‘We’ve learned to win’: Utah Royals return to San Diego as a different team

HERRIMAN — The Utah Royals have already played San Diego once this season.

Head coach Jimmy Coenraets doesn’t put much stock in what happened that day.

Utah lost its home opener to the Wave 2-1 on March 22, surrendering the deciding goal late in a match Coenraets believes his team didn’t yet know how to finish.

Five months later, the Royals head to San Diego in third place in the NWSL standings, three points ahead of the Wave and, according to their coach, as a much more mature team.

“We’ve learned to win,” Coenraets said Thursday. “The biggest takeaway of that last game was giving it up in the last five to 10 minutes, because at that point we weren’t the team we are today. We didn’t really read the context of the game.

“I think right now we have a good understanding of what a game is, what it takes to win it, how long it takes us, and I think we’ve won games now in the last 15 minutes more than we’ve lost them. So I think that’s the major point for us.”

The Royals (36 points, 3rd place) visit the Wave (33 points, 5th place) Friday at 8 p.m. MT at Snapdragon Stadium. Utah enters the weekend one point behind second-place Washington and seven behind league-leading Gotham.

The meeting gives Utah another chance to do something it has never done: beat San Diego.

The Wave are 5-0 against the Royals since Utah returned to the NWSL in 2024, including March’s 2-1 victory at America First Field.

Madison Hammond wasn’t available for that first meeting because of injury.

“It’s such a different team, honestly,” Hammond said. “I think seeing how much we’ve grown in our attack, how robust we’ve become defensively, that is something that you need against a team like San Diego.

“I’m really excited to see how much we’ve changed and to see that on display tomorrow.”

Goals from everywhere

Utah has scored 35 goals through 20 matches, the most in the NWSL, and has gotten them from throughout the roster instead of relying on one or two goal scorers.

Three different players scored in last week’s 3-2 victory over Bay FC.

Miyabi Moriya scored Utah’s first goal, Narumi Miura put the Royals ahead with a long-range strike and Mina Tanaka converted a second-half penalty for the winner. It was the first time three Japanese players scored in the same match in NWSL history.

Tanaka’s goal pulled her even with Cloé Lacasse for the team lead with six. Lacasse also leads the team with eight assists.

“I think it’s been statistically unpredictable,” Coenraets said. “If you were to scout us, you were to look at us, it’s kind of hard to find out what the real patterns are. There are patterns and clear patterns, but it’s hard to find out from an opponent point of view, which makes us unpredictable and which makes it fun for us.”

Moriya’s emergence as an attacking threat from fullback is intentional.

“It’s just attack,” Coenraets said. “In all honesty, I don’t think I care too much about the defending piece. You have Kate Del Fava running behind Miyabi very often, so that’s a side that we have covered quite well.

“We want to be a bold team, we want to be relentless. So I think right now it’s just all about the attacking piece.”

Hammond believes Utah’s scoring comes from its willingness to take chances.

“I think we score because we take a lot of risks,” she said. “We know that we might get exposed, but I am never doubtful that we’re gonna go into a game and score.

“I just always have a lot of trust in our forwards. We’re really productive, and we’re really efficient with, if you’re gonna give us a chance, we’re gonna put it away.”

‘It can storm and we’ll find our way back’

San Diego has allowed only 21 goals in 20 matches, but enters Friday with just one victory in its last six.

“We don’t have to reinvent the wheel,” Coenraets said. “We just have to look at how they’ve been scored on and try to replicate those things.”

Utah has won three of its last five, scoring 13 goals in those three victories, including five against Portland and four at North Carolina.

Hammond said the closeness of Utah’s locker room gives the Royals something to fall back on when matches aren’t going their way.

“You don’t have to suddenly conjure something out of magic because we know what our processes are, we know what our basics are, and we know what our standards are,” Hammond said. “When you can rely on that, that is what instills confidence into people.”

Coenraets compared it to a house weathering a storm.

“It’s not when it’s a sunny day when everything’s going well that you look at your house. It’s when it’s really raining, it’s pouring, it’s storming, that you see the remaining parts of your house, and I think we’re the same.

“I think we’re good when it’s good, but also we’re good when it’s bad now, and I think that’s what you want. I think the foundation is solid, so we’re in a state right now where it can storm and we’ll find our way back.”

How to watch

Who: Utah Royals FC at San Diego Wave FC
When: Friday, Aug. 21, 8 p.m. MT
Where: Snapdragon Stadium, San Diego, California
TV/Streaming: Prime Video
Radio: KSL Sports Radio, 102.7 FM / 1160 AM