SANDY, Utah — It took Utah Royals FC five seasons, the COVID-19 pandemic, two separate iterations of the club, three different ownership groups, two head coaches since returning to the NWSL ahead of the 2024 season to make the playoffs for the first time.
It took Mandy McGlynn one match to advance to the semifinals.
The Royals may have been underdogs in their playoff opener against second-seeded San Diego. But Utah was full of “big dogs,” to borrow a term from McGlynn before the match.
Kiana Palacios scored the lone goal of the match midway through the first half, and McGlynn stood on her head to earn her third career playoff shutout as the Royals eliminated San Diego Wave FC, 1-0 Friday night at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego.
It was Palacios’ first goal since Sept. 4 for the former all-time leading goal scorer at Mexico’s Club America. But after the match, the Mexican international from southern California only wanted to give credit to her keeper.
“Mandy had a partidazo,” Palacios said of McGlynn in Spanish.
Not so much McGlynn, though, as she thanked a back line led by fellow U.S. international Kate Del Fava for the shutout.
“It takes every single person on this team to win — and we rely on everyone,” McGlynn said. “That’s the message throughout this championship: Healthy or not, we’re going to push.”
Utah returned several key pieces for the start of the playoffs as Cece Delzer and Narumi debuted a second-half substitutes. But they were far from full, too.
Particularly, Mina Tanaka — the club’s talismanic midfielder with a team-high nine goals and five assists — was a late scratch after returning to training following a hamstring injury.
On a team with no stars, Tanaka is perhaps the closest thing to it (McGlynn and Del Fava may have an argument, as well). But Utah is simply a different type of team with Tanaka in the lineup.
That’s no slight to the rest of the Royals. There may be few players in the league quite like the 32-year-old Japanese international.
With Tanaka making the trip, present in team meetings and at the team hotel, she wasn’t far from the group, either. Much like the dozens of fans among the announced crowd of 12,638 at Snapdragon Stadium or the hundred or so more back at America First Field hanging on every minute and move, the Royals felt her presence.
”Everyone is ready,” McGlynn said. “We have a deep bench. That’s what makes our group special.”
Tanaka’s absence was motivation.
“We want to play for Mina, too,” the goalkeeper added. “We want her to get one more game, too.”
Utah manager Jimmy Coenraets said Tanaka was available until earlier Friday, and that she remains day-to-day with the hamstring injury that kept her out of NWSL competition for the final three matches of the regular season.
“I think the power with us is winning as a team,” Coenraets said.
Before the match even kicked off, the Royals had already made history: the first NWSL playoff appearance in club history, both the one that was sold to Kansas City after the truncated 2020 season, as well as the one reborn into the league through expansion in 2024.
The Wave, which was founded in 2021, were no strangers to the postseason with a fourth playoff appearance in five years and earning the No. 2 overall seed behind only NWSL Shield winners Gotham FC.
But Utah was anything but scared, going straight out a San Diego side that pressed the issue themselves with five shots in the first 30 minutes.
Yet Palacios opened the scoring in the 30th minute, rotating a pass from Cloé Lacasse that nutmegged a defender before finding the side netting to put the visitors up, 1-0.
Filling in for Tanaka, Jameese Joseph found Lacasse from midfield on the edge of the penalty area and the Canadian international delivered a cross toward the penalty spot that the Mexican-American with 51 caps with La Tri calmly put away to lift the Royals to a 1-0 halftime advantage.
It was Utah’s first goal in 301 minutes of regulation play after ending the season scoreless in their final three matches.
“Cloé made a nice pass in the box, I saw it coming, took my touch and didn’t even think about it,” Palacios said.
Thank you, Jesus crossed the forward’s mind, too.
But the Royals weren’t done. At least, McGlynn wasn’t.
Backed by a defense that included goal-line clearances from Del Fava, Paige Cronin, Nuria Rábano and Cloé Lacasse, McGlynn — who helped Gotham FC to the NWSL championship on the same pitch in 2023 — made four saves to extend history.
“Unbelievable,” McGlynn told Prime Video after the match. “It’s everything you could hope for; I’m in shock.
“The last time I was on this field in the playoffs, we won it — and that was the kind of vibes I was bringing.”
Utah brought similar vibes to San Diego, which was beaten by a team to which it had never lost in the regular season and eliminated from the postseason with a fourth consecutive playoff loss.
“Let’s keep riding this wave together,” McGlynn said, “no pun intended.”
Utah advanced to the NWSL semifinals, which will be held the weekend of Sept. 13 against the winner of third-seeded Washington and No. 6 Portland.
