Boston Legacy Begins European Preseason Stint

Boston Legacy FC has begun its second portion of preseason in Spain after spending three weeks in Florida. 

The squad was able to head home for a few days (ironically during the weekend that had wind chills in the negatives, welcome back to Boston, everyone!) before heading over to Murcia, Spain. BLFC spent the first part of preseason at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. 

Training started off slightly unstructured. The first week largely consisted of introductions and team building. On the field, head coach Filipa Patão and her training staff gave the players the freedom to play in their individual styles.

For Bianca St-Georges, who made her NWSL debut in 2020, the lack of structure had her worried.

“We were a little bit feeling the chaos of a new team, very disorganized … within our style of play,” she said during a fan Q&A. “Everyone wants to show their best, and sometimes when you do that you kind of overcompensate. You make more mistakes because you’re almost, you know, tensing too much or trying too hard.”

St-Georges went on to say that she and Nichelle Prince spoke about how this initially scared them, but ultimately told themselves to trust the process. Both players saw improvement after the first week, and St-Georges said she is now hopeful and more confident that the team can win a championship.

Veteran goalkeeper Casey Murphy, on the other hand, likened the absence of restrictions to school recess. She enjoyed being able to be herself on the field and play without thinking too much. 

The head coach has two goals for this preseason. The first is to have the players be their authentic selves and show full commitment. She says they are working every day to make individual improvements in order to build the best collective. The second goal is to have the team adopt a winning mentality and not have a fear of losing.

Patão and her staff are aware that the team’s expansion status may put them at a disadvantage against other teams, but they are choosing to see the opportunity in it. 

“We know that we are running against time, but that’s part of the process,” the coach said. “But this is a good thing, because, again, we can build in our own way. We can build our culture, our identity, our DNA, in our own way. … We are seeing the players being very open to that, and they want to get better every day, and they want to build with us this special football that we want to bring to our league.”

Several players have underscored the buy-in they’re seeing from the team staff and the confidence it gives them moving forward. 

“Filipa and our staff are such great leaders. They are, like, very diligent and strategic and intentional,” Murphy said during NWSL Media Day. “Because we have such a strong leader with [Patão] I feel like we’re going to expedite that process of being a new team.”

The club ended its Florida preseason with a closed-door scrimmage against the Washington Spirit.

While the Legacy will neither confirm nor deny any scorelines, it’s safe to say the Swans pulled off a victory based on the joyful faces on its post-game Instagram post. And to further support that point, Emerson Elgin also posted a TikTok of the dance break the players had – including Sammy Smith doing the worm – in the locker room after the match.

The Legacy kicked off its time in Spain with another closed-door scrimmage against the Chicago Stars on Sunday; the first NWSL scrimmage played internationally. 

The Swans beat Chicago 3-1. Neither team noted the Legacy’s goal scorers, but Chloe Ricketts was presumably one of them. Murphy was in goal when Ryan Gareis scored the Stars’ lone goal. 

"I think Boston maybe deserved to win if you look at just the total of the 90 minutes,” said Stars head coach Martin Sjögren on an Instagram video after the scrimmage. “But what's really hard for us … is the way we conceded goals, because we more or less gave the goals away."

The club will scrimmage Norde FK, a Norwegian team that was recently promoted to the top flight, on February 19. The following scrimmage will be against Alhama CF, which plays in Spain’s Liga F and is currently second to last in standings, on February 27. The team will announce a fifth scrimmage at a later date. 

With the first regular season game less than a month away, Patão has a message for the fans.

“First of all, thank you, because we know that we have a lot of fans that are supporting us and want to be at the first game. This is an invitation to be there with us, because what we are doing here is for them every day. We have the responsibility to represent Boston, to represent our culture, our club. We are fighting every day, and working so hard every day, to achieve that, to be in the first game, and have the support and the fans be proud of our game and our team because we are representing Boston well.”

The Boston Legacy will face reigning NWSL champions Gotham FC at its home opener at Gillette Stadium on March 14.