Any sports fan knows that Boston is widely considered one of the best — if not the best — sports cities in the country. 2026 is shaping up to be a big year, too, especially in the world of women’s professional soccer. Boston Legacy FC will soon make its debut, opening at home against the defending NWSL champions, Gotham FC, at Gillette Stadium on March 14.
Domè Guasch, Boston Legacy’s general manager, joined GBH’s All Things Considered host Arun Rath to talk more about the team and the upcoming season. What follows is a lightly edited transcript of their conversation.
Arun Rath: As I mentioned in the introduction, for your home opener, you’re playing Gotham FC, the reigning champs. How do you prepare for your first game, taking on the champions?
Domè Guasch: I mean, it couldn’t be more exciting, right? It’s not only the defending champions, but ... the historic rivals for the Boston teams — it’s always New York. I think we couldn’t have asked for a more exciting team to play in our home opener.
Obviously, it’ll be extremely challenging. As you mentioned, they’re the current champions, but at the same time, we know this is a very competitive league. Any team is a big challenge. This is going to be a huge show for our fans, and we cannot wait for it.
Rath: You’re going to be splitting home matches between Gillette Stadium and Centerville Bank Stadium in Pawtucket. Tell us about how you feel about playing in those venues.
Guasch: I would say those two are both amazing venues for different reasons, right? We got Gillette, the biggest stadium in Boston, obviously, where the New England Revolution is playing, where the Patriots — who are also having an incredible season — are playing and filling it up every day. But it’s also one of the capitals of the soccer world this upcoming summer with the men’s World Cup being played there. Obviously, it is an honor, and it is great for the team to be able to launch there and be able to play not only the home opener but a bunch of other games.
And then, Centerville Bank is also a soccer purpose-built stadium that was inaugurated less than a year ago. It’s a brand new stadium. It’s a great venue. I’ve been there a couple of times watching a game, and the atmosphere and the environment are great. I’m sure players and fans are going to have a lot of fun down there as well.
Rath: You’re not totally new to Boston. Tell us a bit about when you first came to Boston and your connection to soccer locally.
Guasch: Prior to moving here — and I did that over a year ago now — I had been here a few times. The very first time, if I remember correctly, was 2012. In the summer, I was working for FC Barcelona at the time in the academy, and we were organizing a summer camp in Concord. It was a group of us from Barcelona, a group of different coaches, and we came to organize that camp.
I remember it was extremely hot during that time, but I already fell in love with the city. ... It had a great feeling. I always, coming back here, knew that this was a place where I’d like to live one day, and here I am. And so far, so good.
Rath: We can’t run through everybody, but tell us a little bit about the roster and the players you have heading into this season.
Guasch: We had a very challenging job of putting together a whole roster for the most competitive league in the world with no expansion draft and no college draft, right? We basically had to go and convince free agents and trade players and put together a competitive roster. We put a lot of time into planning that, and a lot of strategy.
For us, obviously, in a league that has limitations, because we have a salary cap and a transfer fee threshold, we need it to be very intentional with every piece and every player that we bring to the team. This is a sport where we play 11 v. 11, but ultimately, we have like 25, 26 players on the roster. All of them, I’m sure, at some point will be on the field. As I mentioned before, every game is extremely competitive, and we’re going to have players who will be overloaded sometimes. We’ll have players who sometimes will be injured, unfortunately, but we know that will happen.
We wanted to be competitive across the whole roster, and we aim to build a very balanced roster by combining not only players that could play in different positions and are specialists in those positions, but at the same time combining players with league experience and are a little bit more veteran, with younger players that have a ton of potential to grow, because that’s one thing that we want to focus on — player growth. That’s our number one goal because we know, hey, if players grow, the team will grow. And if the team grows, we’re going to have higher chances of winning games, right?
We’ve looked for the players that wanna come in with that mentality of improving every single day, and doing their best every single day, so the team every week can have better chances to be successful in the games.
Rath: As you know, it’s a big deal bringing women’s professional soccer to Boston. For people who might be new to the sport or are looking in from the outside, give something to convey the excitement of this game. What’s getting you excited as you get ready for this season?
Guasch: I mean, this is the most competitive league in the whole world, right? This is a very, very global sport that’s played everywhere, and the top talent around the world is here in this league. Again, it’s not only national talent, but we have many players across four different continents that are going to be playing here against a lot of teams that have talent also from everywhere in the world.
So there’s no better place to watch women’s soccer than the United States — and obviously, Boston — in the upcoming years.
