2026 NWSL Previews: Denver Summit, Boston Legacy

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Our 2026 NWSL Season Previews have started and today we hit Denver and Boston. If you want to support this coverage of the league, you can head to our Patreon. For $5 a month you can get access to a lot of the data visualization tools we use to make these previews.

If you’re more of an audio person, our friends at Expected Own Goals have episodes for Denver and Boston on any podcast platform. If you want to support them, you can head to their Patreon.

Avoidin' any talks about the elephant

By Catalina Bush

There are plenty of ways that an expansion team’s first season can go wrong. You could mess up the branding *cough* *cough*. You could fail to sell out season tickets. You could make a mistake by not hiring the right head coach or be lacking a solid front office structure. You could make all of the wrong signings, take too many risks, not take enough risks. That is to say, you could do a lot worse than the Denver Summit. In the grand scheme of things, Colorado’s newest women’s soccer team has done a fairly good job of Not Messing Things Up. 

Here’s what the Summit have going for them:

Here’s where questions still remain for the Summit:

  • Why are the kits so boring?

  • What tactical principles will Nick Cushing instill on this squad?

  • What is the midfield going to look like before and after Heaps joins in the summer?

  • What Heaps will the Summit actually be getting — the star or the declining veteran?

  • Will all the college signings pan out?

  • When will we see the Summit finally play in their women’s-soccer-specific stadium? 

It’s true that Denver have yet to really mess things up, but in avoiding mistakes, will they only create more down the road? By hiring Nick Cushing, relying on experienced NWSL vets, signing top college players, and bringing in a USWNT captain, the Summit may have set themselves up well for a great first season. Yet, at the same time, they may also be playing it too safe and, in the process, be digging a hole that will be hard to escape from.

Cushing is perhaps the most “bald white man” ever to coach the sport. Those NWSL vets are all on the wrong side of 28 and are likely commanding hefty multiyear contracts. Conversely, the college players have no NWSL experience and may be expected to start, placing huge pressure on young shoulders. Lastly, as mentioned above, Heaps is no longer at her peak. Will she solve problems or create them? In 2029, will Heaps still be worth it? These are the questions that the Denver front office must grapple with not just now, but as the season progresses, too. 

Because of all these unknowns, predicting how the season will go is no easy task. The structure of the roster, and the types of players that Denver have signed, may give us some insight, though. Firstly, the Summit have heavily prioritized college players and extreme NWSL, as opposed to an international focus. Among outfield players, six are college signings for Denver, as opposed to just one for Boston. Many of those young signings have come across the attacking line, with depth at winger and up top. Yet, the largest hole in the roster isn’t inexperience, it’s the midfield. With Heaps not arriving until the Summer, the most tenured central player will likely be Emma Regan, a Northern Super League signing that excelled for AFC Toronto last season. While Regan will likely be serviceable at minimum and could take a step up, it’s hard to see her being a Best XI caliber midfielder, especially given the burden she will be handed with little NWSL experience in the midfield depth chart. 

This could mean that Cushing has hopes of progressing through wide channels rather than centrally, and the personnel back this theory up. Janine Sonis and Carson Pickett with Camryn Biegalski and Ayo Oke behind them seems like a particularly strong fullback group, and wingers like Lourdes Bosch and Ally Brazier (nee Watt) will thrive off consistent balls from the back. However, Brazier, 28, could face competition from Olivia Thomas, one of the aforementioned college signings.

None of the “midfield vs. wide play” speculation matters, however, if the end product is lacking. The good news for Summit fans is that they have a striker who very well might be the real deal. Melissa Kossler, most recently of Hoffenheim, has boasted incredible numbers in the Frauen Bundesliga. While she’s occasionally struggled against higher end teams, the overall per 90 numbers speak for themselves: 0.55 non-penalty xG, 6.7 progressive passes, 6.1 touches in zone 14. Not only does she find opportunities in the box, but Kossler also drops deep, collecting the ball, turning, and acting as a secondary creator, which could be helpful if the Summit are to start rookie Yuna McCormack at the 10. 

The last agenda item is maybe the most controversial. Lindsey Heaps, now 31, has seen season after season of decline at Lyonnes, and one begins to wonder whether it will only continue in Denver. From the 2024/25 season, Heaps’ per 90 goal rate nearly halved from 0.9 to 0.5, which, don’t get me wrong, is still very good. However, the underlying numbers may be cause for concern. Off those 0.5 goals per 90, Heaps has only been registering 0.28 xG — bang average for her position. Will that produce in the same way in the NWSL? Hard to tell. While Heaps also has other skills in her toolbelt, like deep playmaking and progressive passing, it’s unclear what she will and won’t prioritize when she arrives. Especially with the physicality of the league and the void in midfield, Heaps will be unable to do everything all at one. Thus, what she’s doing and how well she’s doing it are both up in the air, which should be concerning for Cushing. 

Regardless, from a business perspective, Heaps is a home-run. She is a jersey seller, a big name, and a USWNT star, and if the ticket sales are any indication, the fans love it. I have no doubt that Denver will be just fine. Will they excel? Probably not. Will they fall to the bottom of the table? Unlikely. ASA’s projection model is 13th, but I’ll go a little higher and put them in 10th or 11th. One thing is for certain, though: this team can’t just coast for the next couple of years. Because of the choices made now, continuous reevaluation will be needed to keep the squad competitive for future seasons. Without that, Cushing and his squad could be in danger of slipping down the table. In other words: if they want to reach peaks, they’re going to have to climb. 

All Aboard, The Night Train

By Kieran Doyle-Davis

How do you write a preview for a team that hasn’t played a game yet? A team who had a name launch and slogan launch so disastrous they were bullied into changing it before the team had signed a player. A team who decided the festivity that embodied their launch event was a tattoo gloryhole. Well, you start with the personnel. 

The Front Office

Boston hired Domènec Guasch to run the club, as the first ever club General Manager. Guasch is Jessica Berman’s wet dream. Made his way through corporate servitude up the ranks of the Barcelona international academy arms in Brazil, and then America, before leading the management of Barcelona Femeni for two years. Team President Jennifer van Dijk joins from the NBA and Wasserman. That is, in theory, a formidable pairing of sporting success and business success. Perhaps most excitingly for the nerds who read ASA articles, the team hired Jordyn Kaplan, formerly of Inter Miami, as their director of analytics. The club have already hired a data science intern underneath Kaplan and made their way into Tier 2 of our annual analytics tier list. Washington Spirit Team President Haley Carter noted the correlation between investment in analytics in NWSL and team success when she spoke to our friends at Expected Own Goals. Boston Legacy fans will be hoping for more of the same.

The Coaching Staff

Boston took a swing here, hiring 36 year old Filipa Patão of Benfica. Patão’s tenure at Benfica has been marked mostly by stomping the Portuguese league, and then struggling in Europe. Five straight league titles, five league cups, a +400 goal difference in 180 matches. Truly dominant. But one Champions League quarter final, before not even qualifying in 2024-25. This is as large a question mark as virtually any coaching hire we have in NWSL. There is not as much field tilt between the best NWSL team of all time and the worst NWSL team of all time as there is in the average Portuguese league match. Hires like Alexander Strauss and Jonatan Giraldez at least had lots of equal-ish footing Champions League matches to evaluate. On the flip side, Patão’s Benfica got Champions League groups where they were much better than the worst team, but much worse than the best team. All this to say, your guess is as good as mine. She is joined by assistant coaches Barbara Reis and Hugo Figueiredo from Benfica, Michael Balogun, tactical analyst Kelly Crew, video analyst Fionn Foley Twomey, and director of performance Dan Jones, formerly of Angel City.

The Players

You’re not going to like this, but again, so many question marks. There are a handful of players from NWSL on this roster, but they’re the anti-Denver. As far as known quantities go, these players are very unknown! Nichelle Prince and Ella Stevens have been productive as rotation or substitute options, as has Bianca St. Georges across a number of fairly weird tactical roles. Josefine Hasbo has seven NWSL 90’s, Chloe Ricketts has been in NWSL for four years and has played six cumulative 90’s. Barbara Olivieri joins from Tigres, after a few seasons struggling in Houston. Goalkeeper Casey Murphy is a known constant, with over 100 appearances for North Carolina. The problem is that constant is meh. It’s certainly not a deal I would’ve sank a lot of resources into. 

Ultimately, this team is going to be made or broken by the internationals, and do we have some interesting ones here. In order of most to least interesting to me:

Amanda Gutierres is the one this all hinges upon. If you got this one right, how right or wrong Guasch and co. are on everything else matters so much less. Gutierres has been the top scorer three consecutive years in the Brasileiro Femenino, and has nine goals in 13 appearances for Brazil, including the golden boot at the Copa America. For comparison, Gutierres has a significantly better goal scoring profile than former KC Current striker Bia Zaneratto, who was very solid in NWSL, and is only 24. Love this signing. 

Nicki Hernandez is an attacking leftback who put up a lot of appearances in Liga MX for Club America, after a strong college career for Michigan. I am not a Liga MX League Translation believer, but attacking fullbacks are fun and should be a key part of this backline.

Aissata Traoré profiles like a super dribbly creative winger from D1 Fem in France. She finished way above her xG in 2024, but has consistently created a LOT of xA from wide areas. We’ve seen pretty good league translation from this profile of attacker from France in players like Rosemonde Kouassi (Fleury signed Traore to replace Kouassi!), I like this gamble a lot. She should thrive in a league as transitional as NWSL.

Kaka signs as a centerback from Santos, with one appearance for the Brazilian national team. I know nothing, but that’s a solid pedigree. She also started her senior career as a striker and got converted to centerback. I will be referring to her as the Manaus McKeown and taking no further questions.

Annie Karich is a former WCC Defender of the Year for Santa Clara and consistent USYNTer before spending some time in Germany and Mexico. Her time in the Bundesliga was split almost 50/50 between centerback, where she profiles as an expansive play opener who might struggle with the pace of the NWSL, and a hard nosed defensive midfielder. Given the other players on this roster, I’d expect she’ll see more time in midfield. Our friend LaNorris Sellers’ Heisman Trophy on bsky did an excellent piece profiling some of her strengths and weaknesses on video.

Alba Cano has hardly played any minutes for Barcelona, but she has the Barca DNA™. The technical floor should be quite high.  

Aleigh Gambone played a tonne of games for North Carolina and has most recently been plying her trade as a fullback on loan in Germany. She profiles very conservatively. Low turnover, doesn’t create a lot, doesn’t mess up much either. 

Sammy Smith was a good not great college attacker for Boston College and Texas A&M, before finding her feet as one of the best players in Iceland. The optimist might point at MA Vignola, who followed a similar path before becoming a fringe USWNTer. I’d be surprised if she hit the same way as an attacker, but another fun low risk gamble.

Jorelyn Carabali was a sometimes starter at centerback for a midtable or worse Brighton team in the FAWSL. She pops a little bit as a passer, but we have generally seen that anyone below the best of FAWSL has not translated particularly productively to NWSL. 

Lais Araujo has bounced around Europe for some decent teams (Madrid CFF) and spent some time in the A-League with Adelaide United, but follows Patão from Benfica. She also spent two seasons playing for the Florida Gators and obviously the best school in America, ASA College. Not much data here and I’m generally opposed to coaches bringing players with them, particularly in such a big step up here. 

Fauzia Najjemba joins from Dynamo Moscow with an unspectacular goal record for a very weak league, but she’s 22 and scored a bunch for Uganda so let’s roll some dice baby.

The big questions

You may have noticed, not a lot of data here! We just have an infinite number of questions about these players. We have league translation and role translation (from subs to starters) for almost every single player on this roster. And luckily for you, intrepid fan, Boston have done the secret preseason, with zero video. We think they beat the Spirit, and know they beat the Chicago Stars 3-1 in Spain, they beat Molde of Norway 7-0, and Alhama of Spain 3-0. That’s a nice set of results! Until we see them for real, more question marks.