FOXBOROUGH — After losing their first two matches of the season, just one question for Boston’s newest pro women’s soccer team, the Legacy FC, remained ahead of their match Saturday against Utah.
When would they score their first goal?
As an expansion team, it was understood that it would take time for the Swans to build chemistry, cohesion and, as a club with a mix of international playing experience and just 10 players who have competed in the NWSL, an entirely new identity. Head coach Filipa Patão has emphasized that it would be a process for the Swans going into their inaugural season and that their early performances shouldn’t define their potential.
But after remaining scoreless against both Gotham FC and the Houston Dash, the mystery of where they’re at in the process continued to linger.
That is, until the second half of the Swans home match against the Utah Royals, when Aïssata Traoré made team history in the 72nd minute and scored the first goal for the Swans. Traoré, who had been relentless throughout the match and had a missed attempt at the 14 minute mark, scored off a breakaway after a through ball from Amanda Gutierres. As she fought shoulder-to-shoulder, Traoré managed to power her way into the box.
“I think there were a lot of frustrations in the game, and for her to just keep her head down and keep working is just testament to her character,” teammate Ella Stevens told The IX Soccer postgame. “To get that goal, I think she deserved that.”
The historic feat was the perfect moment for the Swans on their “Women in Sports” day, which included both a fan-fest and appearances from the Boston Banshees’ Yeja Dunn and Emma Santosuosso, the Boston Guard’s Charlotte North, the US Women’s National Paralympian Cassidy Leake and U.S. Women’s Deaf National Soccer Team’s Tia LaBrecque.
Despite the 2-1 loss to the Royals, it’s evident that the Legacy are building a fanbase that’s excited to see them make strides. Even after the match concluded, fans inside Gillette Stadium cheered them on as players signed soccer balls and interacted with the fans, which included a total of 10,012 in attendance.
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In a physical match that resulted in a total of eight yellow cards, the Legacy’s turnaround in the second half showed a level of resiliency. When the Royals scored in the first 33-minutes and then off of a penalty at the 48-minute mark, the Swans, down 2-0, managed to re-center themselves and find chances, including at the 64’, where Annie Karich attempted a right footed shot from outside the box that went too high and wide. Three-minutes later, Barbara Olivieri was assisted by Traoré on a shot that also went too high and wide.
Despite the missed attempts, level of physicality and ultimately the 2-1 loss to the Royals, both Patão and players like Bianca St-Georges stressed the importance of controlling what they can control, especially in those moments.
As St-Georges told The IX Soccer postgame, “There are so many things that are outside of our control. We wanted to show up the same way we showed up in the second half, in the first half. Sometimes things just don’t go our way, but we just keep believing in who we are, and we keep showing up, and we keep trying, and ultimately it just comes to fruition.”
It’s a message Patão said she discussed with Traoré, who bounced back after receiving a yellow card, the first of the match, 17-minutes into the first half.
“That’s what I talked with Aïssata [about],” she said. “You cannot control the referee. You cannot control what the other team do[es], what the other player is going to do. You cannot control even what your teammate is going to do. But you can control your actions. You can control the way that you’re going to react, things that happen inside the game… I think it was a different Aïssata in the second half.”
It’s evident that the biggest improvement the Swans need to make right now is in their mindset. Patão mentioned that comes from them gaining experience and better understanding “when you need to focus and things that you can really control,” while defender Bianca St-Georges also brought up their ability to handle adversity in the league.
“It’s very obvious for us that this league is not going to be easy,” she said. “I think our expectations sometimes are really high for ourselves, and when we do well, we expect to be great, but we need to stay humble and focus on the process one step at a time. We know that the first half was hard, but that’s the NWSL. It’s supposed to be hard. … At the end of the day, we did get better. It’s not the score, it’s the attitude, it’s the process, it’s the progress, and we’re all proud of that. So to answer your question from earlier, we are not discouraged, if anything, we are encouraged to keep going.”
The shift in mentality could be crucial for the Swans as they prepare for the No. 2 ranked San Diego Wave, who they’ll face at home on Friday. As the postgame presser concluded, it was goalkeeper Casey Murphy who shared a vision for the Swan’s identity:
“We’re an intense, aggressive team. We want people to come to Boston, play in Gillette and like, hate it,” said Murphy, who had one save against Utah. “Regardless if we win or lose, we want them to hate playing us. And there’s multiple pieces to that — one of them is, we’re gonna leave it all out there, from the first whistle to the final whistle every single weekend.”
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