The Boston Legacy announced two new signings on Thursday morning, bringing the total roster size up to four players.
Originally from New Jersey, Emerson Elgin won an NCAA national championship with UNC in 2024 before signing a short-term contract with Gotham FC. She never played, but she was a consistent starter in college.
Laurel Ansbrow, a North Carolina native, played at Wake Forest & matched up against Elgin and UNC in that national title game. She also spent last season at Ft. Lauderdale United where she was named to the USLSL Team of the Month twice. Despite arriving later in the season, he led the team in clearances and blocks.
Both played 90 minutes, with Elgin ending her college career with that championship.
Before they join the Legacy in 2026, they’ll both go out on loan. Both will join the USL Super League, Elgin with the Tampa Bay Sun and Ansbrow will join Ft. Lauderdale United.
Although both Elgin and Ansbrow have both played & trained with professional teams, this is Boston’s first real experience targeting college talent. It was mentioned during Edward Gallagher’s hiring announcement that he has experience scouting college talent, which caught the eyes of some soccer fans.
I’ve only been able to watch the first half, but here are my thoughts from their performance for the first 45 minutes of the 2024 NCAA Championship Game:
- Around 13 minutes into the game, Ansbrow makes a long lofted pass that leads to a corner kick.
- For a center back, Ansbrow looks very comfortable on the ball. The goalkeeper frequently uses her as an outlet and at about 19 minutes into the game, she’s able to make a move to shield the ball away from an attacker that would have been potentially disastrous if she lost it.
- At 19:30 left in the first half, Ansbrow makes a couple impressive moves to fake out the defender and clear the ball.
- 30 seconds later, Elgin intercepts a pass in the middle third. Elgin seems to have some versatility, almost looking like a wing-back at times. There are times she’s ahead of the midfield on the left wing, but minutes later she’ll have dropped back in defense.
- Unrelated to any on-field action, but Ansbrow looks significantly taller than almost anyone else. Not a bad trait to have in your likely first-team center-back.
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