Never Say Die: FC Naples' Improbable Run to the Playoffs

Rock bottom came sometime over the Summer for FC Naples.

Was it on July 10th, when the club parted ways with inaugural Sporting Director and Head Coach Matt Poland?

Or was it the end of that month when the club dropped to 13th place, with playoffs seeming all but out of reach?

After a surprising run to hosting a playoff match in the club's debut season in 2025 and taking out defending champions Union Omaha in the first round, expectations were high heading into this season.

And the start of the 2026 season was strong, with the squad putting up a 4-1-2 record through April.

But then things fell apart.

Starting with a 3-0 home loss to Knoxville, from the start of May through the end of July, the squad would go on a 1-10-0 run and drop from top four in the table to 13th place.

The stats behind the run are even worse. From May 2nd through July 25th, Naples was outscored 10-26. With the exception of Andres Ferrín, expected goal-scorers went dry. The defense struggled with cohesiveness, leaving goalkeeper Lalo Delgado out to dry. The two-time Goalkeeper of the Year nominee put up some of his worst career numbers.

Poland struggled with forming a consistent roster, with players in and out of the starting 11. Week to week, you never knew what roster you'd get.

Then in the middle of the losing streak, Poland departed. His assistant Zak Gordon took over.

New Additions and Signs of Life

In August, things slowly turned around.

Mid-season signing Omar Ciss, a former Young Player of the Year winner and a midfield stalwart for Charlotte Independence took over as the anchor of the midfield at the end of July, allowing Kevin O'Connor to shift into more of an attacking role.

The gamble paid off, and four of O'Connor's team-leading seven assists came after that date. With O'Connor free to create chances (he also led the team with 50 big chances created), and Ciss holding down the back, Gordon appeared to unlock part of the solution.

The club also added defender Hal Uderitz, a 27 year old veteran of MLS NextPro sides Kansas City II, Colorado 2 and Tacoma Defiance. He took over the second centre back spot alongside Luca Mastrantonio, which had seen a great deal of instability through the losing streak. Uderitz added badly needed experience to the back line, and despite joining midseason, finished second on the squad in clearances and blocks behind Mastrantonio.

The turnaround started with an August 5th, 2-1 win over AV Alta, capped off by a 90th minute match winner from Ferrín.

After a close loss at Westchester ten days later, the club rebounded with yet another 2-1 win over AV Alta, this time with Nicolas Likulia scoring the stoppage time winning goal. It was his second goal in as many matches.

Likulia, by the way, only joined the club at the beginning of August. Before joining Naples, the 30 year old striker hadn't seen professional minutes sine 2023 with Maryland Bobcats in NISA. He'd been training and playing with amateur and semi-pro teams such as NOVA FC and Virginia Dream, making appearances in Open Cup runs since then.

Four days later, the squad returned home and held then-first place Union Omaha scoreless, winning 2-0 on goals from Likulia and Ferrín. No stoppage time dramatics needed.

Not Out of the Woods Yet

Every thrilling comeback story needs some additional adversity in the mix, something the heroes work to overcome.

For Naples, it was another stumble as Summer turned to Fall. There was a brutal 4-0 loss at Greenville, followed by a 2-0 home loss to Boise. The squad followed these losses with a pair of road draws, disappointing to be sure, but still earning an important two points to stay just enough afloat.

It was at this point I had patronizing thoughts about an FC Naples social media post trying to hype up a playoff run.

"Isn't that cute," I chuckled, "but there's no way."

But here's what ended up being cute: FC Naples would not lose or draw another match in the 2026 regular season after that post.

Home wins against Chattanooga, Cosmos and Richmond. Road wins at Corpus Christi and Sarasota. A final regular season home win against Spokane.

In the middle of all of this, another surprise: academy standout Ty Collins. The 19 year old joined the first team at the end of August, and one month later was earning starting minutes.

The speedy winger provided an assist in the 2-0 win over Richmond, then scored in back to back matches against Corpus Christi and Sarasota.

But despite the win streak, things still weren't guaranteed. The raw probabilities of catching 8th place Fort Wayne FC were extremely low. As of October 14th, there was only a 3% chance they could finish in 8th place. It would take back to back home losses by Fort Wayne, coupled with an away and a home win by Naples.

But this is USL League One, where the chaos factor can't be calculated into standard probability models.

Fort Wayne suffered an end-of-season collapse, dropping matches to Sarasota and Boise. With Naples continuing to win, the probability of making the playoffs went from 3% to 100% after defeating Spokane just before Fort Wayne lost to Boise.

A Reset and a Team Effort

We mentioned the contributions of Ferrín, Likulia, Uderitz and O'Connor in providing the jolt that got things back on track. But none finished the season anywhere close to the league leaders in their respective positions.

Ferrín leads the team with seven goals, followed by Chris Garcia and Gio Migiletti with five apiece. All were expected to contribute at a higher rate.

But they all got hot again at the right time, and Ferrín remained a constant threat.

Garcia added a goal and two assists from September 19th through the end of the season. Migiletti added three more goals and an assist during that time.

And in true fashion, Ferrín capped it all off with a stoppage time match winner in the final match of the season. Naples did the improbable, and clinched the final playoff spot.

And Delgado? Despite the mid-season slide, the veteran goalkeeper will still finish the season with nine clean sheets, for the third season in a row. He finishes just behind league co-leaders Bernd Schipmann and J.T. Harms' ten each.

Six of Delgado's clean sheets are during the turnaround since the 2-0 win over Omaha on August 26th.

Charlotte Independence may be cruising into the playoffs as the top seed on the backs of their record-smashing season. But if there's one thing that should worry them heading into this weekend's opening round matchup, it's facing a never-say-die eighth seed on a certified hot streak.

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