Utah Royals Match Recap: San Diego Wave 3/22
- URFC Blog
- 10 hours ago
- 6 min read
Match Overview
A very discombobulated Utah Royals faced off against San Diego last Sunday, leaving fans confused and concerned. The match took place on home turf, but the team representing the Royals was almost unrecognizable, especially after all of our subs late in the second half.
Royal Review Vibe Check:
Royal Roster: Where is Everyone?
Positioned for Peril: Where is Everyone?
Obsolete Offense: Where is Everyone?
The "Who's Available?!" Scramble (Again..)
Believe it or not, the Royal's availability this week was even worse than Match Week 1. With an 18-player minimum for game day rosters, the Royals were in a tough spot, losing Cronin, Hammond, and Ream to injury. While we gained Brown and Pierre-Louis, we were still short 1 player.
Anybody else notice that Spaanstra's contract was announced on game day? My guess is that with injuries, the club needed to scramble to either finalize a pending deal or find someone who they could get on the pitch quick. Last-minute signings to get us up to the minimum game-day roster as a very bad sign.
After last year's string of injury issues, I didn't realize it could get worse, so maybe we should all get humble real quick and pray to the gods (the old and the new) that the team has hit the rock bottom they need to turn this mess around. A total of 3 new Royal's players made their debut for Utah this week, adding to the 5 from last week.
The team played in a 4-2-3-1 formation, trying to play out of the back and leaning heavily on their defensive wings to push the ball up the pitch. As indicated by Jimmy in the post-game press conference, the team was trying to avoid the middle of the pitch to steer clear of San Diego's strong midfield.
Royal Debuts
Three new players debuted for the Utah Royals in their opening game last Saturday:
Dayana Pierre-Louis
Courtney Brown
Alexa Spaanstra
The Not Bad, The Bad, and The Deeply Concerning
Overall Flow
The Royals struggled from the get-go on Saturday. The momentum of the match clearly shows the Royal's limited impact for nearly the whole game, save a push in the first few minutes of the 2nd half. Big mistakes early on left the team feeling frazzled, and the team couldn't recover until after the half.
The Not Bad
Hometown Buzz: The energy in the stadium for Utah's first home game of the season was electric. Whether we were sitting in quiet tension watching San Diego test our defense for the billionth time or chanting "Ref You Suck" for the last 15 minutes of the match, we did it together ❤️ Also, special shout out to our one and only Xena, which I'm sure many of you heard whether you were watching on the TV or in the stands. Maybe we can make this the Royal's Warrior Cry?
Goal! (67'): Prasnikar, the first Slovenian to score in the NWSL, score off a messy bell bouncing around in front of San Diego's goal. Let's be honest, it wasn't pretty, but it's what the Royals desperately needed at this point in the game: hope. This goal brought some fire back into the game from the Royals' side.
The Bad
Confusion and Chaos: When watching the game, it was clear something was off. It seemed like endless giveaways, bad passes, and misconnections on the Royals side, leading to constant chaos and an overall messy game. When looking at the stats for the match, however, they tell a different story. The Royals beat San Diego on possession, accurate passes, accurate long balls, accurate crosses, defensive tackles, blocks, and clearances. So what happened?
Cohesion: The primary issue the Royals faced this week was a complete and utter lack of cohesion on the field. Like oil and water, they players were unable to connect, preventing positive progression up the field. The Royals seriously struggled in their attacking third, and it looked like the team skipped pre-season and didn't get any playing time together before jumping into this match.
You get a car(d)! You get a car(d)! You get a car(d)!
Photo by @pawprintsandsports (Instagram)/@ginatfox (Bluesky) I would be remiss if I didn't mention the obscene number of fouls committed by the Royals last Sunday. While yes, many of them received outsized reactions from the refs, there is speculation that the league-wide rise in yellow and red cards this year is an intentional change made to reduce injuries and clean up the game. Truthfully, I'm behind that aspiration. A lot of fouling is truly just messy play, and I hope the Royals can clean up quickly.
The Deeply Concerning
Playing Out of the Back: We are just not prepared for this. I think it could be a great style to consider one day, but the amount of missed passes, close misses, and giveaways in our defending third this game was unacceptable. I counted at least 7 unforced errors in our defensive third that easily could have led to a San Diego goal, and we're truly lucky that only one of them did.
Positionality:
Heat maps provided by Fotmob Who would have thought the Milazzo played higher up than Lacasse last game? This was definitely a tactical choice - to push the defensive wings up the pitch to create stronger chances on the outside. The issue here is that Milazzo consistently failed to get back into defensive position after running up the wing, leaving Lacasse to pick up the defensive slack. Additional confusion ensued in the midfield, with Nagai and Tejada sharing the center defensive mid spot, there was a lack of clarity leading to missed marks (offensively and defensively).
Player Highlights
Mia Justus
Mia Justus had a great game in goal. She had 4 saves, 10 recoveries, and is up for save of the week this week. Vote for Mia's save on Instagram or X.
Lara Prasnikar
Prasnikar became the first Slovenian to score in the NWSL last Sunday. With a well-placed ball off a wobbly assist from Palacios, Prasnikar may have just been in the right place at the right time. But that's exactly what we need! After many missed crosses into the box from Royals players throughout the game, it didn't have to be pretty. Prasnikar's equalizer brought some fighting spirit back into the match, and that's the type of energy the team needs.
Homework for Next Week
Positions: The defensive line, including the wings and the center defensive mid, need to know where they're supposed to be, and need to get back quickly in transition. Coverage from your teammates is fine here and there, but there is absolutely no reason Lacasse should be stuck defending in our final third instead of making herself available for offensive action.
Urgency: From slow passes that get picked off by the opposing team to getting swarmed by the opposing team while sitting on the ball too long, the Royals need to pick up the pass, push the press, and get passes off more quickly and cleanly. We saw that they're capable of this in the Kansas City game, but we need to see more.
Substitutions
The subs were interesting this week. When the final whistle blew, the Royals only had 3 players on the field who saw more than 500 minutes last season: KDF, Riehl, and Mozingo. Everyone else on the pitch was either a new signing or injured last year. While we only got to see a snippet of their abilities, I am particularly excited about Pierre-Louis and Brown.
Pierre-Louis had a great game for her first NWSL appearance. She's incredibly tall, and was able to dispossess in the midfield with ease. Brown came onto the pitch with energy, and as a hometown player, you can tell she's committed to showing up for the team.
Minute | In | Out |
46' | Pierre-Louis | Nagai |
59' | Brown | Tejada |
59' | Simmonds | Thomsen |
71' | Mozingo | Lacasse |
71' | Spaanstra | Prasnikar |
Looking Ahead
With three games this week, the Royals are in for quite the journey. First, the team plays Washington Spirit at Audi Field on Wednesday, then they head to Boston for an early Saturday game. With no wins yet this season, Washington will be eager to take advantage of the Royals' "lost in time and space" de-buff we're currently working through. Boston and the Royals are the only teams in the league to come away with two losses in their first two games, so this will be a critical matchup to try to secure some more points early in the season.
Match Preview
Next Fixture: The Royals will face off against the Washington Spirit this Wednesday at 5 PM.
What to Expect: With a few superstars on the roster, Washington Spirit finished in 2nd place last year. While still trying to find their stride coming off a loss against Portland and a tie against Racing Louisville, the Spirit will be eager to get a win against our struggling Royals. With over 70% possession last game, The Royals will have to challenge the Spirit's by putting greater pressure on the home team and capitalizing on opportunities for transition.
Previous Record: Utah beat Washington for the first time in their last game of 2025. Here's to hoping we can beat them on the road, giving the team some momentum as they head to Boston this weekend.
Conclusion
The Utah Royals' latest match shows the holes that need to be filled, but the commitment is there, and you could see the frustration from Sunday's performance etched on the players' faces. As we look ahead, do you think our current roster (if healthy and available) is enough to bridge the gap?
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