What Bobby Murphy Said Before, During, And After Hearts' Final Game of 2025
“If we’re going to go down, let’s go down being us, and not something else.”
Up 2-1 in the 120th minute, Portland Hearts of Pine, the seventh seed, were moments away from making the USL League One Final in their inaugural season.
Then, Spokane Velocity equalized, allowing them to advance after seven rounds of penalties.
Heartbreak is the best way to describe it.
The game began innocuously, with the cross-country foes playing cagey soccer.
Spokane created an opportunity in transition in the 28th minute that Hunter Morse handled. Natty James forced a save of his own six minutes later.
A throw-in just before halftime fell to Luis Gil, who hit a picturesque shot. This prompted a halftime speech from Hearts head coach Bobby Murphy.
“We talked that we were playing within ourselves,” Murphy told The Blazing Musket. “That we weren’t really being us, and we were going to go and get after them in the second half.
“And if we’re going to go down, let’s go down being us, and not something else.”
Hearts equalized eight minutes after the break when Nathan Messer’s cross led to a clearance that Ollie Wright settled inside the box. The No. 10 hit an inch-perfect shot past the diving goalkeeper.
Masashi Wada nearly had the go-ahead goal soon after, only to rattle the crossbar. Morse kept the game even on the other end, forcing extra time.
Captain Mikey Lopez, who couldn’t start after tweaking his hamstring against Chattanooga, entered in the 59th minute. He made two crucial tackles before Wada found Jay Tee Kamara on the break to give Hearts the lead in the 92nd minute.
Hearts were close to writing their own Cinderella story until Nil Vinyals scored in the 121st minute.
By that point, Lopez, Wright, and Mo Mohamed had exited.
“When it got to overtime, we just ran out of legs a little bit,” Murphy said. “I think the big thing for us was losing Mikey to his hamstring again. Masashi was kind of shattered, Michel was exhausted, and Mikey’s legs in midfield, I think, were helping to keep us pushed out a little bit, and we just sort of kept falling deeper and deeper.”
Hearts captured an advantage when Morse stopped a penalty, but Kamara’s later attempt was blocked. A save on Michel’s shot allowed Spokane to advance to their second consecutive final.
“You think you’ve won it once, and then you think you’re going to win it again in penalties,” Murphy said. “I can’t fault anybody, I can’t blame any one thing. I think it’s just the way the world works sometimes.”
Murphy admits there was disappointment after Sunday’s game, but there weren’t any regrets.
The first-year team gave it their all every game, creating a soccer community in a city that desperately wanted one.
“I told the players the night before the game that they’d already won regardless of the result,” Murphy said. “If you look at their role in building this thing from the ground up, and inspiring people, and inspiring kids, and bringing families together.
“I told them they were really lucky men, because they’re the ones who got to plant the seeds and sit under the tree for a little while. You don’t know how big the tree’s going to get, but they got to do both, and not many people get to do that.”
Any conversation with someone who attended a Hearts game this year will attest to Murphy’s words.
Open Cup games in Lewiston, pick-up games in the kids zone, pregame oysters, bull rides at the Fitzy Fair, watch parties around the state, and each Heartbeat clap are proof of this club’s success.
Murphy hopes that the players will understand this over time.
“When it comes to life stuff, they’d done stuff that not many people got to do,” Murphy said. “I told him after the game, hopefully as the pain of the loss subsides, that those words we talked about will take hold, and they’ll look back and look at what they really have accomplished, not just as players but as people.”
The offseason is here for Hearts, allowing them to refuel and reset.
The good news is that Murphy’s vision of a young team that goes forward, not backward, has proven successful. The offseason and preseason will help them get closer to the complete vision.
That will come, as will another year at Fitzpatrick Stadium. Being ready for what’s next is the nature of soccer.
“You pick yourself up, and you get ready to go again,” Murphy said.