When the Portland Hearts of Pine play their 2026 USL League One home opener Saturday at Fitzpatrick Stadium, it will be 28 days since they last scored a goal.

Maine’s professional men’s soccer team is in need of a boost from its fans, who came out in record-setting droves last season. Portland drew about 5,800 fans per match in 2025, tops in the USL League One. Hearts of Pine management expects to bring in over 6,000 per game in 2026 by expanding the standing-room-only sections.

“I’m really excited for the home opener. The whole atmosphere is spot-on,” said second-year midfielder Michel Poon-Angeron. “It feels like maybe 20,000 people at times.”

The Hearts are 1-1-1 in USL1 play and 11th in the 17-team league with four points after three matches. For the second consecutive season, their home opener (6 p.m., ESPN+) opponent is One Knoxville SC, the defending league champion. Knoxville (3-1-1) is in a first-place tie with FC Naples and Spokane Velocity, each with 10 points after five matches.

Starting with its 1-0 loss to amateur club Vermont Green in the U.S. Open Cup, Portland has been shut out in three consecutive matches.

A 0-0 tie across the country at AV Alta FC in California was an acceptable result, considering it was Portland’s third match in eight days.

A 1-0 loss without a shot on goal a week later at expansion side Sarasota Paradise?

Suffice to say it’s not the start the second-year franchise was imagining, particularly since it returned 13 players who had combined to score 34 of the team’s 51 goals in its inaugural 12-8-12 USL1 season.

Midfielder Ollie Wright, who led Portland with 13 overall goals (11 in league play) in 2025, said it’s far too soon to panic.

“We’re in a good place to kick on. Luckily, no one in the league has gotten off to a great start,” Wright said. “We (had) a weekend off to prepare and get guys back to 100% fitness, myself included. Goals have been a little bit hard to come by, but we were in a similar position last year and we found our form. So I think it’s just a matter of one or two going in and the floodgates will open.”

Portland Hearts of Pine coach Bobby Murphy gives directions to players during a drill at Fitzpatrick Stadium. (Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer)

Nagging injuries to some players have limited coach Bobby Murphy’s ability to build a consistent lineup card. Twenty-two of Portland’s 26 players have made at least one start. Only five players have seen action in all four games — regular starting center back Kemali Green, returning midfield standouts Masashi Wada and Poon-Angeron, new left back Adam Armour, and new attacking midfielder Matteo Kidd.

Wright (hamstring) was one of five regular participants who did not make the trip to Sarasota. Center back Brecc Evans hasn’t played since the season opener. Midfielder Mikey Lopez was out with a one-game red-card suspension, and back Mo Mohamed (Somalia) and midfielder JayTee Kamara (Sierra Leone) — two key players who can generate offensive thrust from the right side — were away on international duties.

Poon-Angeron said the fervor and support at Fitzy also comes with a responsibility to perform. It’s something the 13 newcomers are learning. For many of them, the opportunity to play in front of massive crowds influenced their decision to sign with Portland. But they haven’t experienced it. Yet.

“What this group will learn, and a lot of the new guys will learn, is what it means to play for this club,” Poon-Angeron said. “It’s a huge honor. It’s a huge privilege. As you know this atmosphere is electric and you’ve got to represent.”

The Hearts started the season well, winning the season opener 3-1 against the New York Cosmos with goals from Wada, a returning all-USL1 first-team pick, and pro rookies Konstantinos Goergallides and Aboubacar Camara.

Murphy welcomed a two-week break between games. After a preseason schedule that included stints in Bermuda and South Carolina, coupled with three road league games, the club hadn’t been in Portland for longer than five days in two months, he said.

The additional training days at home provided the club an opportunity to regroup, heal up, and for Murphy to reinforce what his preferred attacking, pressuring style of play demands.

“We’ve struggled with just getting everybody together, and new guys really coming to terms with what it means to play for this club, the effort that’s required,” he said. “So I think that’s where we’re lacking a little bit. But we’ve had good days of training so hopefully we’ll be further down that path.”

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