Gabe Hoffman-Johnson, Founder of Portland United, LLC at a Portland City Council Meeting Several Years Ago.
Portland Hearts of Pine controlled the ball for 70 percent of the match and near doubled Richmond Kickers in shots; 12 – 7. But ultimately the Hearts came away frustrated because the team was held to a scoreless draw in front of 5,796 fans at Fitzpatrick Stadium on Saturday night.
After a defensive first 45 minutes, the match slowly came alive in the second half. In the 69th minute, Rchmond’s Ryan Baer launched a shot goalward from long range. A crowd of bodies in front of the Portland goal prevented Hunter Morse from seeing the ball until the last minute, but the Hearts goalkeeper rose to the occasion — literally — and made an outstanding reflex save to parry the ball over the crossbar.
The save was one of three Morse made on the night, as the goalkeeper turned in a performance that would have made Boston Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman — watching on from the sideline seats — PROUD.
As the clock ticked closer to 90 minutes, Portland strung together the two best chances of the game, only to come up agonizingly short each time. In the 88th minute, the Ollie Wright-to-Nathan Messer combination that has troubled opponents all season long almost paid dividends again, as Wright fed Messer in the penalty area with a perfectly weighted ball. Left back Messer, who already has three goals this season, sent his one-time shot past Kickers goalkeeper Pablo Jana, only to see that ball ricochet off the underside of the crossbar and back into play.
In the third minute of stoppage time, Jay Tea Kamara played a through ball to Michel Poon-Angeron in the penalty area. Poon-Anageron drove a low shot towards the near post. His attempt was wide of the mark, however, The referee blew his whistle shortly thereafter to bring an end to the encounter.
Coach Bobby Murphy: “On the takeaway from the game: I don’t fault the players efforts. I thought we played hard. I think they came in with a clear plan of not playing and making things difficult for us. There’s times where you can get lulled into that. And I thoughtd first half, we did a little bit of playing at their pace. Second half, we got the tempo and probably deserved a goal. But, you know, at the end of the day goals change games. I think we’re probably a little frustrated, but we’ll take a look at it and move forward to next week.”
For information on the Hearts game against Halifax in first “International Friendly”, please visit post herein dated August 6, 2025.