Cloé Lacasse shows signs of pre-injury form despite Utah Royals' NWSL opening weekend defeat

It didn’t take long for Cloé Lacasse to leave her mark on the 2026 NWSL season, as she had an assist on Tatumn Milazzo’s goal in the Utah Royals’ 2-1 loss to the Kansas City Current on Saturday, helping her get her 2026 campaign started on the right foot. 

After generating one goal and one assist in 12 games following her return from a major knee injury halfway through the 2025 campaign, she was lively in her first league game of 2026, which is good news for the Royals and the CanWNT, who will be hoping this is another sign that Lacasse might be returning to the form she had for the Royals in 2024. 

Considering that she also had an assist in her first CanWNT appearance of 2026, coming in a 4-1 win vs. Colombia at the SheBelieves Cup earlier this month (in her first Canadian appearance since 2024), things are certainly trending in the right direction for the 32-year-old winger.

Therefore, while the Royals were unfortunate not to pick up any points from this matchup against the Current, as they fell 2-1 after going up 1-0 before halftime against the defending NWSL Shield winners, they’ll hope Lacasse’s assist is an indication that she can bring some offensive juice to a team that sorely missed her last year. 

Having finished 12th among 14 teams in the NWSL in goals for last year, scoring just 28 goals in 26 games, they’ll certainly hope to get some version of the Lacasse that they first got in 2024, which was just a continuation of her excellent form with Arsenal and Benfica earlier this decade. 

For context, had they gotten the production that a healthy Lacasse had before her injury at the end of 2024, which saw her score four goals in nine NWSL games after a midseason transfer from Arsenal, Lacasse would’ve been third on the 2025 team in both goals and goals+assists with those numbers - and you have to remember that she led the 2024 Royals in goals despite her late arrival, too. 

Now, it must be said that if this first game is anything to go by, the Royals will need more than just a healthy Lacasse to be more dangerous offensively. While they did well to score a goal, they generated just 0.92 xG on 12 shots (FotMob), with only four of those attempts coming inside the box.

Lacasse was responsible for a large chunk of that xG, generating 0.09 xG and 0.47 xA (FotMob), but considering that she only had one shot and one key pass, even she wasn’t able to be as consistently dangerous as she’d have liked to be - even if she was clinical with the few moments she did get. 

Have no fear, Tatumn Milazzo scores in her first match back!

Peep the assist from Cloé Lacasse on this goal 🎯 pic.twitter.com/XLnjopcPiy

— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) March 14, 2026

To build off that, though, when looking back at this game, there were some encouraging signs that Lacasse could be set to provide even more end product. She wasn’t able to generate as many chances as she liked, especially in open play (her assist came off a set-piece), but she did attempt three dribbles, six crosses, four passes into the final third, and had five touches in the box, showing that she at least got to good areas on the pitch in open play.

Here's Lacasse making the sort of runs you want to make. After a nice pass into the middle, she immediately runs into space, and that allows her to receive the ball in stride as she dribbles into the box. Her final pass wasn't quite what she wanted to be, but that's the plays you want to see a winger making (OneSoccer)

And, when watching back the footage from this performance, she had several moments, especially in the first half, when she did well to stretch the field, finding good spaces to attack in possession.

On this play, Lacasse does a good job of stretching KC's defensive line, allowing her to receive the ball in a good area. Then, from there, she once again makes a great run on the secondary action of this play, helping create what was almost a good opportunity if not for an excellent KC intervention (OneSoccer)

In particular, she did a good job of offering a direct transition outlet with her speed, which was helpful for a Royals team that wasn’t always as clean with their build-up play as hoped, completing 70% of their passes in the first half and 68% across the entire match. With Lacasse’s speed, they could find her directly with long balls, and that allowed them to be dangerous in transition, instead of playing into the Current’s press by playing dangerous short passes.

Here's Lacasse's speed providing the Royals with an outlet for a long ball, which nearly led to her creating a dangerous chance (OneSoccer)

Now, though, the next challenge will be for Lacasse to turn some of the dangerous crossing moments that she had in the final third into more dangerous final actions - in that regard, it’s encouraging to see that in her nine 2024 NWSL appearances before her knee injury, she was averaging an excellent 2.85 key passes per game (WyScout), which is a reminder that she can be an elite creator when called upon. 

At the same time, the Royals will also push Lacasse to be more dangerous when it comes to generating her own chances, too. As she showed before her injury, she can be an efficient goalscoring winger if needed, and the Royals are banking on her stepping up in that regard, given their lack of reliable goalscoring options.  

Here's Lacasse doing something the Royals will want to see more of - cutting inside and shooting (OneSoccer)

For context, in 2024, she was averaging over 2.37 shots per 90 minutes with the Royals, and that number dropped to 1.52 in 2025, with her xG also going from 0.29 to 0.14 (WyScout). 

While the Royals are also betting on the success of new forward signing Kiana Palacios, who scored 56 goals in 109 appearances for Club América across the last three seasons in Liga MX, they’ll need Lacasse to offer support to ease that goalscoring load - on top of generating the chances Palacios will need to thrive. 

Because of that, look for Lacasse to build on what she showed in this first match, which was an encouraging start to the year.

Here's another example of Lacasse using her speed to stretch the KC backline. Then, she shows good awareness to keep the play alive, leading to another crossing opportunity for herself (OneSoccer)

To that point earlier about her ability to get into good positions, she was taking 4.62 touches in the box per 90 in 2024, and that dropped to 3.39 in 2025 (WyScout), showing why it was good to see her more involved in and around the box in this game. 

Given that physically she looked a lot more like her pre-injury self, those numbers are further proof that this offseason might’ve been exactly what she needed to really put her injury troubles behind her.

Here's Lacasse's dribbles and carries from this game, showing that she did well to push the ball up the pitch on several occaisons (SofaScore)

Now, look for her to build on this performance, as the Royals will need her to hit the ground running over the next few weeks and to generate some more goals and assists. As seen in this Current game, the Royals can cause problems when they play directly and organized, but they weren’t able to sustain that momentum, and allowed the Current to control more of the game in the second half, leading to their comeback. 

Yet, to that point, that also shows what the Royals will need to do to support Lacasse. If she’s going to be deployed as a winger, one tasked with both stretching the field and cutting inside to score goals, it’s imperative that they provide her with the service to do that. 

In this game, Lacasse had to do a lot of defending, especially in the second half, finishing with 11 defensive contributions (FotMob). While that’s a good sign of her versatility, that’s not what the Royals will want her to be doing in games, as it’ll be hard for her to regularly generate shots and create chances if most of her time is spent in her own half of the pitch.

Here's Lacasse's heatmap, showing that while she had a lot of dangerous touches in and around the box, she also saw a lot of the ball in deeper areas (SofaScore)

Ideally, the Royals find a balance where Lacasse can still do a lot of her best work in the attack, while still chipping in defensively when needed to help the Royals stay organized and disciplined defensively. 

Certainly, that’s something that the CanWNT won’t mind seeing her do, as that’s the exact sort of role she’ll play for Canada. With Casey Stoney’s system asking her team to be organized defensively and direct offensively, wingers have to be ready to work on both sides of the ball, as Lacasse will be asked to do for the Royals. 

This first Royals game of 2026 offered a reminder of what that could look like - now, the challenge will be for both the Royals and Lacasse to maintain what worked, and improve what didn’t, as they look to both have bounce-back 2026 campaigns.