Preview of the 2026 NWSL season opener between Gotham FC and Boston Legacy FC | OneFootball

After a short offseason and brief foray in London, NJ/NY Gotham FC will return to NWSL play when they visit expansion side Boston Legacy FC. This will be the first professional women's soccer match played in the Boston area since September 30, 2017, when the Boston Breakers hosted this Gotham team, then known as Sky Blue FC.

Despite the FIFA Champions Cup in January not going to plan, given the loss to Sport Club Corinthians Paulista, the club can take positives from their time in the English capital, especially their third-place game win over African champions AS FAR. These competitive games before the NWSL season gave the team a unique position of having a clearer idea of what they potentially have as a group. In other words, they should have fewer questions to answer over the season.

Meanwhile, Boston will finally hit the field nearly two and a half years after they were first awarded the team. And after the turbulent start involving the much-maligned "BOS Nation FC" team name and "too many balls" campaign, which prompted swift apologies and a move in a different direction, things have been more positive. From a well-liked rebrand to an expected well-attended home opener, off the field, Boston has been an early success so far.

Boston has some familiar faces to Gotham fans, with former players Emerson Elgin, Josefine Hasbo, and Ella Stevens all being a part of this inaugural Boston roster. And there are plenty of Boston connections for Gotham with Rose Lavelle, Midge Purce, and Katie Lampson (formerly Stengel) all being former Breakers players. Plus, there are three Massachusetts natives in Shelby Hogan, Lilly Reale, and Kayla Duran. Here is a preview of Saturday's NWSL season opener for Gotham FC.

Gotham FC vs Boston Legacy preview

Date

The game will be played on Saturday, March 14.

Time

The match is scheduled to begin at 12:30 PM ET.

Location

The game will be played at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts.

How to watch

The fixture will be broadcast on ABC and streamed on ESPN+ and Disney+.

Weather

It looks to be a cold one with temperatures hovering around 44 degrees throughout the 90 minutes. Wind speeds will be around 17-19 mph with gusts reaching over 30 mph. Humidity will be low at 35%, cloud cover around 65%, and there is also a 0% chance of rain.

Injury report

There are multiple players out for the first fixture. Bruninha (hamstring), Ryan Campbell (thigh), Mandy Freeman (lower leg), Guro Reiten (Excused absence), Talia Sommer (thigh), and Taryn Torres (SEI- knee) are all out.

Players to watch

For the first time as a Gotham player, Lavelle is healthy at the start of a season. In both of her previous two seasons for the Bats, offseason surgery has meant that she's had to miss the opening few months of the season. She ended last season as one of the most in-form players, which was ultimately capped off by her scoring the lone goal in last season's NWSL Championship game. While Gotham has a wealth of attacking options that even received another addition just days ago, Lavelle very often is the straw that stirs the drink for this Gotham team.

For Boston, it seems like Brazilian forward Amanda Gutierres might end up being the main attacking outlet for this Boston team in its inaugural season. The 24-year-old comes off three great years for Brazilian giants Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras, where she scored 61 goals in 67 league matches, good enough to finish 21st in the 2025 Women's Ballon d'Or Féminin ranking back in December.

While it is tough to get a sense of just how good the Legacy is, given that they have never played a competitive game together, many experts are expecting this first season to be somewhat of a struggle. They do have some talent, but a lot of their players do not have experience in the NWSL, and the ones that do would not necessarily be considered star players.

Then, Gotham returns 21 players from last year's championship-winning team, including all 12 players that saw the field in the final. It's expected that the NJ/NY side will be able to pick up where they left off and get off to a good start to this season. Hence, the prediction is a 2-0 win for Gotham FC, with goals from Lavelle and Jaedyn Shaw.