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Mar. 19—Ollie Wright says he and his Portland Hearts of Pine teammates are more than ready for their public debut as Maine's first professional soccer team.
"We're like a jack-in-the-box. All wound up and just ready to bust," said Wright, 26, a veteran midfielder from London, England, who spent the past two seasons with Huntsville City FC of MLS Next Pro.
After a 60-day preseason and six successful scrimmage games (4-0-2), the Hearts of Pine will play in front of a live audience for the first time on Thursday, taking on CD Faialense at Lewiston High in a first-round game in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup tournament. The match begins at 6:30 p.m. Close to 3,000 tickets had been sold by early Wednesday, which should make Don Roux Field a lively and crowded facility.
What the Hearts don't know, is what to expect from their opponent.
Asked what he knew about CD Faialense, Hearts coach Bobby Murphy said, "very little."
The game does present an interesting and historic dynamic.
The Hearts of Pine are the professional team so they are supposed to win. But it is also the team's first official game, first in front of an audience and first time playing in Maine. The game is at a high school field, not the Hearts' future home, Fitzpatrick Stadium, which is being rapidly renovated ahead of the club's May 4 USL League One home opener.
The Hearts of Pine are one of five expansion teams joining USL League One in 2025. USL League One is one of two third-tier US professional men's soccer leagues, below MLS (top-tier) and USL Championship (second tier).
The Hearts' opponent CD Faialense is an amateur men's soccer team backed by a Portuguese social club in Cambridge, Massachusetts, formed by immigrants from the island of Faial in the Azores. The soccer squad dates to the early 1970s. CD Faialense won the Bay State Soccer League the past two seasons and last November qualified for its first Open Cup.
The U.S. Open Cup, now in its 110th year, embraces the underdog story. The single-elimination, 96-team tournament is structured to give amateur and lower-level professional teams the opportunity to upset higher-level teams.
For the second year, all 32 first-round games pit an amateur team against a pro team from either USL League One, MLS Next Pro or USL Championship. MLS teams enter later in the tournament. Last year, seven amateur teams won first-round games.
This year's tournament opened with 11 games on Tuesday, with 13 set for Wednesday and eight on Thursday. On Tuesday, Texoma FC, a USL League One expansion franchise in Texas, was the only pro team to lose. Two established USL League One teams — the Chattanooga Red Wolves and Greenville Triumph SC — won on penalty kicks.
The second round of the Open Cup will be held April 1-2.
Former Yarmouth High standout Liam Ireland, a wing forward who played the last two seasons for UMass Lowell, is one of Faialense's youngest players.
"It's basically a group of players from 25 years old to even 35, all local and more or less Boston guys," Ireland said. "The majority played at New England Division I colleges like Merrimack, UNH, Holy Cross and there were some UMass Lowell alums and this summer they invited me to come play with them."
Ireland, a 2020 graduate of Yarmouth High, helped the Clippers win three Class B state championships. As a senior he was part of a star-studded 2019 Varsity Maine All-State boys soccer team that featured Max Murray of Kennebunk and Bilal Hersi of Lewiston. Murray led Vermont to the 2024 NCAA men's championship and signed with New York City FC of the MLS after being drafted in he first round. Hersi, who played at Siena, is the older brother of current Hearts of Pine player Khalid Hersi.
CD Faialense qualified for the Open Cup in November. Over the past two months the team has held Saturday morning training sessions at an inside facility in Revere, Massachusetts, and played three scrimmages, Ireland said. According to Ireland, CD Faialense beat the University of Rhode Island and a UPSL team called Boston Street and lost to Merrimack College. Ireland started in the two scrimmage wins and was unable to attend the game against Merrimack.
"Our team is a men's league team but these are all good players and some great players at one time. There's no denying the odds are stacked against us," Ireland said. "We've been training once a week and we're going against players who are getting paid and probably training six times a week.
"You can't compare the teams but we for sure know we have a shot. We're not going into this game thinking, 'Man, let's just give it our best.' We want to win."
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"We're like a jack-in-the-box. All wound up and just ready to bust," said Wright, 26, a veteran midfielder from London, England, who spent the past two seasons with Huntsville City FC of MLS Next Pro.
After a 60-day preseason and six successful scrimmage games (4-0-2), the Hearts of Pine will play in front of a live audience for the first time on Thursday, taking on CD Faialense at Lewiston High in a first-round game in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup tournament. The match begins at 6:30 p.m. Close to 3,000 tickets had been sold by early Wednesday, which should make Don Roux Field a lively and crowded facility.
What the Hearts don't know, is what to expect from their opponent.
Asked what he knew about CD Faialense, Hearts coach Bobby Murphy said, "very little."
The game does present an interesting and historic dynamic.
The Hearts of Pine are the professional team so they are supposed to win. But it is also the team's first official game, first in front of an audience and first time playing in Maine. The game is at a high school field, not the Hearts' future home, Fitzpatrick Stadium, which is being rapidly renovated ahead of the club's May 4 USL League One home opener.
The Hearts of Pine are one of five expansion teams joining USL League One in 2025. USL League One is one of two third-tier US professional men's soccer leagues, below MLS (top-tier) and USL Championship (second tier).
The Hearts' opponent CD Faialense is an amateur men's soccer team backed by a Portuguese social club in Cambridge, Massachusetts, formed by immigrants from the island of Faial in the Azores. The soccer squad dates to the early 1970s. CD Faialense won the Bay State Soccer League the past two seasons and last November qualified for its first Open Cup.
The U.S. Open Cup, now in its 110th year, embraces the underdog story. The single-elimination, 96-team tournament is structured to give amateur and lower-level professional teams the opportunity to upset higher-level teams.
For the second year, all 32 first-round games pit an amateur team against a pro team from either USL League One, MLS Next Pro or USL Championship. MLS teams enter later in the tournament. Last year, seven amateur teams won first-round games.
This year's tournament opened with 11 games on Tuesday, with 13 set for Wednesday and eight on Thursday. On Tuesday, Texoma FC, a USL League One expansion franchise in Texas, was the only pro team to lose. Two established USL League One teams — the Chattanooga Red Wolves and Greenville Triumph SC — won on penalty kicks.
The second round of the Open Cup will be held April 1-2.
Former Yarmouth High standout Liam Ireland, a wing forward who played the last two seasons for UMass Lowell, is one of Faialense's youngest players.
"It's basically a group of players from 25 years old to even 35, all local and more or less Boston guys," Ireland said. "The majority played at New England Division I colleges like Merrimack, UNH, Holy Cross and there were some UMass Lowell alums and this summer they invited me to come play with them."
Ireland, a 2020 graduate of Yarmouth High, helped the Clippers win three Class B state championships. As a senior he was part of a star-studded 2019 Varsity Maine All-State boys soccer team that featured Max Murray of Kennebunk and Bilal Hersi of Lewiston. Murray led Vermont to the 2024 NCAA men's championship and signed with New York City FC of the MLS after being drafted in he first round. Hersi, who played at Siena, is the older brother of current Hearts of Pine player Khalid Hersi.
CD Faialense qualified for the Open Cup in November. Over the past two months the team has held Saturday morning training sessions at an inside facility in Revere, Massachusetts, and played three scrimmages, Ireland said. According to Ireland, CD Faialense beat the University of Rhode Island and a UPSL team called Boston Street and lost to Merrimack College. Ireland started in the two scrimmage wins and was unable to attend the game against Merrimack.
"Our team is a men's league team but these are all good players and some great players at one time. There's no denying the odds are stacked against us," Ireland said. "We've been training once a week and we're going against players who are getting paid and probably training six times a week.
"You can't compare the teams but we for sure know we have a shot. We're not going into this game thinking, 'Man, let's just give it our best.' We want to win."
Copy the Story Link
We believe it's important to offer commenting on certain stories as a benefit to our readers. At its best, our comments sections can be a productive platform for readers to engage with our journalism, offer thoughts on coverage and issues, and drive conversation in a respectful, solutions-based way. It's a form of open discourse that can be useful to our community, public officials, journalists and others.
We do not enable comments on everything — exceptions include most crime stories, and coverage involving personal tragedy or sensitive issues that invite personal attacks instead of thoughtful discussion.
You can read more here about our commenting policy and terms of use. More information is also found on our FAQs.
Show less
Continue reading...
