SANDY — Still searching for their first win in 2026, Utah Royals FC found a new energy in Wednesday’s midweek match.
That energy’s name was Mina Tanaka.
Cece Delzer found Tanaka with an 84th-minute equalizer, and the Utah Royals earned their first result of the 2026 season with a 1-1 draw with the Washington Spirit at Audi Field in Washington, D.C.
It’s the first time since last September the Royals have salvaged a point after conceding the first goal — and just the second time in 29 matches since the club’s return to Utah that the Royals rescued a point after trailing at halftime.
Mia Justus made five saves to help preserve the draw for Utah (0-2-1, 1 point).
“I think getting a point at Audi Field, where you know it’s always going to be a tough game,” Delzer said of the draw. “I was thinking about that 3-3 draw last season, so it was definitely in the back of my brain.
“We needed to get a point on the road as this three-game week,” she added. “I think it speaks volumes to the mentality of this group, that blue-collar work ethic that we just want to keep going until the final whistle.”
And the visitors almost snatched the win. But more on that in a moment.
Rebeca Bernal opened the scoring early for Washington (0-1-2, 2 points), finishing in front of goal after a ball launched into the box took a deflection and landed at the feet of the captain of the Mexico women’s national team for the 1-0 advantage.
Utah out-shot the Spirit 7-6 in the first half, but Washington held the visitors without a shot on target until Ana Tejada’s strike in stoppage time. But Sandy MacIver made the save, and Bernal’s goal was the difference through 45 minutes.
Trinity Rodman nearly doubled the advantage in the 54th minute, but Justus came out of her area and stepped up to brush aside the $2 million U.S. international’s attempt two minutes before making another save to keep the Royals within striking distance.
“Mia stepped up, and she kept us in the game,” Utah head coach Jimmy Coenraets said of the backup goalkeeper making her third straight start for injured starter Mandy McGlynn. “As much as you praise players to score those goals, I think we have to praise Mia for really keeping us in the game until the very end.”
That helped bring new life into the Royals as Coenraets began to empty the bench. He brought in Japanese internationals Mina Tanaka and Miyabi Moriya, the latter of which made her Royals debut after joining Utah in the offseason from Angel City. The duo recently returned from the AFC Women’s Asian Cup, where they helped leading their national team to a third title on Saturday — and almost immediately jumped on a flight from Sydney, Australia to join their NWSL club stateside after only a day off.
West Haven native Courtney Brown also entered the match as a substitute at the hour mark, her second appearance for her hometown club — and on the field she used to call home after the Spirit drafted her with the No. 49 overall pick in the 2024 NWSL college draft. Credit to second-half subs Lara Prasnikar and Alexa Spaanstra for the same reasons.
“I think it changed the game, honestly, when they came in,” Utah defender Kaleigh Riehl said. “We got fresh legs on the field, and we knew we needed to come out with at least a point in this game.”
Delzer used the subs’ energy to perfection, intercepting a misplayed ball out of the back in the 84th minute before finding Tanaka in front of goal for the tap-to pull even, 1-1.
“Our mentality is just high press and always switched on,” Delzer said. “I saw her look to her left, and so I just anticipated, jumped the past, and saw Mina making her run.
“My first touch, I was thinking of striking it,” the former Cece Kizer added. “But I took a heavier touch, and I never really shoot the ball that much. I saw Mina making a good run and just put it into her path.”
The duo connected again in the third minute of second-half stoppage time. But Tanaka’s one-touch finish inside the far post from Delzer was ruled offside on the final touch of the match.
The Royals continue their two-match road trip Saturday at NWSL expansion club Boston Legacy FC (10 a.m. MDT, ESPN2).
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.ksl.com ’
