Published for FC Naples fans — October 2026
By Toxlay Sports Editorial Team · Last updated October 23, 2026
⚽ FC Naples Fans — Your Comeback Kings Are One Win Away!
Five straight wins have dragged Naples from 13th to the edge of the playoffs, and the season comes down to one night at Paradise Coast. Deep blue shirts, full voice — this is the season to wear Naples’ colors.
The Club
Football Club Naples is Southwest Florida’s first professional soccer club — awarded as a USL League One expansion franchise in January 2024, with its name and crest revealed that June, and a first season of play in 2025. The crest is shaped like a lightning whelk shell with a boat keel at its base, the colors are the deep blue of the Gulf waters off Naples with gold detailing, and the supporters of La Barra 239 bring the noise behind the goal.
Home is the Paradise Coast Sports Complex Stadium in Collier County — a 5,000-capacity ground with 3,500 fixed seats plus berm seating and a synthetic-turf pitch, which hosted a sell-out 4,782 for the 2026 U.S. Open Cup visit of Orlando City, the first MLS team ever to play there.
The dugout story defines this season. Matt “Gaffa” Poland, the inaugural head coach who built the club from tryouts, departed on July 10, 2026 with the team 13th and sinking. First assistant Zak Gordon stepped in as interim head coach — and produced the rescue run detailed below. President and CEO Roberto Moreno’s project, built on local roots and smart recruitment, has already achieved something rare: in December 2025 the club made the first player sale in its history.
That sale frames everything. Karsen Henderlong, the star of the inaugural season, moved up to USL Championship side Tampa Bay Rowdies — proof the Naples pathway works. The 2026 team had to be rebuilt around new heroes. It found them just in time.
⭐ FAN FAVORITE
#10 Ferrín — FC Naples Style Jersey
$59.99
The first goalscorer in club history, still leading the line. Deep blue, gold trim and the shell crest — the shirt of the comeback season, made for Naples fans.
Last Season (2025): The Dream Debut
An expansion team built from tryouts was not supposed to do this. FC Naples finished fourth in its inaugural season — 13 wins, nine losses, eight draws, 47 points — and then made league history: on November 1, 2025, Naples became the first expansion club in USL League One history to host, and win, a playoff match, beating Union Omaha on penalties after a goalless quarterfinal in which goalkeeper Lalo Delgado made five saves and substitute Joel Serrano saved two more in the shootout.
The run ended in the semifinal, a 1–0 defeat at eventual champions One Knoxville. The star was Karsen Henderlong: 16 goals and four assists across all competitions, March’s Player of the Month, a Player of the Year finalist and an All-League First Team pick. And it all started with the club’s first-ever goal, scored by a certain Andrés Ferrín in the opening draw with Chattanooga. The strongest debut season in the league’s short history set a bar 2026 had to chase.
Best Players Right Now
Andrés Ferrín — #10, forward. Naples’ top scorer in 2026 with six goals — and the man who scored the first goal in club history back in 2025. The Colombian attacker remained the focal point after Henderlong’s sale and led the line in the Open Cup tie against Orlando City. The No. 10 is the face of this team.
Christopher Garcia — #11, midfielder/forward. Joint-second top scorer with five goals and second in assists with six — including the corner that Ty Collins headed in to spark the October 21 comeback at Sarasota. Creator and finisher in one shirt.
Giovanni Miglietti — #9, forward. “Gio” — joint-second top scorer with five goals, the No. 9 who led the line for much of the post-Henderlong season and kept the attack honest while the midfield caught fire behind him.
Kevin O’Connor — #14, midfielder. The team’s assists leader with seven and its set-piece voice — his 61st-minute free kick at Sarasota put Naples ahead in the game that kept the season alive. When Naples win a free kick in range, Paradise Coast holds its breath.
Edward “Lalo” Delgado — #1, goalkeeper. The defense’s constant: a team-best 0.97 goals-against average and 11 wins among regular goalkeepers in 2026. And Naples fans will never forget 2025 — five saves in the playoff quarterfinal before the shootout heroics that followed.
Luca Mastrantonio — #5, center back. The defensive leader, first at the club in clearances, blocks and aerial duels won across 2026, with 31 appearances and two goals of his own. The wall in front of Delgado.
Star Spotlight
The night MLS came to Paradise Coast. April 15, 2026: Naples hosted Orlando City in the Open Cup Round of 32 before a sell-out 4,782 — and pushed the MLS side to the wire. A 0–1 defeat, eight shots on target, and a 70th-minute Dominick Bachstein effort that appeared to cross the line before a sliding clearance; no goal was given. The club’s own report calls it the biggest match in its young history, and the grievance still burns.
The 90+6′ winner that kept the season alive. October 21, the Battle for Paradise at Sarasota: Naples led, were pegged back at 90+1′, and a draw would have eliminated both clubs. In the sixth minute of stoppage time, defender Hal Uderitz headed in a Marc Torrellas set piece — 3–2, a fifth straight win, and a playoff-deciding finale set up.
The first sale in club history. December 3, 2025: Henderlong’s transfer to Tampa Bay — a League One expansion club selling its star upward to the Championship after one season — was the defining proof-of-concept moment of the Naples project. He scored against Naples for Tampa in the USL Cup in July. It hurt. It also proved the model works.
🔥 More Fan Favorites
More Naples stars, same deep blue and gold.
This Season (2026): The Collapse and the Rescue
No team in League One has lived two seasons in one like Naples. Under Poland the club slid to 13th at 5-10-2, the losing run stretching to seven straight games — a league-worst-tying mark. Poland departed on July 10. Under interim coach Zak Gordon the team rebuilt its spine, and it arrives at the finale on a seven-game unbeaten run and five straight wins: Chattanooga, the Cosmos, Richmond, Corpus Christi away, and Sarasota away in the 90+6th minute. Naples sit ninth on 43 points — two behind eighth-placed Fort Wayne — and the playoffs are still alive.
Just. Naples does not control its own destiny: beat Spokane at home on October 24 AND Fort Wayne must draw or lose at home to Athletic Club Boise the same night. A Naples win makes 14 wins for the season — the tiebreaker edge over Fort Wayne’s 12. The cups offered no rescue (a USL Cup group exit, the Open Cup heartbreak against Orlando), so everything rides on one Saturday night at Paradise Coast. This is what finales are for.
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Mark Your Calendar
Saturday, October 24, 2026 — vs Spokane Velocity FC, Paradise Coast Sports Complex (7:00 p.m. ET). The regular-season finale, on Breast Cancer Awareness Night — fans are encouraged to wear pink. Win, and Naples needs Fort Wayne to drop points against Boise (7:30 p.m. ET kickoff) to steal the eighth and final playoff spot on the wins tiebreaker. Anything less, and the comeback story ends one chapter early. Tickets via fcnaples.com/tickets.
October 30 – November 1, 2026 — Playoff Quarterfinals. If Naples make it, the reward is a single-elimination quarterfinal on the road that weekend — the top eight qualify and the higher seed hosts. Semifinals follow November 6–8 and the USL League One Final lands in the November 13–15 window. Charlotte Independence took the 2026 Players’ Shield; nobody left in the race fears anybody.
Biggest Rivalries — The Wars
1. Sarasota Paradise — the Battle for Paradise. The Southwest Florida derby between the two Florida expansion-era clubs is already the defining fixture of Naples’ young history, because the October 21, 2026 edition was a straight elimination game. The full 2026 trilogy: Naples won 2–0 at home in the league in April, Sarasota won the USL Cup meeting 2–0 in June, and Naples took the decider 3–2 at Sarasota with a 96th-minute winner. Three meetings, three classics in the making.
2. Tampa Bay Rowdies — the Derby of the Gulf. The cross-division Florida rivalry with the USL Championship’s Rowdies carries a personal edge: Tampa eliminated Naples from the 2025 U.S. Open Cup on penalties, then bought Naples’ star striker. The latest meeting, a USL Cup tie at Al Lang Stadium in July 2026, finished 2–0 to Tampa — with the opening goal scored by Karsen Henderlong, Naples’ own former No. 9. Some wounds take time.
3. Orlando City SC — the MLS cup derby. One meeting is all it took. The 0–1 Open Cup defeat in April 2026 — a sell-out crowd, eight shots on target and a would-be equalizer that looked over the line — remains the biggest crowd and the biggest grievance of Naples’ short history. A rivalry born in a single night, waiting for its second chapter.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where does FC Naples play, and what is the stadium like?
Paradise Coast Sports Complex Stadium, 3940 City Gate Blvd N in Naples, Florida — a soccer stadium opened in 2020 inside a large multi-field sports campus in Collier County, with 3,500 fixed seats and a total capacity of 5,000, a synthetic-turf pitch, and the Barra 239 supporters behind the goal. It hosted a sell-out 4,782 for the 2026 Open Cup tie against Orlando City.
Who is FC Naples’ best player?
Forward Andrés Ferrín, No. 10 — the club’s top scorer in 2026 with six goals and the scorer of the first goal in club history. The creative leader is Kevin O’Connor, No. 14, the team’s assists leader with seven, while the club’s biggest-ever star, Karsen Henderlong, who scored 16 goals in 2025, was sold to Tampa Bay Rowdies in December 2025 in the first player sale in club history.
What trophies has FC Naples won?
None yet — the club only began play in 2025. Its landmarks are a fourth-place finish and a playoff semifinal in its inaugural 2025 season, including the first playoff win ever by a USL League One expansion club, and a run to the 2026 U.S. Open Cup Round of 32.
How can I get tickets or watch FC Naples?
Tickets are sold via fcnaples.com/tickets for matches at Paradise Coast Sports Complex. League One matches stream on ESPN+, with the October 24, 2026 finale against Spokane listed for ESPN+ by the USL, and USL coverage also runs on CBS Sports Golazo Network across the season.
⚽ FC Naples Fan Shop
The full Naples trio — Ferrín, Garcia and Miglietti in deep blue.
Sources & official links: FC Naples official site · USL League One official site · FC Naples tickets
Deep blue shirts, full voice, one more miracle to finish — come on Naples.
