Fort Wayne Football Club and the Sarasota Paradise share some similarities.
Both were successful clubs at the pre-professional level of USL League Two. Both have made the jump to professional soccer by joining USL League One this year. Both opened pro play Saturday with shutout losses.
Now the clubs will go head-to-head for the first time 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Premier Sports Campus in Lakewood Ranch, Florida, where the Paradise lost 1-0 on Saturday to another expansion team – Athletic Club Boise.
Fort Wayne FC, which opens its season with five straight road matches, performed admirably in its opening match, a 2-0 loss to FC Naples, a game that could have gone the other direction were it not for a couple of near misses in the offensive side of the pitch.
As we look ahead to Saturday night’s match, click to read Fort Wayne FC’s game notes. And to read Sarasota’s game notes, click here.
Against FC Naples, which finished fourth in the table and qualified for the playoffs last season, Fort Wayne FC showed both its youth and its potential. A whopping 10 players made their professional debuts for the Autumn Gold & Black: Clarence Awoudor, Aurie Briscoe, Tiago Dias, Taig Healy, Anthony Hernandez, Michael Rempel, Lilian Ricol, Jayden Smith, Reid Sproat and Trace Terry.
This week, we could see more professional debuts from the roster of Fort Wayne FC, which played in USL League Two from 2021 to 2025 and, over the past three seasons, won three division titles and went to back-to-back conference semifinals.
The Paradise, which played in USL League Two from 2023 to 2025, won its division the past two season and reached the conference semifinals in 2025.
There are other connections between the clubs. For example, Fort Wayne FC’s JP Jordan, who joined the club with one season of USL League One experience, played for Sarasota in 2024. A player on Sarasota’s current roster, Sean Karani, played for Fort Wayne FC in 2023.
The match between Fort Wayne FC and the Sarasota Paradise will air on ESPN+. There will be a local watch party for Fort Wayne FC fans who couldn’t make it to Sarasota; Crazy Pinz will host the watch party at their Coconutz Louge.
About Fort Wayne Football Club
Fort Wayne Football Club, founded in 2019, is a professional soccer club playing its first season in USL League One in 2026. The club is building a state-of-the-art, soccer-specific stadium, Fort Wayne FC Park, that will open at Bass Road and I-69 in 2026. In pre-professional USL League Two, Fort Wayne Football Club won division titles in 2023, 2024 and 2025. For more information, visit FortWayneFC.com.
About United Soccer League
Founded in 1986, the United Soccer League (USL) is the largest and fastest-growing soccer organization in the United States, impacting more than 200 communities nationwide. The USL is the first and only organization to offer a comprehensive youth-to-professional pathway for both men and women under one ecosystem. This structure includes four men’s leagues: the newly announced, top-tier professional Division I league, the USL Championship (Division II), USL League One (Division III), and USL League Two (pre-professional). The women’s pathway includes the top-tier USL Super League (Division I), which debuted in 2024, and USL W League, the country’s leading pre-professional women’s league. The USL also oversees USL Academy, a progressive talent development platform, and USL Youth, a premier national youth platform.