Boston Legacy FC
Assimilating into a new team always comes with its challenges, but Reale said the transition has been about as smooth as can be.
Lilly Reale was the NWSL Rookie of the Year in 2025 for Gotham FC, and will finish this season with her hometown Legacy. John Tlumacki/Globe Staff
July 10, 2026 | 11:20 AM
5 minutes to read
Lilly Reale didn’t expect to have to make this decision so soon.
The Hingham native had imagined what it might be like to play for Boston Legacy FC, her hometown NWSL team, but she never let her mind wander too far. She was happy at Gotham FC, where she was the 2025 Rookie of the Year and won a championship in her first season.
But early this season, Reale’s playing time took a dive. She started 21 games as a first-year player, but just five of Gotham’s first 10 to open 2026. Playing time (or a lack of it) wasn’t much of a concern, but Reale worried about stagnating so early in her career.
Lilly Reale (center) and Gotham FC will play for the NWSL championship on Saturday against the Washington Spirit. – Kevin Kolczynski
The Legacy had been in talks with Gotham about acquiring Reale, but the New York team was hesitant to let go of such a young, talented player.
That changed during the men’s World Cup break as Gotham prepared to chase Australian star Sam Kerr. The team needed cash, which Boston could provide as part of the deal.
When Gotham general manager Yael Averbuch West presented Reale with the possibility of the trade, the defender didn’t want to let emotions make the decision. (Per the collective bargaining agreement, players can only be traded with their explicit consent.)
Yes, coming home to Massachusetts was an exciting prospect. But it would also mean leaving an established club in favor of an unproven team still working out the kinks.
It took Reale about a week of deliberation to make the call.
“Coming here was purely a developmental move,” she said. “How can I come into a team that is growing and evolving and continue to grow myself?”
This season represents an inflection point in her young career, as the United States gears up for the World Cup in Brazil next summer. Reale has 13 caps with the national team, and she said it would be “crazy” to say she’s not thinking about trying to make the World Cup roster.
She believes the Legacy, with their overwhelmingly international roster and coaching staff, gives her the best shot to do that.
“I want to be able to learn from these coaches and players the different tactics that they bring in,” Reale said. “I think they bring a different style, which is really fun, being that they come from so many different cultures and have competed and coached with so many different teams in the US and across the world.”
Assimilating into a new team always comes with its challenges, but Reale said the transition has been about as smooth as can be. It helps that some of her newest teammates are also some of her oldest friends.
Reale grew up playing club soccer for South Shore Select, where she was occasionally teammates with forward Sammy Smith. Reale attended youth soccer camps with midfielder Annie Karich, and she grew close with midfielder Sophia Lowenberg through Reale’s younger sister, Sophie, who played with Lowenberg at Boston College.
Lilly Reale played two seasons for Hingham High before switching over to club soccer. – Barry Chin
On the field, Reale has made quick work of establishing herself.
“Lilly already knows how to play with all our players, because when you have a player that is intelligent and understands the game, it seems like she already connects with everybody,” said coach Filipa Patão.
It may be because she’s always ready to say what she thinks.
During games and in training, Reale’s gravelly, authoritative voice rises to the top as she directs her teammates, offers them feedback, and calls for the ball. Patão said Reale’s input has already been a difference-maker.
Reale said that quality surfaced during her college days at UCLA. But when a reporter relayed that idea to Reale’s longtime youth coach, Liz Lima, the founder and president of South Shore Select, Lima guffawed.
“Give me a break!” Lima said. “When she was 6 she was commanding the field.”
As an 8-year-old, Reale and her U-10 Select teammates attended a major national tournament after dominating the local circuit. Even as a small club from a small town in Massachusetts, they felt good about how they stacked up against bigger teams from Texas, California, and Florida.
In the first game, they lost by double digits.
“We’ve got to go back to the drawing board after that, right?” Lima said. “So we came back in, and Lilly motivated the team to go even harder.”
Lima recalled Reale telling her teammates something to the effect of: “If we want to be the best, it’s not what we do when we compete in a game. It’s the 365 days before that.”
Pretty mature perspective for an 8-year-old.
Reale made her Legacy debut Sunday at Centreville Bank Stadium, in a 2-2 draw with Bay FC.
Legacy FC’s backline added Lilly Reale to the mix in Sunday’s return to NWSL play vs. Bay FC. – Matthew J. Lee/Globe Staff
“Even when she wasn’t on the ball, the way that she was able to control the tempo with her voice and was able to be a presence defensively and offensively — that’s something everyone wants on their team,” said Bay FC’s Claire Hutton, one of Reale’s USWNT teammates.
Reale had about three dozen friends and family in the crowd for her Boston debut, and the only thing louder than her voice during the run of play was the sound of her fan club’s cheers.
With so much of her family living nearby, Reale’s move has been painless. One of her cousins owns a moving company, which made it even easier to relocate.
As soon as they got word of the trade, the Reale family loaded up on Legacy merchandise to replace the Gotham blue. Family members stocked up on Boston jerseys, scarves, and green-and-black “Everyone Watches Women’s Sports” T-shirts, and her grandfather is particularly fond of his bucket hat.
Reale makes frequent trips to her childhood home in Hingham, popping by for dinner and to catch up with her parents and sister, who will be a senior on the BC team. On one recent visit, she arrived to find 15 Legacy jerseys sitting on the kitchen counter awaiting her signature; they’d later be doled out to family and friends.
“Home and community in Boston mean a lot to Lilly and the Reale family, so what could be cooler than to be able to come to your hometown and help build the women’s pro team?” said Lima, who remains close with the Reales. “It goes with her story, it goes with her values and who she is as a person.
“It’s kind of like you scripted it, like the most perfect movie plot.”
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