Boston Legacy vs North Carolina Courage

Five minutes in. Cañó gets on the end of a Prince ball and puts it away. Gillette loses its mind a little. So do I.

That’s the thing about following a team through five losses — you forget what it feels like to celebrate. The 5th minute goal didn’t just put us ahead, it flipped something in the atmosphere. We weren’t just here to show up anymore.

Eight minutes later, Smith does it again. Same source: Prince, who put in the kind of two-assist performance that makes you wonder why we weren’t talking about her all season. 2-0. Wednesday night, cold as anything, and Boston Legacy are playing some of the best football we’ve seen from this squad. The midfield had a handle on things in a way that felt new — composed, purposeful, not scrambling. The defense was the most composed I’ve seen them play this season. And Sanchez, a player you always have to keep an eye on, was kept quiet on the wing for the vast majority of the game. That’s not an accident.

The second half was always going to ask questions of us. North Carolina came out with something to prove and Weatherholt pulled one back around the hour mark. Suddenly we had a game on our hands. Then Sanchez — a player to be feared when she gets space — found her moment in the 76th minute to make it 2-2.

What followed was the hardest stretch of the season. We pushed, we pressed, we wanted those three points badly. It just wasn’t meant to be.

Here’s the thing though: two weeks ago, we were being outclassed. Tonight we outplayed our opponent for large portions of the match and had to be pegged back in the final fifteen minutes to be denied the win. That’s not a failure — that’s a trajectory. You can feel this team figuring it out in real time.

Traore was quieter than usual tonight, but honestly, who could be upset? When your midfield is controlling the tempo and Prince is threading balls through for Cañó and Smith, you don’t need everyone firing at once. That’s what a team looks like.

We didn’t get the three points. But we doubled our goal tally for the entire season in one half of football, earned our first point, and made North Carolina work for the draw. There are worse things to build from.

Up the Swans.