Portland Hearts of Pine goalkeeper Hunter Morse, in red, punches the ball away from the goal during Sunday’s match against One Knoxville SC. Daryn Slover/Portland Press Herald
The weather didn’t cooperate and the start of the match was far from ideal, but the Sunday debut of professional men’s soccer at Fitzpatrick Stadium turned into an overall positive for the Portland Hearts of Pine.
The expansion franchise earned a 1-1 draw Sunday with One Knoxville SC in its long-awaited Fitzpatrick debut in front of a drenched, supportive and standing-room only crowd of 5,784.
“I want to send my thanks and gratitude to everyone who turned up. The fans were fantastic. The supporters group was unbelievable,” said coach Bobby Murphy. “People were here until one o’clock in the morning last night putting this all together. On the soccer side we’re so grateful for those people to give us a platform.”
Both teams earned one point in the USL League One standings. One Knoxville SC improved to 3-0-2 in the league and is tied for third. Portland is 0-1-3 and remained 13th in the 14-team league. The Fitzpatrick Stadium seating capacity for Hearts of Pines games is 5,500.
The fans showed up, enjoying the array of food trucks and adult beverage vendors. They bought merchandise, and families utilized a special play area for kids, despite a light to moderate rain for the 90 minutes preceding the match that only intensified in the second half.
But Portland came out flat against one of the league’s best teams and fell behind 1-0 less than two minutes into the match when unmarked Stuart Ritchie drilled a shot off keeper Hunter Morse’s hands that got into the net.
Almost immediately, the crowd — led by the Dirigo Union supporters group — began cheering encouragement.
Portland slowly began to gain its footing and generated several chances and an 8-3 edge in corner kicks in the rest of the first half. Azaad Liadi’s header on one of the corners required a quick reaction bat-away save by Sean Lewis. Attacking midfielder Masashi Wada helped set the pace with his ball control and distribution.
“Masa kind of grabbed the match by the scruff of the neck and dragged everyone else along,” Murphy said.
Moments after One Knoxville SC’s Mikkel Goling went crashing into the advertising side board alongside the Highrollers Section field side seats — and appeared to get a message from from Maine Gov. Janet Mills — the Hearts of Pine struck for the franchise’s first goal at Fitzpatrick Stadium.
Ollie Wright created the chance with a pass into the middle of the box. A quick header flick by Azaad Liadi drew goalkeeper Sean Lewis’ attention and Wada, from Yokohoma, Japan, one-timed it out of the air and into the net to tie the game, 1-1, in first-half added time.
Wada nearly made it 2-1 on a similar attempt that Lewis was able to get to first and just in time.
“It was so exciting. Yeah, I’m glad to score the first goal for the team in this stadium. I could have had one more goal at the end of the first half so it was a little bit frustrating,” Wada said.”We need to fix and we need to focus from the beginning. I think we could have won but next time we’re going to win. Yeah, I’m sure.”
The Hearts held advantages in a number of categories, including total shots (16-7), shots on goal (4-2) and corner kicks (9-5).
Wada said he felt the interaction between the crowd and the team was like a family or community coming together.
“Every time the supporters were rooting for us it was so glad, so happy,” Wada said.
In the second half, as the rain picked up, both teams generated chances — and both had shots go off the cross bar, Portland’s on a long-range missile by left back Nathan Messer. Portland went to a three-striker attack in the final 10 minutes with Titus Washington joining Jake Keegan, who had come on in the 58th minute, and starter Azaad Liadi on the pitch. Liadi had a scissor-kick chance in the 88th minute curl just wide of the far post.
“We wanted to give everybody three points,” Murphy said.
The first win eluded the Hearts of Pine. The next chance will come May 17 against FC Naples. Portland is at Union Omaha on Saturday.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Join the Conversation
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. Read more...
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.
For those stories that we do enable discussion, our system may hold up comments pending the approval of a moderator for several reasons, including possible violation of our guidelines. As the Maine Trust’s digital team reviews these comments, we ask for patience.
Comments are managed by our staff during regular business hours Monday through Friday and limited hours on Saturday and Sunday. Comments held for moderation outside of those hours may take longer to approve.
By joining the conversation, you are agreeing to our commenting policy and terms of use. More information is found on our FAQs.
You can modify your screen name here.
Show less
Join the Conversation
Please sign into your CentralMaine.com account to participate in conversations below. If you do not have an account, you can register or subscribe. Questions? Please see our FAQs.