(by Caleb Turner ksl.com 6-21-25)
Based on the postgame mood, you wouldn't have guessed the Utah Royals had just lost their 10th game of the season.
The NWSL's last-place squad reached the midpoint of its season with a 4-1 loss to the Seattle Reign in its 13th game of the year Saturday at America First Field.
The home team was outmatched from wire-to-wire against the top-five team from Washington, giving up goals in the sixth, 16th, 66th and 91st minutes.
For a brief moment near the end of the first half, it looked like a comeback could be underway when Bianca St-Georges scored her third goal of the season for Utah, but it wasn't to be.
The goal, which moved St-Georges into a tie with Brecken Mozingo for the team lead in goals, was the only one in the cards for the Royals on Saturday, despite leading the visiting team 14-10 in total shots.
The Royals enter the midseason break on an eight-game winless streak and a four-game losing streak, with the next league fixture not until Aug. 3. But still, a sense of optimism and belief remained with players and coach during press conference comments.
Perhaps it's because the break gives the team time to recover from a brutal start to the season that featured two season-ending injuries and take another step in building "from the bottom out," as head coach Jimmy Coenraets described it.
"Make sure you kind of just detach from the game and you get some time by yourself," Coenraets said of his advice to players heading into the break. "I just want everyone to come back in the best possible headspace."
The real reason for the optimism, however, is likely because Utah is approaching this season as one piece of a much larger puzzle. Coenraets said that since the Miller family took over team ownership in April, he has felt supported in building a foundation for what he called "a sustainable future."
"Ever since the change, there was one clear message, and that's, 'Let's build a foundation, and let's build upon the foundation that we are building the next six months,'" Coenraets said. "We want to be competitive as much as we can, but we also want to make sure that by being competitive, we're actually building for the future and not giving up the future to just get results."
Utah will play a pair of friendlies against the San Diego Wave to break up the month-long break and several Royals will continue playing games with their respective national teams, including Ally Sentnor and Mandy McGlynn with the USWNT and Janni Thomsen joining Denmark for the UEFA Women's Euro tournament.
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