Can friendship win games? The Utah Royals may be proof it can
· Yahoo Sports
Utah Royals FC’s success has taken the NWSL by surprise this season with a seven-game unbeaten streak.
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Through the first quarter of the 2026 season, Utah has climbed its way up to fourth place in NWSL standings behind Portland Thorns (No. 1), Washington Spirit (No. 2) and San Diego Wave (No. 3).
Utah was even ranked second — its highest ranking in team history — prior to its most recent match, a 0-0 draw with Bay FC.
Going into the season, ESPN ranked the Royals dead-last in 16th in its preseason prediction, and CBS Sports had the Royals in 11th, just a one spot improvement from last year’s 12th place finish.
Courtney Brown (16) celebrates after scoring her first goal for the Royals. | Emma CoronaIn 2026, Utah already has five wins — one win shy of its win total from last season.
The Royals’ last lost was on March 22, the second week of the season, and up until Utah’s draw with Bay FC, the Royals had a 17-game scoring streak and a five-game win streak.
Goalkeepers Mandy McGlynn and Mia Justus, who filled in for McGlynn at the beginning of the season, have put together a 468-minute shutout streak and haven’t conceded a goal since March 28.
What’s behind the Royals’ new-found success? According to new addition and Utah native Courtney Brown, it’s friendship.
“We say that our superpower is that we like each other, and so, I think you can see it on the field. Like, we do enjoy playing with each other, and I think it’s that extra connection that we have with each other that is really helping it bring it all together and making us really a team to compete with,” she told reporters following Utah’s 2-0 win over Houston Dash on May 6.
Winning through friendship and ‘togetherness’
Brown described the connections within the team as “underrated” and “intangible.” Even though teammates are competing for minutes, they’ve developed a team-first mentality.
“I think that is what makes the locker room healthy, right, is like you want to be playing minutes and you want to be getting time and you want to be making an impact on the field,” she said. “But if that’s not your role that weekend, like your role is to support the team, and it has to be like this team mentality of, you know, ‘the team before me.’ I know it’s cheesy, but it’s so important and it’s so true, and that really goes along with our superpower.”
Jason Kreis speaks at America First Field in Sandy on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. Kreis, Real Salt Lake’s first-ever player and its MLS Cup 2009-winning head coach, has been named the club’s president of soccer operations. | Laura Seitz, Deseret NewsWhat Brown described is demonstrative of the culture of “togetherness” that president of soccer operations Jason Kreis has worked to establish within both the Royals and Real Salt Lake.
Kreis told the Deseret News Friday that “togetherness” is essential for the team being able to “consistently compete for championships.”
“The vision statement for our clubs is ‘winning together through development.’ That word is I think absolutely critical. Without it, I don’t think RSL or Utah Royals has a chance to win anything,” he said.
For that “togetherness” to happen, Kreis said the entire organization has to be aligned, from ownership down to the players, and he’s pleased with how that’s translated to the players’ performances on the pitch.
“They’re feeling like this really strong sense of togetherness, which I think will continue to lead to good results, and when bad results happen, then we will have to lean on that real sense of togetherness to get through them,” Kreis said. “And there will be bad times. I would never project that things are going to continue from start to finish like they have in the first eight or nine games.”
Royals players have found ways to show up for each other off the pitch as well. The players recently threw a baby shower for Danish midfielder Janni Thomsen, who is expecting her first child this summer. The players all showed up wearing blue to celebrate Thomsen’s baby boy.
“You can tell that we root for each other,” Brown said. “It’s easy to play when you know that your teammate has your back and that they are rooting for you.”
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What’s next for the Utah Royals?
Kreis acknowledged the strong momentum the Royals have built.
But he said the team needs to continue to have a “week by week mentality” to consistently improve because “ultimately in soccer, just like any other American sport, when you need to be at your best is the end of the season if you want to have a chance to win championships.”
Much like the 2009 Real Salt Lake team Kreis coached to a MLS Cup title, he sees a strong core to build around on the Royals.
“When you look through the spine of that team and you see a Mandy McGlynn in goal, you see a Kate Del Fava, a Kaleigh Riehl as center backs, you’ve got real leadership in that whole triangle. You go through the center portion of the midfield with what Ana Tejada has done with this season has been nothing short of spectacular. The improvement that she’s shown, and she’s somebody that’s got, can have some verbal stuff out there as well, some leadership.
“The new central midfield players come in, top, top player as well, Narumi. Obviously Mina Tanaka, a fantastic player for us and somebody that all of us can look to, all of the players on the field can look to as a central figure,” he said.
Kreis refrained from sharing any expectations for the remainder of Utah’s 2026 season because that word “always creates a false narrative,” he said, but he expects the culture and the team’s processes to remain strong.
“We don’t focus on results first. We focus on the process, the culture, the identity first, and we believe that when we do that really, really well, stay focused on that, the results will take care of themselves,” he said.
Utah Royals FC hosts Racing Louisville Sunday at 6 p.m. MT. The match will be streamed on Victory+.