Wasatch Soccer Sentinel

Another road game for Utah Royals FC (4-11-3, 15 points, 13th place) as they travel to Kansas City (10-3-5, 35 points, 3rd place) to face the Current at CPKC Stadium.

Match Details

Utah Royals FC @ Kansas City Current

CPKC Stadium | 5:30 pm MT

WATCH on ION TV

LISTEN via KSL Sports Radio (102.7 FM / 1160 AM)

What we're watching

Utah Royals FC are on a winning streak! Counting all competitions, including the NWSL x Liga MX Femenil Summer Cup, and the past two weeks of NWSL games, Utah is on a four-game winning streak. Wild, huh? Who would have thought after a not-so-great start to the NWSL season before the Olympic break when the Royals were 2-11-3. And after last week's 3-1 win at the Houston Dash, Utah climbed to the 13th spot in the NWSL standings. According to OptaJack, Utah has more points (6) and goals (5) in their last two regular season games than their previous 10 matches (5 points and 4 goals).

There's obviously a long way to go for Utah to enter the post-season conversation. Utah Royals would have win the rest of their games to finish 11-11-3 to possibly have a chance to be a playoff team. But Interim Head Coach Jimmy Coenraets has the team looking more organized and prepared each game, and it's been noticed. On Friday, Kansas City's Head Coach Vlatko Andonoviski said, "We didn’t even look at the previous match because they are a lot more organized now. They’ve established structure. There is a certain way they want to play; they’re composed on the ball and want to breakdown teams methodically" (Quote via Jillian Carroll Letrinko on X, @JillianC_arroll).

Part of the Royals' recent success is relying on players with experience. The recent international signings of Japanese forward Mina Tanaka, Spanish midfielder Claudia Zornoza, and Canadian forward Cloé Lacasse have brought much-needed depth to a young team that started the season. Even with the departure of Amandine Henry announced yesterday as the club and Henry came to a termination of contract, allowing her to pursue other opportunities, Utah has turned to Ana Tejada to fill in a very important defensive midfield position, and she can be a key player against Kansas City, especially as the Royals look for their third straight NWSL season win.

Utah will face a Kansas City Current team coming off a three-game NWSL regular season losing streak, with back-to-back losses since returning from the Olympic break, which is quite the contrast to where they were back in May when the two teams met in Sandy. Even then, as dominant as the Current were and unbeaten, Utah held Kansas City to one goal. Kansas City will now look to return to their winning ways, and Utah Royals will again have to contain forward Temwa Chawinga. She did not score Kansas City's goal versus Utah in their first meeting, but Chawinga has scored in seven consecutive games and leads the Golden Boot race with 14 goals and 6 assists.

Injury Report

OUT: Imani Dorsey (SEI - achilles), Carly Nelson (excused absence), Brecken Mozingo (lower leg), Lauren Flynn (SEI – lower leg), Macey Fraser (ankle), Frankie Tagliaferri (excused absence), Darielle O’Brien (hip)

INTERNATIONAL DUTY: Ally Sentnor (USA)