PORTLAND, Maine — Hearts of Pine coach Bobby Murphy isn’t surprised to see a surging Sarasota Paradise club come to town for the match Saturday at Fitzpatrick Stadium.
Sarasota (8-12-6), which is tied with Portland (7-11-9) in the USL League One standings with 30 points, carries a six-game unbeaten streak (three wins and three draws), including its most recent match, a 6-0 thrashing of Greenville last weekend. Each team is fighting for its diminishing playoff chances as both are seven points behind eighth-place Fort Wayne FC.
“They’re one of the most improved teams in the league from where they started, when we saw them earlier in the year,” Murphy said after Thursday’s practice. “They’ve grown and really come up with an identity, and I think they deserve a lot of credit for that.”
Asked about Sarasota’s identity, Murphy replied, “They want to be good on the ball. They want to possess it, dominate possession, and really just wear you down that way. So we have to make sure that we’re pretty disciplined against the ball, not get frustrated, and when we have it, make them defend.”
Murphy pointed out that Sarasota ranks third-lowest in the USL1 in PPDA (Passes Per Defensive Action). PPDA is an advanced soccer analytics metric that measures how intensely a team presses the opponent.
“They like to sit in a block,” he said. “We’ve got to be patient at times and try to force them to come out.”
This will be the teams’ fourth match against each other in 2026. In addition to the two regular-season matches, the teams also played a pair of friendlies against each other in what was billed as “the Snowbird Derby,” which was named in homage to “the seasonal migration of fans who spend summers in Maine and winters in Florida” and a “cross-regional rivalry between two young clubs with an overlapping supporters base.”
Sarasota has won all three matches, although Murphy doesn’t put much stock in two of Portland’s losses because both teams were using trialists, which are non-contract players auditioning for a potential roster spot.
“The friendlies were different,” Murphy said. “You can take some general themes from them, but you don’t take too much from them at all. Both teams are vastly different from when we played earlier in the season.”
So what are Murphy’s concerns going into the game? Being good on the ball and waiting to see what Saturday’s weather will entail.
Meteorologists are calling for a 75 percent chance of steady rain at the 5 p.m. kickoff with winds up to 13 mph. The fast, slick surface may significantly accelerate the tempo of play, while the winds will make longer passes far less reliable.
Players must be ready to adapt to whatever the weather brings, Murphy said.
“You can give them some pointers and ideas once we know what it will be closer to the match, but really it’s just players making decisions on the field and recognizing that situations and circumstances change,” he explained. “What worked on a calm day won’t work in those conditions, so you have to modify it a little bit, be safer at times, and play for moments. If it’s going to be like that, it’ll be kind of an ugly game, and you just have to be prepared to grind through it.”
Quick hits:
Sarasota has a winning record at home (6-4-2) but has struggled on the road (2-8-4).
The match brings a return of Emiliano Terzaghi, the most decorated player in the history of USL1, who played briefly for Portland earlier this season. Terzaghi was transferred to Sarasota in June after limited playing time for the Hearts.
Best known for his legendary six-season tenure with the Richmond Kickers, Terzaghi is the league’s all-time leading goalscorer with 62 regular-season goals while also winning three consecutive Most Valuable Player awards and Golden Boots from 2020 to 2022.
The move Terzaghi reunited with Head Coach Mika Elovaara, who spent years working alongside the forward as an assistant coach with Richmond.
Former Portland player Emiliano Terzaghi, right, is returning to face the team he played for during the early stages of the 2026 season. Photo courtesy of the Portland Hearts of Pine. Here’s a fun connection between the two clubs. When not living in Maine, the state’s most celebrated author, Stephen King, is typically at Casey Key, Florida, where he has a private winter waterfront estate. Casey Key is about 15 miles south of Sarasota. There’s no word whether King, a well known baseball fan, is also a soccer aficionado but either way, it seems unlikely he’ll scare Mainers by not being a supporter of the Hearts.
Prior to the start of practice, Murphy gathered the players together. He informed them that a young girl who was watching was celebrating her birthday. The child was in attendance as part of a group who won an auction bid to watch a practice. The boys gave a hearty cheer to honor the child.
Please forgive this reporter’s ignorant foot.