Utah Royals stun San Diego Wave in NWSL playoffs after Mandy McGlynn masterclass
It came in the 30th minute Friday night. After absorbing the signature sublime creativity of the San Diego Wave, Royals winger Cloé Lacasse broke down the left and crossed for her 11th assist of the season. Kiana Palacios peeled off a flat-footed Wave defense, took a touch with her right foot and swiftly finished across goal and into the side netting with her left.
Cue pandemonium for those in yellow shirts.
The NWSL playoff debutants had never beaten the San Diego Wave, ranked No. 2 to Utah’s No. 7, in any of their six attempts since entering the league in 2024 as an expansion side.
This one’s going down in URFC history 👑 https://t.co/Kfj8N6J8np
— x – Utah Royals FC (@UtahRoyalsFC) November 7, 2026
The victory owed as much to Mexican international Palacios’ fine strike as it did to outstanding Royals goalkeeper Mandy McGlynn. Her five saves felt like 50, each one a convincing argument in favor of Utah’s game plan: to be compact to prevent the Wave from playing through the middle, and then to force them wide when they were in possession.
“The message before was just: find a way,” McGlynn said in the postgame press conference. “I was saying all week we have to be savages.”
McGlynn recalled a key moment in the first half when Kate Del Fava made a goal-line clearance, followed immediately by a block from Paige Cronin.
“That’s what it takes to win championships, and we channeled that energy today,” she said after the match. “Why not us? Don’t count us out.”
There was some muscle memory at play for McGlynn; she has earned important shutouts in San Diego before. This was the setting of her 2023 NWSL championship-winning match with Gotham FC over the Seattle Reign, where she earned a red card in the seventh minute of stoppage time for the denial of a goal-scoring opportunity, and was replaced by midfielder Nealy Martin to see out the 1-0 victory.
In the Royals’ historic quarterfinal, McGlynn played the entire match and put on her most complete performance all season.
Asked what kind of message that sends, Royals head coach Jimmy Coenraets smirked.
“Emma, are you watching?” he asked, referring to USWNT manager Emma Hayes.
Even after sealing their spot in the semifinals it is difficult not to reference their underdog reputation. Coenraets said that made it even easier for the team to relax.
“Behavior is contagious, so we had to show up in a precise, calm way,” Coenraets said after the game.
They were happy and grateful to have reached the postseason, he added, “but also the fact that once you get to the playoffs, it’s shut-out football. This is fun. This is a 90-minute game that you’ve gotta have everything on your side. You’ve gotta do your job, and I think they did that today.”
That was personified by Royals forward Jameese Joseph, who signed with the club two months ago from the Chicago Stars. Employed as a roving No. 10, she was key to holding up play and sending the ball to Canadian international Lacasse in transition.
It was a compelling plan and Coenraets credited the team for “being able to just shut down what we’ve been doing for a whole season and just believing.”
Even when the Royals registered a club-high unbeaten streak and rose to the top of the NWSL table in May, few outside the camp expected it to last. And it nearly didn’t; Utah’s form dipped toward the end of the season and they fell to seventh-seed. That was compounded by a hamstring injury to top goalscorer Mina Tanaka, who scored nine times and chipped in with five assists.
Giving Mandy her flowers for those first half saves 💐👏 https://t.co/bRcSr9X6e3
— x – Utah Royals FC (@UtahRoyalsFC) November 7, 2026
But now they look toward the semifinals, which will see them facing the winner of Sunday’s quarterfinal between the Washington Spirit and the Portland Thorns. As the lower seed, the Royals will travel either to D.C. or Portland next weekend.
As for San Diego — who had not lost a home game since July 26 — they leave Snapdragon Stadium contemplating the merits of their stylish exhibitions and dominant possession (62 percent in the first half) if they can’t produce goals from them.
Beautiful football is never entirely in vain: in the opening 15 minutes, the Wave dazzled the 12,638 in attendance with long, intricate passing sequences, many of which created chances.
While forward Melanie Barcenas tested McGlynn in the fifth minute, the 19-year-old often drifted into over-dribbling as the game progressed, allowing the Royals to assemble themselves defensively.
Trinity Byars routinely had to wade through two Royals players every time she received possession. Across the pitch, 20 minutes in, the Royals were beating the Wave to balls and punishing them on counters.
After the match, Wave manager Jonas Eidevall said the second half was “too much a game on Utah’s terms. We’re very urgent in trying to score the goal, and we lose a little bit of that patience and the team play that really has defined us for the season.”
In the end, both teams played like different versions of themselves. The difference was that one intended to, while the other was forced into it.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
San Diego Wave, Utah Royals FC, NWSL, Women’s Soccer
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