New Kansas City women’s soccer coach thinks team underachieved in Utah and can win soon

Signing onto Zoom video for the first meeting with his new team, Huw Williams was a little apprehensive in the message he wanted to give to the players.

He’d recently been announced as the new head coach of Kansas City’s new National Women’s Soccer League team and was inheriting a squad that was coming from the recently defunct Utah Royals.

“In my first meeting with the players I addressed the fact that I thought they had underachieved in Salt Lake,” Williams said. “You don’t want to come across as this jerk of a guy right from day one in the first meeting.”

The Royals played two full seasons in Utah, finishing fifth and sixth in the nine-team league. The franchise was known as FC Kansas City before it moved to Utah in 2018.

“But it was a compliment,” Williams continued. “Meaning that I think these players are too good to be sixth out of nine in this league, and the base of the team is very good.”

Williams’ message is one that has gone down well with the team.’s players. Since Williams was announced as Kansas City’s head coach, he’s only had one goal: to win a championship as soon as possible.

“I think (the team) is responding really well,” defender Katie Bowen said. “Anyone who’s content with where we’ve placed the past three years, I just don’t think that runs in our blood.”

Bowen was drafted by FC Kansas City in 2016 and remained with the team throughout its stint in Utah and the return back to Kansas City. Combining her two years with FCKC and her two years in Utah, Bowen is yet to be on a team that has made the playoffs.

But that doesn’t mean the New Zealand international isn’t pushing for the loftiest heights of the game. At just 26 she’s represented New Zealand at three different World Cups as well as the 2016 Olympics.

“I think that if you’re not competing to win and be that first-place team, then what are you doing here?” Bowen said. “So I think this team has actually under-performed for the past three years I would say. Not making playoffs just hasn’t been good enough.”

Williams is working to counter the multiple years of under-performing by introducing a whole new culture and mentality into the team. A large part of that culture is developing trust between the coaching staff and players as soon as possible.

Part of that trust comes in the form of building expectations. Not just in the end goal, but how the team is setting up to play: a focus on high-paced and possession-based soccer that will incorporate the wing backs getting up the field and scoring or assisting goals.

It’s a high-risk high-reward strategy that can leave teams open at the back down the wings, but one that can propel a team to the top if done correctly. It’s a strategy that requires trust and hard work to get the basics right.

“We’re not in this league to be competitive, we’re not in this league to get to play against some of the best players in the world,” Williams said. “We’re in this league to win this league, and that is an expectation for us. Anything less than winning this league means that we’ve been unsuccessful. And I don’t think they’ve heard that before.”

The ability to start afresh in a new city is also a big factor for both Willaims and Bowen. Although there are seven players still with the team from the final FCKC roster, much of the squad either joined when the team was in Utah or joined ahead of the 2021 season.

That means a new sense of pride and a new city to represent for the newer players, and a wish to bring NWSL championships back to Kansas City for the old guard — FCKC won two NWSL championships in 2014 and 2015. Williams was also the club’s general manager for those two championships.

“I think that we’re now repping a new city, with that comes a whole new sense of pride and we’re very thankful to have great owners and ones that are advocates for the women’s game,” Bowen said.

“So of course we want to be successful and we want to kind of inspire that youth that, yes, women’s football is back in Kansas City, and what better way than to say that we’re back than to win a title.”

This story was originally published February 11, 2021 at 5:31 PM with the headline "New Kansas City women’s soccer coach thinks team underachieved in Utah and can win soon."