‘Big dogs’ make history: Royals stun San Diego 1-0, advance to NWSL semifinals
Nov 7, 2026, 9:59 AM
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA - NOVEMBER 06: Kiana Palacios #21 of Utah Royals celebrates with teammates after scoring the team's first goal during the NWSL quarterfinal match between San Diego Wave FC and Utah Royals as part of the 2026 NWSL Playoffs at Snapdragon Stadium on November 06, 2026 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Denis Poroy/Getty Images)
(Photo by Denis Poroy/Getty Images)
Utah Royals goalkeeper Mandy McGlynn had the ball in her hands when the final whistle sounded. She leaped into the air as her teammates converged, celebrating a moment eight years in the making.
The seventh-seeded Royals had just eliminated the second-seeded San Diego Wave, winning 1-0 Friday night at Snapdragon Stadium in the club’s first-ever NWSL playoff match.
Kiana Palacios scored in the 30th minute, while McGlynn preserved the victory against a San Diego side that had beaten Utah twice during the regular season.
On Wednesday, McGlynn had dismissed the underdog label, declaring, “We’re big dogs here.”
“Really big. Big dogs,” McGlynn said postmatch. “And I told everyone too before we got on the pitch, ‘Be a dog today.’ And that’s what you saw. You saw some rabid dogs going at it today.”
The Wave breaks
Utah entered the playoffs without a goal in three consecutive matches, missing leading scorer Mina Tanaka and facing a San Diego team unbeaten in its previous seven.
Head coach Jimmy Coenraets had tried two different approaches against the Wave during the regular season. This time, Utah dropped its defensive line, crowded the midfield and looked to counterattack.
“Leave McNabb on the ball, shut down one side and wait until she starts dribbling,” Coenraets explained. “If you mark well, you get those transition moments. I think we score out of one of them.”
Deputizing for Tanaka at the 10, summer signing Jameese Joseph started the scoring move with a pass to Cloé Lacasse on the left. Lacasse drove into the penalty area, forcing her defender backward before passing toward Palacios.
With Madison Hammond making a near-post run to create space, Palacios controlled with her right foot, turned onto her left and waited for the defender to commit.
Her shot slipped between the defender’s legs and inside the right post for the first playoff goal in Royals history and the eventual winner.
“Chloe did a nice pass in the box, and I saw it come in, took my touch, and didn’t even think about it,” Palacios said. “I was just like, ‘Just kick it and see what happens.’ And when I saw it go in, I was like, ‘Oh, thank you, Jesus.’”
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A wall named Mandy
McGlynn stopped a close-range Melanie Barcenas header in the fifth minute. Five minutes later, she stretched her right glove toward a Lia Godfrey effort headed for the far post, turning it away for a corner.
Then came a frantic goalmouth scramble in the 17th minute.
Kenza Dali played across the face of goal to an unmarked Barcenas at the back post. Miyabi Moriya slid across to partially block her shot, but the deflection popped the ball over an onrushing McGlynn. Kate Del Fava headed it away from the goal line, and McGlynn slapped it clear just ahead of a San Diego challenger. When another Wave player fired toward the far post, Paige Cronin cleared the shot with her left knee.
San Diego finished with 62% possession, 16 shots and 10 corners, but Utah won 55 duels to the Wave’s 39. That physical tenacity, combined with McGlynn’s heroics, kept the hosts scoreless.
“We were so deep, so I needed to be deep to react to anything that’s ping-ponging around there,” McGlynn said. “I was just trying to stay on my feet and let Kate, Kale, Tatum, Ana, Nuria do the work.”
Coenraets credited his goalkeeper with keeping the Royals alive.
“Mandy McGlynn in the fifth minute held us there to a nil-nil,” he said. “If that ball goes in, you have a different game.”
McGlynn, who won the 2023 NWSL Championship with Gotham FC at Snapdragon Stadium, was asked whether Friday represented the best all-around performance of her career.
“Yes,” she answered. “I was saying that after. I was like, ‘This was it,’ and I’m just so excited to try to reach it again.”
From bottom dwellers to semifinalists
When Coenraets arrived in 2024, the Royals were headed for a last-place finish. Two seasons later, they’re among the NWSL’s final four.
“I think the reality is that we’ve gone against the odds twice,” Coenraets said, referencing preseason predictions that placed Utah near the bottom of the league and expectations that San Diego would advance.
Almost five hundred supporters gathered at the Royals’ official watch party at America First Field.
Patrick Jefferies attended with his wife, their daughter, and two of her friends, whom the family has converted into Royals supporters.
“This is a team that even a year ago people kind of scoffed at,” Jefferies said. “We were bottom dwellers, and this team showed up and put together an amazing season. They played like themselves, they bought in, and nobody saw this coming, and that’s the best part about it.”
“The same people I sat with all season long were here,” Jefferies said. “People that I’ve gotten to know, and to get to celebrate with them, it couldn’t be anything better.”
What’s next
Utah awaits the winner of Sunday’s Washington Spirit–Portland Thorns quarterfinal.
Tanaka’s availability remains uncertain after another setback in training this week, but Coenraets hopes the additional recovery time will help.
For McGlynn, the lasting memory wasn’t her highlight-reel saves or the clean sheet.
“It was just so nice ’cause everyone was around me too, and we got to celebrate together,” she said. “It was just an awesome moment. I’m never gonna forget that for the rest of my life.”
