There are times when Mikey Lopez will be walking his dog through Portland’s West End, and people driving by will slow down to yell his name, or simply honk their horn in enthusiastic support.

The captain of the Portland Hearts of Pine, Lopez embraces it every time.

“It’s a pretty cool feeling, how much the team has been recognized in the city and how much the city has really embraced the team,” Lopez, a midfielder, said following Wednesday’s practice. “It’s something that’s difficult for first-year teams. A lot of teams, even multiyear teams, don’t usually do that. It’s a special place.”

Sunday night, Lopez and the Hearts will play a USL League One semifinal at Spokane. Lopez is 32 and a veteran of 13 professional soccer seasons, including five in Major League Soccer, and he’s the type of leader an expansion team playing its first season needs in the biggest moments.

“He brings experience. He brings energy. He’s a competitor, and that’s infectious. All those things we wanted to reflect when we put it together,” coach Bobby Murphy said. “We wanted them to be aggressive and work hard, and never quit, and he’s the personification of those things. When we think of who we want to be, he should be one of the first faces that pops into your brain.”

Murphy has known Lopez for 20 years, since his captain enrolled at St. Stephens Academy, the soccer academy in Texas that was run by Murphy. When it came time to select a team for the Hearts, both coach and player knew Lopez would be a good fit on the field and in the locker room, but how about living in Maine?

“My wife (Elena) was all about it. She started looking up Maine and Portland and trying to see what it was like,” Lopez said. “She was like, yeah, we’ve got to go there. It’s been nothing but an amazing experience for us, and we feel the love, from the very first minute we’ve been here.”

This summer, his parents, Miguel and Martha, visited Maine to continue a tradition they’ve done since he was playing as a teenager. The Lopezes drove to Portland in an RV, then made tacos for the entire team. It was a chance to spread the family dynamic between Lopez and Murphy to the entire team.

“It’s awesome Bobby allowed us to do that. He was kind of begging my parents to come up and do something like that, because we were missing some good Mexican food and tacos from back home,” Lopez said.

Lopez’s Instagram feed is full of action shots of him playing, but also pics he snaps as he and Elena explore the city or interact with fans. He knows team leadership doesn’t stop when he leaves the pitch.

And that’s exactly what made Lopez the ideal first captain of the Hearts of Pine. He’s a veteran player who has learned from big games and situations. He won an NCAA title at the University of North Carolina. He won an MLS Cup with Sporting Kansas City. He’s been the captain of a first-year club, in 2019 with Birmingham Legion FC of the USL Championship.

He knows what needs to happen for victory at this time of year, when it’s dark early and when every move in a game can be the one that unlocks one of two choices, a win or a loss. Lopez is a proponent of knowing exactly when to unleash soccer’s dark arts, shortening the game with a delayed throw in or kick, or a well-timed but necessary foul.

Right now, he and the Hearts need to be on task and avoid looking past Spokane.

His relationship with Murphy has always been good, Lopez said, and now it’s even better. At most, this season has two more games, and it could end Sunday night. Lopez said, hopefully, he and Murphy will get to spend another year together.

The 12-year-old who first met Murphy has grown into a responsible pro, a good husband, and a good man.

“It’s funny. When you have people who are family, you can not see each other for years, and then you pick right up where you left off,” Murphy said.

Lopez, the captain, is right where he’s supposed to be.