Utah Royals open 2nd half of season with 1-1 draw in Orlando

ORLANDO, Fla. — The Utah Royals were raring to go on Sunday in Orlando after a month-long break and a trade of their best player on Friday.

Mina Tanaka caught the reigning champions sleeping with a lob over 6-foot-1 goalkeeper Anna Moorhouse for the opening goal just five minutes in for a 1-0 lead that the road team would go on to hold for almost 70 minutes.

The fast start from the Royals stalled a bit when lightning in the area forced a half-hour delay in the first half. Orlando started to put the pressure on Utah after the delay, putting up 15 total shots in the match and forcing five saves from rookie goalkeeper Mia Justus in her first NWSL action for the Royals.

The breakthrough came in the 72nd minute on a pinpoint cross from Simone Jackson to Prisca Chilufya that resulted in the equalizer for Orlando in a 1-1 draw. It was the first draw of the season at home for the Pride and second on the road for the Royals after a 3-3 draw in Washington in May.

Utah still has not won a game since April and remains in last place in the NWSL standings with 6 points, right behind Chicago's seven. A hefty 13 points stand between Utah and the playoff line with 12 games remaining in the season.

Justus was not the only Utah rookie to make her first professional start on Sunday, with midfielder Aria Nagai also getting the nod after spot appearances off the bench for the Royals in her first season.

"(My teammates) were really encouraging throughout the whole game," Nagai, a former college player at both Princeton and North Carolina, said. "Once I got the first couple touches out of the way and the nerves out of the way, it was just playing soccer from there on out."

Nagai helped Utah maintain even possession with Orlando for most of the match, as the road team's comfort and accuracy passing the ball, especially in the defending third, seemed to see a marked improvement from the first half of the season.

Injuries forced Utah's hand when it came to lineup decisions, once again, with Justus filling in for the injured Mandy McGlynn and Kate Del Fava taking the captain's armband after Paige Monaghan suffered a concussion in training.

"Obviously, it's not positive that Mandy got injured, but it happened like seven to eight days ago, so we had time to just talk to Mia and make sure she understands what the responsibilities are," head coach Jimmy Coenraets said of the former Florida State and Texas keeper. "And she showed up. She did an amazing job. I think she kept us in the game for the last 10 minutes, really being smart and showing a lot of maturity."

It seemed like Orlando would certainly get the go-ahead goal during the intense final 10 minutes mentioned by Coenraets, but Utah held on to snap a four-game losing streak in NWSL play, dating back to May 23 against, ironically, Orlando.

Utah kept top-three NWSL goalscorer Barbra Banda out of the goal after she scored a first-half hat trick in the May 23 loss, and remained competitive against a team now tied for second place in the standings.

"This is on (the players)," Coenraets said about what he credits the improvement to. "This is the willingness to bounce back again, the willingness to be resilient and to show what we need to do as a team."

The Royals welcome recently-traded star Ally Sentnor and the Kansas City Current to America First Field next Friday, with the last-place vs. first-place showdown kicking off at 8 p.m. MDT.

"We all have goals and ambition, and I think we weren't at the right place to maybe achieve hers," Coenraets said of Sentnor. "So I think at that point she went to look for other opportunities, and she found them in probably the best team in the league right now."

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