Herriman • One postgame moment of exuberance has become a rallying cry for Utah Royals FC.
In the moments following the Royals’ 1-0 win over San Diego, a victory that included four clutch saves by Mandy McGlynn, the veteran goalkeeper pulled her team together and said loud enough for a nearby microphone to capture it.
“Why the [expletive] not us?” she said.
The NWSL Playoffs have been apt for lower-seeded runs. So indeed, why not first-time playoff participants Utah?
A year ago, eighth-seeded Gotham FC ran through the playoffs to pull off one of the more unlikely titles in the 13-year history of the National Women’s Soccer League.
Two years earlier, Gotham was also the lowest seed of a then-six-team playoff field before lifting the championship trophy at midfield in San Diego.
That’s the thing about the NWSL, considered by many to be the best — or at least most talented and parity-driven — professional women’s soccer league in the world: upsets happen, and anybody can beat anybody.
So, yeah, why not the Utah Royals?
“Mandy definitely said it best the other night,” midfielder Madison Hammond said after training this week before the team traveled to Washington, D.C. for Saturday’s NWSL playoff semifinal against the Washington Spirit. “I can’t describe the adrenaline that I just came down from. It just sits in your stomach, where you have this belief in yourself and then you have a moment like that. It’s really palpable.
“There’s no way you can’t be like, why not us?”
The Royals finished 14-11-5 in the regular season with a club-record 47 points before squeezing into the postseason with the No. 7 seed in the eight-team field.
For a club that had never made the playoffs, the seventh-place finish was already a success.
But then they got that taste of success, the aforementioned adrenaline rush of stunning the second-seeded Wave on the road when seemingly everybody had already written them off.
Now Utah is 90 minutes from a championship final, with the third-seeded Spirit standing in the way.
No small challenge with a club featuring the likes of U.S. international Trinity Rodman, former BYU star Ashley Hatch and an offense that tied for the third-highest goal differential in the league before putting a playoff-best four past Portland Thorns FC in a 4-1 quarterfinal win at Audi Field.
“The biggest difference is ‘Rowdy Audi’,” Utah coach Jimmy Coenraets said of the Spirit. “They scored two goals within two minutes against Portland just with the crowd getting behind them.”
The key to the Royals’ resurgence is a bit more understated. Utah native Courtney Brown has said that the Royals’ “superpower is that we like each other,” and her teammates have also fallen behind the mantra.
When they aren’t training or catching flights to away games, they’ve often shown up to one another’s homes for birthday parties, life celebrations, or an impromptu baby shower for former defender Janni Thomsen before her transfer to London City Lionesses in England.
“I think there’s a togetherness that comes when you have a locker room that is on the same page,” said Hammond, who came to Utah this year after spending the past four seasons at Angel City FC, “and that shows up every day not only wanting to battle for yourself but for the person next to you.”
But the group has been more than a collection of close friends. They’ve also been adaptable. That adaptability has been particularly important with a star like Mina Tanaka.
The Japanese midfielder with a team-high nine goals and five assists was unavailable last Friday, her fourth straight team-sheet omission as she continued to rehab a hamstring injury.
Yet somehow, Utah’s midfield barely skipped a beat.
Or so it seemed.
“I’m glad it looks like we haven’t missed a beat, because we definitely miss her,” said Hammond of missing Tanaka, one of five finalists for NWSL midfielder of the year. “I think it’s a testament to how much respect we have for her in the locker room; she’s a baller, and you want to play with her.”
In her place, Jameese Joseph notched her second straight start at attacking midfield, linking the front-three of Cloé Lacasse, Paige Cronin and goal-scorer Kiana Palacios with holding midfielders Ana Tejada and Hammond.
The 24-year-old Joseph joined the Royals from Chicago during the NWSL summer transfer window, then quickly signed an extension through the 2029 season with a mutual option for 2030.
“It’s always a whirlwind to come into a new team midseason; the adjustment period can be really long for people,” Hammond said. “But I give her a lot of credit, especially with her last performance. I think that she finally got out of her head a little bit and was just like, you know what? I’m a baller, I’m here, this is what I do for my job and I’m really good at it.
“Getting to see her have that performance with us was really exciting and makes me excited for what’s to come.”
But the Royals have other stars, even if not household names on a national stage. There’s McGlynn, who won a title with Gotham FC two years ago and has been capped six times by the United States women’s national team since breaking through in 2024.
Then there’s Kate Del Fava, the Royals’ three-time “iron woman” and NWSL defender of the year finalist who owns the franchise record for most games played.
Del Fava earned her first senior national team cap last month in a 2-2 tie with reigning World Cup champion Spain after anchoring a back line that conceded just 1.5 goals per match with nine clean sheets in the regular season.
And she’s only getting better, Coenraets said of the 28-year-old center back.
“I think what you’ve seen with Kate is still only 75% or so,” the manager added. “I think she still is not at her ceiling, and I think that’s exciting about her as well.”