“Five percent more”: Utah Royals look for finishing touch against Bay FC

SANDY — The Utah Royals don’t believe they need to create more chances.

They just need to finish a few more of the ones they’re already creating.

Utah enters Friday night’s home match against Bay FC sitting third in the NWSL, but head coach Jimmy Coenraets believes the distance between where the Royals are and where they want to be may be remarkably small.

“Our biggest next step is capitalizing at least 5% more or 10% more, because if you do so, you’d be leading this league right now,” Coenraets said after training Thursday.

The Royals (10-6-3, 33 points) have scored 32 goals through 19 matches and sit behind only Gotham FC and Washington Spirit in the standings. According to Coenraets, Utah ranks third in the league in both shots and chances created, a dramatic turnaround for a team that spent much of last season near the bottom in both categories.

Now Coenraets wants to see more chances end with the ball in the back of the net.

“Those are not just opportunities,” he said. “Those are semi goals that we have to put away.”

Better than the result

Saturday’s 2-1 loss at Denver Summit provided a particularly frustrating example.

Utah generated 18 shots and 2.09 expected goals, but trailed after Yazmeen Ryan scored early in the second half. Tatumn Milazzo pulled the Royals level with a near-post finish in the 89th minute, only for Janine Sonis to score directly from a free kick in the fourth minute of stoppage time.

After reviewing the match, Coenraets came away more encouraged by Utah’s performance than the result might suggest.

“Once we looked it back, we, from a staffing perspective, we all said this was actually the best 45 minutes of football that we’ve played this season,” Coenraets said of the first half. “Created great opportunities, had great opportunities to score goals and just didn’t score.”

The Royals have already demonstrated how devastating they can be when those chances go in, scoring four times at North Carolina on July 25 before putting five past Portland a week later.

Coenraets doesn’t believe the answer is changing how Utah attacks.

“I think it’s just keep on doing what you’re doing,” he said. “There is a way of doing it, and we found a way. I think we found a way with different players being on the pitch.”

Instead, he pointed to individual chances that could have changed matches: Narumi Miura early against Denver, an open opportunity for Mina Tanaka against Gotham and a one-on-one for Cloé Lacasse.

“Those are moments we have to put away if we really want to compete with the best in this league,” Coenraets said.

Learning every way a match can go

The Royals have proven they can win in different ways. They’ve ground out ugly results, absorbed pressure and survived, come from behind and dominated opponents.

“I don’t think there is one profile of the kind of team we are,” Coenraets said. “And I think that’s good because that means we have experience in a lot of situations and we know how to deal with different situations.”

Denver added another one to the list.

Utah fought back to equalize with regulation time nearly gone, then surrendered the deciding goal minutes later.

For Brecken Mozingo, the lesson centered on what the Royals call the “big five” moments surrounding pivotal events in a match.

“Big five moments was a big topic for us this past week,” Mozingo said. “We’re just trying to implement that into the rest of the season.”

Coenraets views those experiences as necessary.

“Those are moments that we want to go through in order to learn from,” he said. “I think right now we can tick a lot of situations, and it’s how we learn and how we grow from this.”

Mozingo reaches 50

Mozingo reached a milestone of her own in Denver, making her 50th NWSL appearance, all with the hometown club that drafted her.

The Utah native scored against Portland two weeks ago, then set up Milazzo’s equalizer in Denver with a 50-yard ball to the top of the box that took a deflection before falling to the defender.

Her recent run has come after a season in which her role has fluctuated.

“I feel like it’s always a tug and pull with athletes and their mentality in terms of acceptance, just coming to terms with acceptance and the role that they’re given on a team, whether they’re a starter, a sub or someone who’s not even rostered,” Mozingo said. “I’ve had it all this season.”

Her response has been bracingly direct.

“I’m just here to ball and play soccer, and whatever I do on the field is what I do.”

That mentality mirrors a Royals team that Mozingo believes may still be viewed differently from the way it sees itself.

“I think we’re still sometimes looked at as an underdog based off of the past two years and how they’ve gone,” she said. “But for us, this is a big statement year and it’s kind of the foundation that we’re laying for years to come.”

Prasnikar moves on

One player who won’t be part of that next stage is forward Lara Prasnikar.

The Royals announced Thursday morning that the Slovenian international has been transferred to German powerhouse VfL Wolfsburg for an undisclosed fee.

Prašnikar joined Utah last summer from German club Eintracht Frankfurt and made five appearances during the remainder of the 2025 season before scoring twice in 14 appearances this year.

Her first NWSL goal, against San Diego in Utah’s home opener, made Prašnikar the first Slovenian to score in league history.

A different challenge from Bay

Friday’s opponent arrives in Sandy at the opposite end of the table.

Bay FC sits 14th at 5-9-4 with 19 points and hasn’t won in four matches since a 3-0 victory over North Carolina on July 18. Bay has scored just twice during that four-match winless stretch, with both goals coming in a 3-2 loss to Seattle.

But that North Carolina result offers a reminder of what Bay is capable of, and Mozingo sees a quality team with plenty of threats.

“They have really fast forwards, and they have a really creative, crafty midfield,” she said.

Coenraets pushed back on the idea that being one of the NWSL’s top teams means simply overpowering opponents beneath Utah in the standings. There are too many variables from week to week, he said, for matches to be reduced to where two teams sit on the table.

Instead, he wants the Royals focused on themselves.

“We don’t really look towards the past, nor to the future,” Coenraets said. “It’s just this game, and we know what we wanna do. We know how we wanna be competitive against them, and how we could potentially win the game if we do everything the way we should do it.”

Mozingo’s message was much the same.

“We’re not really trying to change anything about our game other than just bringing our energy and the things that we can, that are controllables,” she said, “and hoping to implement that from minute one to minute 100.”

Match Information

Who: Bay FC at Utah Royals FC
When: Friday, Aug. 14 | 8:00 p.m. MT
Where: America First Field, Sandy
Watch: NWSL+ (streaming); KMYU (2.2 over air / 12 satellite / 643 Comcast HD)
Radio: KSL Sports Radio (102.7 FM / 1160 AM)