The Utah Royals waited the lifetime of two iterations of the club — the one that played 2.5 seasons from 2018-20 before moving to Kansas City, and the one reborn three years ago through expansion — for Saturday’s NWSL Playoff semifinals.
Washington separated itself from the upstarts in one moment.
Clara Luvanga scored midway through the second half to help the Washington Spirit advance to the NWSL championship final for the third consecutive season with a 2-1 win over Utah Royals FC at Audi Field in Washington, D.C.
This time, they’ll host the “neutral-site” final in front of the loud crowd of “Rowdy Audi.”
“This is a dream come true,” Washington Spirit star Trinity Rodman told CBS after the match, “and I’m so happy we’re going back to the final.”
Paige Cronin and Kate Del Fava consider themselves optimistic by nature. But in the moments after the match when the two professionals met with a handful of local and national media members via videoconference, the disappointment was clearly written on their faces — even if they could smile at the past several months.
“Right now, I’m mad,” Cronin admitted. “I know everyone is saying ‘congrats’ and Kate and I are both pretty glass-half-full people. But honestly, it’s disappointing to lose in the semifinals.
“We know what we’re capable of,” she said. “Not a lot of people backed us — but we backed ourselves.”
The Spirit started fast. And yet, “not fast enough,” Rodman said. The Royals started faster than any playoff team in NWSL history.
Cloé Lacasse bent an in-swinging corner kick inside the near post from 34.8 yards away, the longest goal in NWSL Playoff history in the second minute to give Utah the early advantage.
Credited at 1 minutes, 57 seconds after the opening whistle, the Canadian international’s ninth goal of the season is the fastest goal in NWSL Playoff history, beating out the previous top mark of Seattle’s Eugenie Le Sommer against Washington in 2021.
But the Spirit rallied to win that game. They rallied again Saturday.
“Cloé put a great ball in, and I think it pumped more belief into our group that we could do this,” Del Fava said.
“To give up the equalizer shortly after was disappointing,” she added. “But I’m so proud of this group for fighting.”
Sofia Cantora equalized in the eighth minute, pulling one back from Rodman in front of net to tie the match before some fans at Audi Field had found their seats.
“Getting scored on in the first minutes will really humble you,” said Spirit midfielder Andi Sullivan on the CBS postmatch show. “But I thought the response was incredible.”
The Spirit piled on the pressure, out-shooting the Royals 12-5 in the first half. But Mandy McGlynn stood up with two saves to keep the score level through halftime.
Luvanga took advantage of a misplayed ball out of the back, lunging toward Nuria Rábano’s back pass toward central defense and springing forward before McGlynn or center back Tatumn Milazzo could get to it in the 56th minute to put Washington in front.
Just a few minutes later, Mina Tanaka entered the match for Cronin, marking her first appearance for the club since Oct. 3 against Louisville (four matches) due to a hamstring injury.
But Washington limited Utah to just three shots on goal in the second half to make Luvanga’s match-winner stand up and send the Spirit to their fifth final in club history — tied with the most in the NWSL with the combined history of Western New York/North Carolina.
After finishing near the bottom of the league in the Royals’ first two years back in the NWSL, Utah surged to seventh place in the 16-team table and a historic playoff appearance.
With a club-record 47 points in the regular season, they didn’t stop there. Mandy McGlynn put on a showcase performance in goal in a 1-0 win over San Diego to eliminate the host Wave in the NWSL quarterfinals.
And for a bit — even if it was just a moment — all of Utah and all of Royalty started to believe.
To quote McGlynn: “Why the (expletive) not us?!!”
That mantra should carry the Royals into the 2027 campaign, unburdened by what has become and with a glimpse of what can be. The club has already re-signed several key pieces from the current roster that were set to enter free agency, including attacker Cece Delzer, Jameese Joseph, Miyabi and Lacasse through the 2028 season.
Tanaka and center back Kate Del Fava had also previously agreed to extensions for at least one more year, but pending free agency is possible for key players like Ana Tejada, Tatumn Milazzo and Brecken Mozingo, among others.
“We have such talented players. But our togetherness and work ethic is what we got us here,” said Del Fava, the Royals’ three-time “iron woman” and a finalist for NWSL defender of the year.
“The thing that bothered me was I felt that we were counted out before it started. I don’t want that to be the case … This is a good group of soccer players.”
That feeling will continue, and the Royals will look back on their historic season with pride and celebration.
But for now, in the moments after the semifinals as the home side celebrated on Audi Field, the consensus feeling was also disappointment.
“Now we know what it feels like,” Cronin said. “We know what it takes. We can grow from that.
“We have stars in our group. But a lot of us have grinded to be where we are today, to sit on the bench, to not be in top form or suffered injury. I hope this group is known as a gritty group in every success that we’ve had.”
