From Orlando Pride’s unbeaten run to two huge coaches let go, this NWSL season has brought all the drama. The Utah Royals and San Diego Wave have recently parted ways with their coaches. With Utah’s Amy Rodriguez and San Diego’s Casey Stoney no longer leading the teams, let’s discuss what led up to their firings and what it means for the teams.
Utah Royals FC Letting Go of Amy Rodriguez
Utah Royals FC parted ways with Head Coach Amy Rodriguez after their loss record reached 11 losses. With their results, the team sits at the lowest rank when it comes to the NWSL table standings. Following this decision, the club announced that assistant Jimmy Coenraets will be Interim Head Coach till the end of the season.
Rodriguez’s time with the Utah Royals marked her first time as a coach. The former player left the team with a record of 2-11-2 (W-L-D). Despite Rodriguez’s great career as a player, the 2x NWSL champion didn’t find luck during her time as a coach. However, many questioned whether it was right to let go of Rodriguez in her first season.
“We are grateful and appreciative of Amy, Michelle, and Maryse and their efforts in helping re-introduce the Royals to Utah’s incredible fans and the international soccer community,” Real Salt Lake president John Kimball said in a statement following Rodriguez’s departure. Kimball is now overseeing business operations for Utah Royals during the team’s search for a new president for the club.
Was Firing Amy Rodriguez A Good Decision?
While the Utah Royals didn’t exactly have the best start in their inaugural season, Rodriguez’s firing is questionable. This was Rodriguez’s first year as an NWSL coach and for this new version of Utah Royals FC. Both Rodriguez and the team had a lot of room for growth, but growth doesn’t always happen quickly.
Returning this year as an expansion club after folding in 2020, the second appearance of Utah Royals in the NWSL is filled with hopes and ambition. They would want to be successful and yield the fruit of their ambition. But Utah’s roster is young, and the players are still building their chemistry and gaining experience.
Parting ways with Rodriguez seemed like a perfunctory decision, given the team managed to find a draw against Portland Thorns. Many considered it to be their best performance of the season, especially against a tough opponent. This result should have indicated that Rodriguez and the team’s performance was growing, although gradually.
What’s Next For Utah Royals FC
Speaking to the media, Royals Sporting Director Kelly Cousins said, “We have a week break next week and six weeks building into our first league game, and we can really use that as a mini pre-season to step into the second half of the season and make that positive and be ready for next season.” This amount of time could have helped Rodriguez continue improving the team.
As someone who has been with them from the start, Rodriguez deserved the chance to continue building the team. Interim head coach Coenraets only joined the Utah Royals in early June. When it comes to building a new team, patience plays an integral part, as does giving coaches a chance. The upcoming months will prove whether firing Rodriguez midseason was a good or premature decision.
San Diego Wave Letting Go of Casey Stoney
Rodriguez’s firing wasn’t the only shakeup that happened in the NWSL. San Diego Wave parted ways with Casey Stoney in what was considered shocking news. The team hired Paul Buckle as an interim head coach.
Stoney has been San Diego’s head coach for around three years. She managed to build a name for herself in the NWSL during her time with the club. With Stoney, San Diego won the NWSL Challenge Cup in 2024 and also the NWSL Shield in 2023. On a personal level, she won the NWSL Coach of the Year award in 2022.
San Diego Wave FC President Jill Ellis talked about the club’s decision to let go of Stoney in an official statement. “Over the past seasons, Casey has guided us to significant milestones, and her contributions have been instrumental in laying a strong foundation on which to build. The decision to part ways was very hard and not made in haste, but given the ambition of this club, and where we are in our season, we felt a change was necessary at this time,” Ellis said.
Did San Diego Do The Right Thing?
Casey Stoney made the San Diego Wave a tough competitor from the first year. She managed to find success quickly, and perhaps this made the club expect her performance to remain the same now in the team’s third year. Stoney has been with the team since the very beginning. She also signed a contract extension earlier this year that would have lasted till 2027, with a mutual option for 2028. So, of course, it was pretty shocking to hear that San Diego let her go.
While Rodriguez needed time to prove herself, Stoney has already proven herself since day one. In 2022, Stoney led the team to the playoffs, the first time an NWSL expansion franchise had managed to do so. With everything she achieved with the Wave, it seemed reasonable to expect that she would be given the chance to fix whatever went wrong.
What Happened to Stoney’s San Diego
Before Stoney left, the San Diego Wave had a 7-game winless streak. Despite this season’s unsatisfying numbers, there is no denying that Stoney is an integral part of the club. She helped build the team from scratch, so she could have found what was missing this season and changed it; this would have needed more time. As women’s soccer progresses, more teams are catching up and bringing talent to the NWSL. This made things more difficult for Stoney’s side, but that doesn’t mean she lost her touch.
“I am bitterly disappointed that I wasn’t given the time to bring a Championship to San Diego,” Stoney wrote in a statement. Along with Stoney, many fans felt “bitterly disappointed” as well. Many thought the club would trust Stoney to get the team back on track. The fact that she was the only head coach in the club’s history makes this parting seem harsher.
What Does This Means For The NWSL?
The premature endings of Utah’s Amy Rodriguez and San Diego’s Casey Stoney will affect the NWSL. With the NWSL already having few female head coaches, these cuts aren’t helping. Of course, Stoney and Rodriguez have ambitions, and it won’t be surprising if they find new clubs soon. However, the two of them deserved to be given more time at their previous clubs. While every team wants to find success, there should be an understanding that good results take time.
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