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3 weeks ago
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Photo courtesy of Utah Royals
Utah Royals FC returned from their trip to Angel City on Monday knowing the playoffs were officially out of site. And with no game this weekend because of the international break, the team was promptly given two days off. Jimmy Coenraets told the squad that coaches and trainers would be in the building Tuesday and Wednesday and to let them know if they needed anything.
“On both days, the whole group came in,” Coenreats told The Equalizer. “[Wednesday] I think I had five individual sessions. To me, it’s an indication that people still want to go even though we are coming to the end of the season.”
The anecdote represents the type of environment Coenraets has tried to instill in the club since being elevated from assistant to interim head coach on the last day of June after Amy Rodriguez was fired. His bosses have taken note. Thursday morning the club made it official that Coenraets is free of the interim tag and will lead the Royals into the offseason and 2025 — a secret he says is nice to be out in the open.
The discussions started a few weeks ago about Coenraets becoming the full-time coach and even before that about creating the type of environment that will be able to create and sustain a successful soccer club. Players were also brought into the conversations and together they peered as far into the future as 2027.
“Based upon those discussions we created an environment where the player is put central in everything we do,” he said, “which turned out to be highly appreciated but also turned out [to be] something they were really craving. Just in general, a lot of players are performing better than they ever did in recent weeks and months.”
Those improved performances were the jumping off point for discussions to make Coenraets the full-time coach. His first game as interim coach was followed by the Olympic break and Summer Cup. The Royals wound up winning two of their three Summer Cup matches, but the focus was on what would happen when the regular season resumed near the end of August.
“We treated it like a mini pre-season,” Coenraets said.
Now he will have a chance to organize a proper preseason, though he warned the players may not love what’s in store when they reconvene in February.
“That is something that the players will not really like to hear, but I think the conditioning — from a conditioning point of view we had very, very tough weeks heading into those [Summer Cup] games. That is something they can expect during preseason. Obviously, we will get more time and also a different setting. There will be less pressure. But the conditioning part will be huge for the preseason.”
Coenraets said the goal is to play an attractive offensive style but also be an intense, pressing team on defense. “That requires quite a lot from an athlete, but that’s something I’m really keen on implementing from January on, getting everyone up to the physical level that they need to be.”
The coach believes having a fit side hosting games at altitude at America First Field in Sandy, Utah — 4,450 feet above sea level while no other NWSL team plays at a venue higher than 750 feet — will be a benefit against most opponents. “We wrote it down in one of our documents that the team, from the 60th minute, that’s when our fitness goals, the air, everything should put us above all the other teams.”
The Royals are 5-3-2 in regular season play under Coenreats after a 2-11-2 start under Rodriguez. Personnel has played a part. Claudia Zornoza, Cloe Lacasse, and Mina Tanaka all joined the team during the summer transfer window, and center back Kaleigh Riehl got healthy.
Ally Sentnor, the top pick in the final NWSL draft earlier this year, spent much of the first half of the season with limited options on the ball in the attacking third and often holding it too long before losing possession. She then missed September to play for the United States in the U-20 World Cup where she won bronze. The difference has been stark, and Sentnor is now combining more, notably with Lacasse who scored the first hattrick of the 2024 NWSL season on Oct. 13.
“I think it was the second day of practice [after the World Cup] and she came to me and said, ‘Wow, this is heavy,’” Coenraets recalled. It was as sure a sign as any that things were moving in the right direction in Utah. Sentnor went so far as to briefly question her place in the team, something Coenraets said is a double-edged sword.
“They still need that confidence but they also need to feel the competition around them of people wanting to play. That’s what you need to keep everybody competitive and on their toes.”
