Published for Fort Lauderdale United FC fans — October 2026
By Toxlay Sports Editorial Team · Last updated October 23, 2026
⚽ Fort Lauderdale United FC Fans — Four Games to Save the Season, and the Fightback Has Started!
Level at the foot of the table but only four points off the playoff line, with a shutout against the league leaders fresh in the memory. Black shirts, ocean-blue crest, full voice in Davie — write this team off at your peril.
The Club
Fort Lauderdale United Football Club — FTL UTD to its fans — is a first: the first professional women’s soccer team in South Florida. The franchise was awarded on November 21, 2023, and when the name and crest were unveiled on February 29, 2024, the badge told the city’s story — the initials “FTL” intertwined like the canals Fort Lauderdale is famous for, with a “glint” in the design for the sun bouncing off the water. The colors are seafoam green and ocean blue, drawn from the beaches and shallow waters of the coast. The club is based in Davie, Broward County, and is principally owned by founder, chairman and CEO Tommy Smith.
Home is Amerant Bank Field at Nova Southeastern University in Davie, a stadium built on the former Miami Dolphins training-facility site on the NSU campus. It opened as NSU Soccer Field, became Beyond Bancard Field in November 2024 as part of a $7 million stadium project, and took its current name in 2026, in place by the August 15 fall opener. This is a two-team project now, too: a men’s Fort Lauderdale United side will debut in Spring 2027 at the same stadium.
Year one set a standard this club is still chasing. In the inaugural 2024-25 season, Fort Lauderdale finished fourth and reached the first-ever league Final (more on that below). The dugout has been a revolving door since — and the man in it now is a familiar face. Paul Jennison is the interim head coach, appointed on October 6, 2026 in his second interim stint after the club parted ways with Tyrone Mears, the first head coach in club history. The armband belongs to defender Haley Thomas, the No. 12 named captain for this fall campaign. Looking for a Fort Lauderdale United jersey to match the moment? The black home shirt below is the look of the fightback.
⭐ FAN FAVORITE
#11 Sh’nia Gordon — Fort Lauderdale United FC Style Jersey
$59.99
The face of FTL UTD in the 2026 black home shirt — fine tonal pinstripes, the ocean-blue roundel crest, the white pretty. wordmark across the chest, and GORDON 11 in solid white on the back. Fan-inspired apparel for the club’s all-time appearance leader.
Last Season (2025-26): The Season to Forget
Twelve months after reaching the Final, Fort Lauderdale finished bottom of the league — ninth of nine. The numbers make grim reading: 28 played, five won, eight drawn, fifteen lost, 30 goals scored and 62 conceded on the way to 23 points. There were bright spots if you squinted. Kiara Locklear was the top scorer with six league goals and finished with 19 goal contributions across the season, and the biggest win was a 4–1 thumping of Dallas Trinity FC on September 13, 2025. But the heavy defeats kept coming — a 1–5 loss at Lexington and three separate 0–4 beatings.
The spring is where it truly fell apart. Under interim coach Paul Jennison, the final 12 games produced no wins at all — two draws and ten defeats, with the last seven straight lost. The one honor the season did produce was individual: midfielder Kelli Van Treeck was named to the 2025-26 All-League Second Team. The fall from finalists to last place in twelve months is the storyline this club carries into every match — and the fire behind everything you are watching now.
Best Players Right Now
Sh’nia Gordon — #11, forward. The star of this team and its heartbeat. Gordon is the club’s all-time appearance leader with 58 total appearances — 56 in the league and two in the playoffs — and her brace against Lexington on October 11 took her to 11 career regular-season goals, joint-second in club history. The league’s own Week 9 review called her “the club’s best attacking threat this campaign,” and she scored again at Jacksonville on October 16. Alongside Kiara Locklear and Grace Cutler, she fronts the attacking trio this club is built around.
Kiara Locklear — #20, forward. The club’s joint all-time top scorer with 13 goals in all competitions — 11 in the league and two in the playoffs — and last season’s top scorer with six league goals in a team that finished bottom. Locklear is one of only two players in league history with 10 or more goals AND 10 or more assists in the regular season (11 goals, 10 assists); the other is 2024/25 Player of the Year Emina Ekic. Her assist for Gordon’s second goal against Lexington made that piece of history.
Haley Craig — #30, goalkeeper. The last line of the fightback. Craig kept her first professional clean sheet in the 1–0 win over Brooklyn on August 28, then owned October: a big-save performance in the Lexington win, followed by a five-save shutout — including a 25th-minute double save — to hold league-leading Carolina Ascent 0–0 on October 22, her second clean sheet of the season. When this team defends for its life, she is the reason it works.
Kelli Van Treeck — #29, midfielder. The squad’s one league-wide honor in a brutal 2025-26: a place on the All-League Second Team. In a season short on recognition, Van Treeck’s engine-room work was respected across the league — and she remains a fixture in the middle of the park.
Haley Thomas — #12, defender, captain. Named captain in the club’s September 2026 season preview, Thomas anchors the back line Jennison is rebuilding the season on. The captain’s armband on a defender tells you exactly what this autumn is about: discipline, structure, and refusing to fold.
Kelsey Oyler — #9, defender. Named to the league’s Team of the Month for August 2026 — early proof that the defensive rebuild had teeth from the first weeks of the fall. Oyler’s form on the back line is a big part of why the goals against have tightened up since the season’s rough start.
Star Spotlight
The brace that stopped the rot. October 11, 2026, Amerant Bank Field. Lexington SC — the defending champions — in town, a five-game losing streak on the hosts’ backs, and Paul Jennison back in the dugout for his first match as interim coach. Gordon scored on 37 minutes, then again on 50, and Fort Lauderdale won 2–1. The brace carried her past ten career league goals — 11 now, joint-second in club history — and Locklear’s assist on the second goal wrote her own line in the league’s record book. One night, two statements: this season was not over.
The constant. Through a coaching carousel, a last-place finish and a fall rebuild, Gordon has always been there — 58 appearances, more than anyone in club history. She scored again at Jacksonville on October 16, in a heavy defeat that could have broken a lesser team’s spirit. Instead, six days later, the same group shut out the league leaders. That is the Gordon standard: show up, score, lead. With four matches left and the playoff line four points away, her goals are the fuel this fightback runs on — and her black No. 11, name and number in solid white on the back, is the shirt you see all over Davie on matchdays.
🔥 More Fan Favorites
More United stars, same black and ocean blue.
This Season (2026 Fall Season): Four Games to Save It
This fall is a one-off sprint: a standalone 14-match 2026 Fall Season, running August 15 to November 28, 2026, as the league prepares to switch calendars. Eight clubs play seven home and seven away, the top four reach the playoffs, and the first-place finishers take the Players’ Shield. Fort Lauderdale’s line after ten matches reads 2-1-7 — seven points, seven goals scored, 16 conceded — level with Brooklyn at the foot of the table, and four points off the playoff line with four matches to play. No sugarcoating it: that is a hole. But it is a hole with a ladder in it.
The ladder appeared in October. A five-game losing streak was snapped in Jennison’s first match back, the 2–1 win over defending champions Lexington on October 11. A heavy 1–4 defeat at Sporting JAX followed on October 16 — and then came the spark. On October 22, at home to league-leading Carolina Ascent, the team that finished bottom last season refused to blink: 0–0, with Haley Craig making five saves, including a stunning 25th-minute double save, for her second shutout of the season. The honest storyline of this fall is a fightback — a broken spring, a reset, and a group that has started to defend like it believes. Four games. Four points. Everything still to play for.
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Mark Your Calendar
Sunday, November 1, 2026 — at Dallas Trinity FC (5:00 p.m. ET). The fightback goes on the road first. Dallas sit above the playoff line; Fort Lauderdale need points, not performances.
Friday, November 6, 2026 — vs Tampa Bay Sun FC, Amerant Bank Field (7:30 p.m. ET). The Florida derby, under the lights at home. The biggest night of the fall — see the Rivalries section below for why this one is personal.
Friday, November 13, 2026 — at Lexington SC (7:30 p.m. ET). A return trip to the defending champions, who owe Fort Lauderdale one after Gordon’s October brace beat them in Davie.
Saturday, November 28, 2026 — vs DC Power FC, Amerant Bank Field (6:00 p.m. ET). The regular-season finale at home. If the fightback holds, this is the night the playoff place gets decided.
December 5 and December 12, 2026 — the playoffs. The top four qualify for the semifinals on December 5, with the winners meeting in the Final on December 12. First place in the regular season also takes home the Players’ Shield. Fort Lauderdale’s route is narrow — win, and keep winning — but it exists.
Biggest Rivalries — The Wars
1. Tampa Bay Sun FC — the Florida derby. The club markets this fixture as Derby Day, and the history is raw. Tampa Bay took the inaugural league Final from Fort Lauderdale, winning 1–0 after extra time on June 14, 2025 — the closest this club has ever come to a trophy, snatched away by its in-state rival. Tampa also won the first fall 2026 meeting, 2–1 on September 12. The rematch lands on November 6 at Amerant Bank Field, with playoff hopes on the line. There is no bigger game on Fort Lauderdale’s calendar.
2. Sporting Club Jacksonville — the other Sunshine State matchup. Two Florida clubs, one state to own. Jacksonville have had the better of the fall so far, winning both meetings — 1–0 in the August 15 season opener in Davie, and 4–1 on October 16, a night when Ashlyn Puerta scored four times. That second defeat is the low point of Fort Lauderdale’s fall, and the rematch next season already has a circle around it.
3. Carolina Ascent FC — the playoff ghosts. Fort Lauderdale’s greatest night came at Carolina’s expense: a 2–1 win after extra time away at Carolina in the 2025 semifinal that sent FTL UTD to the Final. Carolina are the fall 2026 league leaders, and the clubs’ final meeting of this campaign finished 0–0 in Davie on October 22 — Craig’s shutout, the result this fightback is built on.
Frequently Asked Questions
When do Fort Lauderdale United play next?
Next up is Sunday, November 1, 2026, away at Dallas Trinity FC (5:00 p.m. ET), followed by the Florida derby at home to Tampa Bay Sun FC on November 6, a trip to Lexington SC on November 13, and the regular-season finale at home to DC Power FC on November 28. Fort Lauderdale sit four points off the playoff line with four matches to play; the top four reach the playoffs, with semifinals on December 5 and the Final on December 12, 2026.
Who is Fort Lauderdale United’s star player?
Sh’nia Gordon, the No. 11 forward. She is the club’s all-time appearance leader with 58 appearances, its best attacking threat this campaign, and her brace against Lexington on October 11, 2026 took her to 11 career regular-season goals. Around her, Kiara Locklear is the club’s joint all-time top scorer, and goalkeeper Haley Craig held league-leading Carolina to a 0–0 draw with five saves on October 22.
Where do Fort Lauderdale United play their home games, and how do I get tickets?
Home matches are at Amerant Bank Field at Nova Southeastern University in Davie, Florida — a stadium built on the former Miami Dolphins training-facility site on the NSU campus. Tickets are sold through the club’s official site, and Fort Lauderdale’s home crowds averaged more than 2,000 a match across the club’s first two seasons.
Have Fort Lauderdale United ever won a trophy?
Not yet — but they came within extra time of the first one. In their inaugural 2024-25 season, Fort Lauderdale finished fourth, won their semifinal 2–1 after extra time away at Carolina Ascent, and lost the first-ever USL Super League Final 1–0 after extra time to Tampa Bay Sun FC on June 14, 2025. They remain the first professional women’s soccer team in South Florida — and still chasing the region’s first trophy.
⚽ Fort Lauderdale United FC Fan Shop
The full United trio — Gordon, Locklear and Craig in black and ocean blue.
Sources & official links: Fort Lauderdale United FC official site · USL Super League official site · Fort Lauderdale United FC tickets
Black shirts, ocean-blue crest, full voice in Davie — chase the glint, Fort Lauderdale.
