Photo Credit: Bailey Holiver-Imagn Images
As the first expansion team under National Women’s Soccer League Commissioner Jessica Berman, the Utah Royals spent a majority of their time at the bottom of the NWSL table until a sudden shift occurred that brought them to tenth place.
“I’ve had former teammates or friends on other teams who have said, ‘You guys look like a completely different team,’ and I think we’re going to be next year as well,” defender Madison Pogarch told The Equalizer. “There’s more people interested in coming to Utah and who are asking about it. Six months ago, people were wondering about us but now, they want to come here. I think even from that perspective, you’ve been able to see it on the pitch as well but I think we all know that next year, the standards that we’re setting for ourselves are almost tenfold from what we were meeting.”
A rundown of the season
Although the Royals lost their season home opener with a 2-0 result against the Chicago Red Stars, their second game against the North Carolina Courage marked the first win for the club and for now-former head coach Amy Rodriguez.
However, as the season progressed, the Royals continued to struggle as they consistently dropped points and went on to experience a 10-game winless rut. Eventually, the Royals fired Rodriguez on June 30, following a 0-0 draw against the Portland Thorns. Under Rodriguez, the Royals recorded a 2-11-2 (wins, losses, draws) record in the span of 15 games.
At the beginning of June, Jimmy Coenraets was hired as an assistant coach and became the interim head coach following the leadership change.
With several months as an interim head coach, Coenraets was recently named the full-time head coach through the 2027 season. Under Coenraets, the Royals have a 5-3-2 record in NWSL play, earning 17 points. From Coenraets’ guidance, the Royals were able to triple its point total in six less matches, and they won their group in the inaugural NWSL x LIGA MX Femenil Summer Cup.
“I think one of the most important lessons that I’ve learned from the last few weeks and months is not necessarily a lesson, but just a good heads up in the communication part of communicating in an authentic way with players in the end is very important,” Coenraets said in his introductory press conference. “What people saw the last three months of me as a person is how they will see me in the upcoming years as well. That was my approach, was to just be myself and having a lot of conversations with players over the last few months shows it’s something that they appreciate and I think the players being happy about this also shows that we’ve done something in a good way these last few months.”
With Coenraets coming in, players also experienced a different shift, as some described it as a second preseason. Even with the recent international break that allowed for players to be off for two days, Coenraets and his staff made themselves available to players who did want to train. On both days, the whole group came in to put in the work despite the season coming to an end.
Through the challenges of winless results and changes throughout the season, the group has taken those moments to develop a sense of togetherness in their locker room that then translates to their unity on the field.
“There’s obviously been a lot of fun with our goal celebrations,” Pogarch said. “I think the biggest thing for us as a group is that we all looked at each other and thought, ‘We have a lot more to give than we maybe think,’ and there’s a lot more potential for us to live up to this year than we maybe had anticipated for ourselves and I think that was a big turning point as a group and as a club.”
Toward the end of their season, the Royals recorded a major win as they defeated Seattle Reign 3-0 at home. Despite a 1-1 draw against Seattle earlier on in the season, the Royals clean sheet win was a new milestone in club history as Cloé Lacasse recorded the fastest goal in Royals history, along with the first hat trick in Royals history and the first hat trick of the NWSL season.
“This season could’ve just been a stagnant one but I’m just really proud of where the team has managed to get to and I really feel that we’re in a really really good place to be able to step into 2025 and be ready to compete,” General Manager Kelly Cousins said. “I think that’s 100% full credit to the players and their ability to keep pushing forward and stay positive and stick together while taking on a new coach’s ideas and running with them. They’ve built some fantastic relationships with the new head coach and they’ve definitely been a proud part of the moment.”
Where the Royals hope to go from here
The Royals are out of the 2024 NWSL Playoffs. However, there is hope for the future of the club.
The team is focused on preparing for the 2025 NWSL season beginning now. As the NWSL regular season concludes for the Royals — Utah fell to Gotham at home, 4-1, on Friday — the standards they’re setting in place now are only building blocks for what’s to come.
Along with the growth on the pitch, Cousins also hopes to add additional building blocks such as making sure that the players and the staff have additional support in medical and/or performance staff around the team.
“I just think the strategy is important to stay focused on and it’s a case of analyzing every season of what’s the next little bit of what we need and for me, that next building block is to make sure that we’ve got a full structure of staff around the squad and around the players that can really support them individually and as a team,” Cousins said.
As the club continues to grow following their return in the NWSL, Cousins added that through their work in the offseason fans will see a more refined team next year that will only continue to raise the bar in the NWSL.
“The fans are so important and they’ve been through the roller coaster that we’ve been through,” Cousins said. “My message to the fans would be that you’re only starting to see the glimpses of what this squad can do. We’ve won games and have had unbelievable performances, but that needs to come on a more consistent basis now and I think the fans are going to see that and I think they’ll see a more refined team going into 2025, which makes it more exciting for the results and us competing in this league.”
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