Narratives to Watch as the 2026 Hearts Season Comes into View
- Robert McLaughlin
- Jan 9
- 5 min read
Happy New Year! As the 2026 Hearts season gets closer with each passing minute, here are a few narratives to watch as we get into the most active part of the off-season.
New Signings Looking to Make An Impact
Hearts made a splash this season with 4 new-to-the-club signings in recent weeks. The additions of defenders Brecc Evans, Zion Scarlett, & Serigne Mbacke Faye, as well as striker Emiliano Terzaghi. To be sure these are big signings. Evans and Mbacke Faye both look like starting center backs (and with height too). Both stand to seriously take the pressure off Hunter Morse, a recurring need in the 2025 season. If they are able to do that
Scarlett and Terzaghi are a little bit more of unknowns to a degree but for different reasons. Scarlett, an MLSNP player last year only saw 338 minutes of league play making statistics available for him a little light.
Theirs's also the question of which position he will be playing. He's listed as a defender but a heat map of his time in MLSNP makes him look more like an attacking midfielder or even a striker. Assuming he is a defender as the team indicated, its looking like he will serve as a wing-back. The good news is he can play either side of the field which will give the Hearts added flexibility.
Terzaghi is not an unknown because of reputation. The 3-time USL1 Player of the Year had been a franchise player for years at the Richmond Kickers before being cut loose at the end of last season. He comes to Portland as a veteran mentor to the front line but whether or not we see him starting frequently will be the question. In 1705 minutes played last season, he only produced 4 goals. To be sure, Terzaghi will want to show he's an earner with his new club and outpace that number.
The Gaps Still Requiring Patching
Even with these signings, gaps remain in the Hearts roster. In the next few weeks expect Bobby Murphy to announce new midfield and attacking midfield signings. Specifically, Coach Murphy needs to replace a defensive midfielder he lost in Patty Langlois and find substitutes to play in place of Ollie Wright and Musashi Wada. It would also help to pick up an additional striker and defender to give the team options should injuries overcome the regular starting XI.
While not official, both Natty James and Mo Mohammed have made cryptic posts on social media in the last month that many optimistic fans have read into. Should they resign with the club, this would greatly round-out the squad with experience players who know Murphy-ball and the locker room. Whether these hopes prove to be well founded is yet to be seen.
Changes to the USOC Rules & Draw
The US Open Cup returns for the 2026 edition with a slightly smaller field of teams to accommodate the 2026 FIFA World Cup. This smaller field means MLS teams will enter the competition 1 round earlier than last season. Meaning, if the Hearts of Pine do as well as in 2025, we could end up facing an MLS team in the round of 32, a major accomplishment for a USL1 club.
In terms of who we might face, two scenarios make for an interesting story. First, for the second consecutive year, CD Faialense of Cambridge has qualified for the tournament. A rerun of last year's match up would raise the stakes for the Azorian heritage club. An even more interesting plot would be USL1's most talked about team playing the USL2's most discussed club (and the 2025 USL2 national champions): Vermont Green. A match up in Burlington at Virtue Field or a home match at a to-be determined venue would be a marquee match of the season with northern New England's two premier club battling it out to stay in the competition. Stay tuned for the draw later this month (no exact date has been set by US Soccer).
USL Cup Matches More Localized for Hearts
While the 2025 edition of the USL Cup did not go the way the Hearts wanted, being eliminated in the group stage, the competition allowed us to play local teams in the USLC that we otherwise may not have seen. Those games against RIFC and Hartford Athletic allowed for a bit of local ribbing with Defiance 1636 and solidified a strong dislike of Hartford Athletic that became apparent in the US Open Cup. That said, matches against Detroit & Pittsburgh, while fun to watch, didn't have the same stakes as local matches create.
In the 2026 edition of the USL Cup, dubbed the Prinx Tires Cup for sponsorship reasons, new clubs have been added to further localize the groups. New teams, the New York Cosmos of USL1 and Brooklyn FC of USLC both join the group stage. Brooklyn in particular may be one of the best away days for Hearts fans this season with the team playing at storied Coney Island.
The New (Old?) Kid on the Block
Good narratives are good narratives. Last year, Hearts of Pine took US Soccer by storm showing what a team identity and culture, handled intelligently, can do. Both on the pitch, in the stands, and in the media, the Hearts made it clear they were setting a new standard for how soccer clubs connect with their community. But we ain't the new kid on the block anymore.
This season sees 5 new teams entering the league: Corpus Cristi FC, Fort Wayne FC, Athletico Boise, Sarasota Paradise, &, returning from a multi-year hiatus, the New York Cosmos. These teams will bring their own new narratives to the League and compelling storylines which folks will love to see. But how will the Hearts fit into those story lines remains to be seen.
Some League pundits (and a few of our own) have already started shipping the idea that the Cosmos are the antipathy of the Hearts project. The jury may still be out on that one but if opening matches are any indicator, the League scheduled our opening match of the season down in Patterson, NJ against Pele's old club. With a large contingent of Hearts fans eagerly waiting for tickets to that match, this might be the narrative to follow in 2026.
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