Announced as Utah’s second professional soccer club in 2014, Real Monarchs SLC began play in March 2015 as a member of the United Soccer League’s Western Conference. A little more than four years later, the Monarchs are preparing to play its 100th regular-season match on Saturday at Cashman Field in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The club sits atop the league table through nine games in its fourth season in the USL, far removed from where the club began its tenure in professional soccer. In 2015, the Utah club finished at the bottom of the Western Conference having played to a 7-8-13 record, earning just 29 points in its maiden season.
One season later in 2016, the Monarchs missed the USL playoffs on the final day of the season after losing 3-1 at the hands of Los Dos, leaving a lasting hunger to achieve something great at the next opportunity.
“After 2016 we saw that we were on the right path and making strides to do something great,” Monarchs General Manager Dan Egner explained. “Ahead of 2017, we jumped into the deep end with both feet with a new approach and what happened spoke volumes of the direction our club continues to drive in.”
A shift in the air at the Monarchs brought a revived feeling in 2017 as the Monarchs began its third season. Winning 12 of its first 13 to open the 2017 season, the Monarchs immediately announced themselves as one of the league’s elite sides. During its opening 13 matches, the Monarchs made history by winning nine consecutive matches from late-April to early-June to cement itself into the record books and the top of the league table.
The club would remain atop the standings for the majority of the year, winning the USL Regular-Season Championship, finishing with a regular-season record of 20-5-7 (67 points). A 1-1 draw against Vancouver Whitecaps 2 in front of 8,402 fans at Rio Tinto Stadium saw the club lift the first trophy in club history with playoffs looming near the end of the season. Hopes were high for a deep playoff run after the celebrations in Sandy, but Sacramento Republic had other plans. Bowing out of the playoffs in the first round, the Monarchs regrouped during the offseason with an even more invigorated hunger ahead of 2018 and now look to be even stronger as it heads towards its 100th regular-season contest.
Sitting atop the league table through nine games to begin 2018, the Monarchs currently hold a 7-1-1 (22 points) record with a game in hand of its next closest competitor. Opening its own home in Herriman, Utah at Zions Bank Stadium, the Monarchs are primed to compete as one of – if not the best – teams in the USL every season.
The Monarchs 100th regular-season match on May 19 comes with a little bit extra flare when it visits its I-15 rival as it looks for retribution against Las Vegas Lights FC. Las Vegas held the Monarchs to a scoreless draw in its first-ever match at Zions Bank Stadium in a game the Monarchs felt it should’ve claimed the full three points in late-April.
Regardless of the outcome of Saturday’s match, Real Monarchs has come a long way since its inception in 2015. From cellar-dweller to one of the league’s most prominent powerhouse clubs, extraordinary hopes and high standards have been set for the club’s next 100 matches.
“We used to be the team everyone wanted to play to get a result from us,” Egner explained. “Now we’re the team that everyone fears on field while trying to emulate what we do. The next 100 matches should be just as exciting as the first.”
