point of their 2022 NWSL campaign, the Current’s answer has been Kristen Hamilton.

Already the leading scorer in the Current’s brief history (10 goals across all competitions), Hamilton was in especially fine form in June, scoring in three straight matches. She now has nine goals in 2022: five in the Challenge Cup and four more in league competition.

“All my goals are (happening) because I’m on a team that likes to attack,” she told The Star. “We want to take the game to our opponent. We’ve been creating opportunities and, honestly, they’ve just been going in for me right now, which is nice.”

A lot of Hamilton’s success boils down to the game plans installed by head coach Matt Potter. Hamilton said his approach of reinforcing desired behaviors with positive feedback has fortified her confidence.

“It’s something that is very different for me,” Hamilton said. “I had to get used to it. I’m like, ‘Tell me what I did wrong!’”

That’s not to say that player and coach don’t work on correcting bad decisions on the field; they do. But they do so in an environment of mostly positive vibes.

“I think it gives everybody just kind of a bit of freedom,” Hamilton said. “And then knowing what the players around you are good at, you can go off of them.”

Standing 5-foot-4, Hamilton isn’t a prototypical big-bodied target. But her speed and work ethic typically find her in the right place at the right time for making good things happen. Some of the best goal-scorers in the history of the sport share that trait: Their timing is nearly always perfect.

Hamilton said she pays close attention to the opponent’s defenders — when they drop their line, and when they choose to step it up. She aims to keep them guessing about when to mark her, and with whom.

“What I do is just try to float around,” Hamilton said. “(I want to) cause chaos, confusion of who is supposed to be marking me at the moment, and find those pockets and little holes and spaces in the box.”

This is perhaps most evident on set pieces. Lloyd Yaxley, the Current’s goalkeepers coach, is the mastermind behind the club’s set-piece success. Hamilton’s size doesn’t make her a target in the box, which at times means she’s left unmarked. When opponents set up to defend an initial cross into the box, she’s there for the tap-in or flicked header past the keeper.

“It’s just committing to zones and numbers in the box,” she said. “And when it comes to you, take your opportunity. I don’t think people would peg me for being a scorer on a set piece, but here we are.”

Here we are indeed, and Hamilton will be looking to add to her season total on Friday night in Houston against the Dash.