Utah Royals coach Jimmy Coenraets didn’t love what he saw on the field last weekend in New England.

“If you just look at the game overall, should we be happy with the way we played? No. Not at all,” he said.

But the Royals’ boss wasn’t going to complain about a 2-1 victory over Boston Legacy FC, his team’s first of the season.

“It wasn’t pretty to the eye, but from a mentality point of view there was loads to be happy about,” Coenraets said. “… These kinds of games were games last season we definitely would not have won. Now we’re winning them.”

The Royals are now 1-1-2, with four points on the year.

Setting the table

Utah defender Tatumn Milazzo opened the scoring on Sunday, running onto the far post and first-timing a pass from Cloé Lacasse. It was Milazzo’s second goal of the season and a look inside Utah’s set-piece training.

“This was not something we did this week at practice, but we’ve put it into the stock free kicks,” Coenraets said. “We’ve been working on it so players do know if it’s on, it’s on and you can use it.”

With Boston playing a high line, the Royals sent the ball out wide to a streaking Lacasse who then threaded a perfect pass into the box for the opening goal.

“Our job is to make sure the players have pictures in their head and it’s the job of the players to recognize the picture,” Coenraets said. “That’s a player (Lacasse) that knows a picture, that understands the situation and applies it herself.”

On the score sheet

Slovenian striker Lara Prašnikar tallied her first NWSL goal last week.

“As a striker, the first goal is always the hardest to shoot,” she said.

Her second, a 49th-minute penalty on Sunday, proved to be the game-winner — and another reason for the Royals to hope. Utah scored just 28 goals last season. Only two teams — Houston and Bay FC — scored fewer.

Up next

The Royals might need some rest after playing three games in seven days last week.

“We have a lot of meters, or inches, or whatever you guys here say, in our feet,” Prašnikar joked.

But the team will be back on the pitch on Friday, when they host Chicago at America First Field in Sandy.

“It’s just what you want to give back to your fans and your community. We definitely want to win away games, but winning at home creates belief among people that we are serious in what we want to do,” Coenraets said. “We’ve expressed the ambition and we don’t want to hide. We know what we want to do.”