When I first started Blonde Ponies, I would dive into Carly Nelson1, a legacy shadowed by Del Loy Hansen, NWSL’s own inability to be independent2, and the complete incompetence of the first few months of the 2024 season.
But I won’t today because I want my women’s soccer to be breezy and fun. Even if it’s not.
Best Guess Opening Day XI
Utah are one of the three teams that have released their preseason rosters so far, so this is pretty much the squad they are going to be rolling out with come opening day.
One thing Utah has that a lot of teams don’t is versatility literally everywhere. Katie Del Fava and Tatumn Milazzo can play center back and outside back extremely well. Ana Tejada can play center mid or center back. Claudia Zornoza3 can play any midfield position. Mina Tanaka and Allie Sentnor can play attacking mid, or all across the forward line. Paige Monaghan can play winger or outside back. Only Kaleigh Reihl and the returning Imani Dorsey are locked into a single position, and that’s just more an experience thing than rigidity4. Mandy McGlynn too, but whatever.5
New signing Aisha Solórzano is coming in to the squad off of a solid spell at Xolos in LigaMX, but is mostly hyped based on a game against the Reign in a Summer Cup match where she notched a hat trick in a 3-2 Tijuana win. Just spit balling here, but I really think the value of Solórzano for Utah might be pretty subtle. As long as she pots enough goals to make defenses worry about her, Solórzano’s danger will be freeing up Sentnor enough to make her an absolute terror on the pitch.
Biggest needs
Culture change. They looked dangerous once Jimmy Coenraets took over6 but do you know what team had a mid-season coaching change that made their team look like world beaters in 2023? Angel City, who is looking for their 3rd coach in 4 years of existence.
Players XII-XXVI. With Cloe Lacasse out for the better part of the season, Maddie Pogarch is the only player I don’t have in the opening lineup that I would be comfortable with starting for stretches. One of the downsides of Amy Rodriguez’s “scrappy players with ties to Utah” team building strategy is that when it doesn’t work, the bench is last place to upgrade.
Related to above, I get the whole “We’re happy to be here, and be scrappy!” vibe from Utah that can be dangerous. But are they good enough to go out and beat teams, or are they happy to be here?
Best NWSL Free agent fit?
This is so over, man.
Vibe Check
Royals’ goalkeeping coach Maryse Bard-Martel already has another job with the Montreal Roses in the NSL. Who gives a fuck, right?
Remember that the NWSL had very little to do with Utah v1.0’s demise. The MLS forced Hansen to sell Real Salt Lake, and basically forced the Royals to be spun off and sold to the Longs in Kansas City. The only thing the league really did was offer a buy in to the new RSL owners to expand at a future date for $5 million. Bay FC paid $53 million to join the same year.
By the end of the year, she was Utah’s best player while Sentnor was re-finding her feet after being away at the U20 World Cup.
Reihl can probably only play center back, mostly because of her speed. I might be overly optimistic because of how much I like her as a player, but I think Dorsey has the natural ability to play anywhere but center forward or attacking mid.
Just to be clear, it’s not that I can’t talk more about keepers…I don’t want to. They were the bane of my existence as a player, and still hold grudges.
If the season started when the Olympic break ended, Royals are the 6 seed in the playoffs.