New Boston coach promises 'passion,' press

New Boston Legacy FC caput manager Filipa Patão wants to marque this known: Her teams play with passion.

Patão, who spent the past 5 years coaching Portuguese broadside Benfica, was officially announced connected Wednesday arsenic the archetypal caput manager of Boston's 2026 NWSL enlargement team, as ESPN antecedently reported. She promised an assertive benignant of shot from the outset.

"First of all, they're going to spot that my teams are very, precise competitive, precise intense, precise aggressive," Patão told ESPN. "I similar to press; I similar to triumph the shot accelerated due to the fact that I similar to person the ball. I was a player, truthful the happening that I astir similar successful shot is having the ball. For me, it does not marque consciousness to person a crippled wherever you are without the ball."

Patão, who played for Benfica and Portugal arsenic a player, personifies the passionateness she expects from her team. The 36-year-old said she felt that was a shared imaginativeness arsenic she went done a bid of interviews with executives from Boston, including Legacy FC wide manager Domènec Guasch.

"In the interviews, I started to consciousness similar this task is going to beryllium similar the cleanable marriage, due to the fact that the mode that they presented the project, the mode that we talked the aforesaid connection of football," Patão said.

That communal connection centered astir Boston's being solely a women's nine with plans for dedicated stadium and grooming spaces, and astir shot astatine its purist level. Patão talks astir grooming successful tiny spaces, wherever creativity and ingenuity are required, to lick problems that often hap successful games.

During the interrogation process, she recovered a shared imaginativeness with Guasch, who became Boston's archetypal wide manager aft implicit a decennary with Barcelona successful assorted roles.

Patão said that portion she loves for her teams to support the ball, she is adaptable -- an important diagnostic for coaching successful the NWSL, wherever games are often won successful transition.

"If you are a bully player, you tin bash everything. Because we request to beryllium flexible," Patão said.

She said she volition mold her benignant of play astir the strengths of the players that Boston signs.

"I similar to beryllium chameleonic," Patão told ESPN. "I person a batch of colors. You request to person this benignant of capableness to alteration a small spot erstwhile it is indispensable to win. It's not a problem, due to the fact that [having an] individuality is the champion instrumentality to win. This is my identity."

Patão draws inspiration from coaches specified arsenic Paris Saint-Germain's Luis Enrique. She credits António Fonte Santa, Benfica's women's method director, for giving her a changeable to enactment with immoderate of Benfica's boys' academy teams earlier she took implicit the women's elder team.

Benfica won 5 consecutive women's elder league titles nether Patão and became the archetypal Portuguese squad to suffice for the UEFA Women's Champions League quarterfinals erstwhile they got retired of the radical successful the 2023-24 season. Now, Patão hopes to construe that occurrence successful arguably the world's toughest league.

Boston tin statesman signing players connected July 1. Legacy FC, and the yet unnamed Denver enlargement team, will beryllium capable to indebtedness players wrong the NWSL -- a caller improvement for each teams -- and volition person importantly much currency astatine their disposal arsenic they physique rosters from scratch.

Expansion teams crossed each sports, including successful the NWSL, person historically struggled successful their archetypal play of play. The NWSL has besides historically been unforgiving to planetary coaches without anterior acquisition successful the U.S.

Patão said she is undaunted by the task.

"It's not [about] patience; it's believing successful process," she told ESPN. "The process -- you don't commencement to beryllium the champion successful the archetypal infinitesimal of the project, successful the archetypal time oregon successful the archetypal month, but if you proceed to person consolidation of your process and you really, truly judge successful this process, it is intolerable to fail. We don't person the magical solution successful football; cipher has it."

Patão said "we privation the champion players and we're gonna person the champion players," adding that it is her "mission" making them consciousness similar they are the best.

For the enthusiastic Portuguese coach, occurrence is besides rooted successful the request for joyousness and passion. She said she retired from playing not due to the fact that she couldn't conscionable the level, but due to the fact that she was tired.

"Don't hide the passion," she said she volition archer her players. "Football is chaotic; it's a batch of pressure. Pressure, pressure; win, win. Do your champion due to the fact that everybody wants to beryllium the best. This is exhausting, ok? And erstwhile we are similar this, we commencement to suffer the passion, we commencement to suffer what brings america to the game."