In its inaugural season, the Fayetteville Fury won a National Indoor Soccer League championship.
Now, the team hopes to duplicate that feat in an outdoor setting.
This season, the Fury is fielding an outdoor team — Fury FC — that will play in the United Premier Soccer League in the Premier Division of the Mid-Atlantic Conference.
The new team’s first home match was Sunday vs. Soda City FC. It lost 0-4.
But attendance was 647, which was above expectations, said team spokeswoman Audrey Hasslocher in an email.
The difference between the two leagues is that the NISL squad is a professional team while the UPSL team is in a pro-development league. Players earn salaries in the indoor league but not in the outdoor one.
According to a Fury news release, the UPSL is renowned as the largest and most competitive league of its kind in the country, serving as the fourth tier of the U.S. Soccer pyramid, which is just below the professional tiers.
The goal is to develop players, offering a structured pathway for emerging talent to transition from youth play and get them ready to join the pro ranks. Players’ average age in the league is 22.5 years.
“I want to put Fayetteville on the national soccer map and extend the soccer from indoor to outdoor to ensure that there is enough soccer to watch year-round,” team owner Phillip Lin said at a news conference Friday. “For the last two years, we have been dedicated to bringing top-tier soccer to the city through indoor. Today, we add an elite milestone to this journey.
“The UPSL represents everything we stand for — excellence, competition and the pure game of soccer. This is a significant step to elevate soccer in the Fayetteville community.”
New team has local flavor
“Our roster has changed tremendously,” said Al Florez, the Fury’s general manager and head coach. “In the last two years, two-thirds of our roster (on the indoor team) have been from out-of-town people. So we tried to shift that and make sure we truly are the Fayetteville Fury.”
Florez said most of the 30 players on the outdoor team have Fayetteville ties.
“I want to make sure that there is an understanding that we’re going to build a pathway for our local young athletes,” Florez said.
One of those with local ties is co-captain Brandon Rodriguez, a forward whose parents are from Costa Rico but who was born in Dunn, went to Midway High School, attended Methodist University and is taking online courses at Fayetteville State University while pursuing his professional dream.
“Honestly, I’m really excited to see how much soccer is just growing in this country, but it’s really growing in this area as well,” said Rodriguez, who is a dual citizen. “I think this was a much-needed soccer program in Fayetteville specifically. There was never anything semiprofessional or anything near professional in Fayetteville for soccer, and now that it’s here I’m really excited to be part of that.”
Rodriguez said he has been playing soccer since he was 3 or 4 years old. He remembers having to make some long trips to play outdoor soccer around the state.
“It was always an hour-, hour-and-a-half, two-hour drives,” he said. “I used to play in Raleigh a few years back and it was a bit of a drive. Now having this in Fayetteville and knowing the talent that’s out there, it’s amazing. It’s a great step forward.”
Indoor, outdoor players
Rodriguez, who will be 24 in October, is one of eight players listed on the fall league’s roster who also played for the indoor Fayetteville Fury.
There’s a big difference between the two leagues.
“Indoor, you get paid,” Rodriguez said. “Obviously, it’s 6 vs. 6, so it’s a small-sided game. It is a little bit quicker. Overall, it’s more fast-paced and physical because it’s a small area. It’s a hockey arena, so you can imagine tight space all the way around.”
The Fury plays home games at the Crown Complex. The Fury FC team will play its home games at D.T. Carter Stadium at E.E. Smith High School. The first home match was Sunday vs. Soda City FC, a 0-4 loss for the Fury.
Fury FC will play a 10-game schedule, with five games at E.E. Smith.
It already has played one road game, losing to Queen City FC 2-0 on Sept. 2 in Charlotte.
Rodriguez did not play in the home opener because of an ankle injury, but he said he should be ready in two weeks when the Fury hosts AC Raleigh on Sept. 24.
Another player on the roster who also played for the Fury in the indoor league is 23-year-old midfielder T.J. Hurd, who grew up in Staten Island, New York.
“I hope to be able to grow the whole thing in Fayetteville as well as my own career going forward,” said Hurd, a team co-captain. “I think it’s really a big step for Fayetteville for sure. For myself personally, I see it as being a good developmental path.”
Like Rodriguez, Hurd said there is a big difference between indoor and outdoor soccer.
“There’s two totally different styles of play,” Hurd said. “Things you do in outdoor you can’t do in indoor just because of how much tighter the space is. It’s not the same traction you would get (indoors) as you would get on an outdoors field.
“So it was a big adjustment for me. I did it as a step forward to build my resume because an indoor team is considered professional. So I took that to continue to raise my game and play in a different style. I adapted well.”
Glad to be outdoors
Rodriguez said he prefers outdoor soccer.
“I’ve grown up my whole life playing outdoor,” he said. “I’m actually excited to be back outdoor for the small season. If I had to pick one over the other, it would be outdoor.”
However, he is willing to play on the field that will maximize his chances of staying at the professional level.
“For me, honestly, in soccer, a professional contract is a professional contract whether it’s outdoor or indoor,” Rodriguez said. “The goal is to obviously take it a step further and get that professional contract whether it’s going back indoor or getting a professional contract outdoor.”
Helping players achieve goals
As baseball coaches do, Fury officials use analytics to help the players improve their game.
“The first thing that we do with them is create an analytic assessment to measure their agility, to measure their speed, to measure their strength,” said Coach Florez. “Within the first 30 days, we go back and remeasure the same assessment. Then we present it one-on-one with the players.
“We meet with them. Based on their positions, we have a set of dimensions that they have to meet. Approximately every month, we’re meeting with them and let them know where they are and where they need to be. The first month is a benchmark, and then we set specific goals.”
Another part of the players’ growth is building team chemistry by giving back to the community, Florez said.
Florez noted that he is not the head coach of both the indoor and outdoor teams. Florez is an assistant coach with the outdoor team while Miguel Sanchez, who was not at Friday’s news conference, is head coach of Fury FC.
Tournament in November
The Fury also made another major announcement Friday.
The team will host the Furyous Clash, a three-day soccer tournament at the Crown Complex set for Nov. 10-12. Over the three days, 24 men’s teams and 12 women’s teams will compete in their respective divisions. The entry fee is $1,500 per team, and the winning team in each division will receive $5,000.
To register as a competing team, visit the tournament web page.
“If you want to see a high-caliber tournament, you have to go out of Fayetteville (now), right?” Florez said. “We are eager to announce that we are going to have an indoor tournament that will be the first of its kind in Fayetteville.”
The tournament is for players 18 and older.
“They’re going to be playing with the same rules we do in the National Indoor Soccer League, so they’re going to be able to experience what it is that we experience when we actually play at a professional level,” Florez said. “If you were to combine hockey with soccer, this is what it looks like.
“If you ever come to some of our games, it’s very, very competitive. It’s super fast-paced. You’ve got to fight a lot. Like I say, it’s just like hockey. They get to experience something that they’ve never experienced before, and what we’re more excited about is that we bring in teams from out of town into Fayetteville.”
Looking for another success story
The Fayetteville Fury was a surprise in its first season in the NISL, finishing with a 14-3 regular-season record in 2022 and beating the Memphis Americans 5-3 in the title game at the Crown Complex. The team finished with a 4-12 record in 2023.
Now, Fayetteville fans got their introduction to the outdoor team on Sunday.
“We are very serious about developing soccer in Fayetteville,” said team owner Lin. “One day, I’m hoping you watch this and that these players before you who have made it to the big leagues, the international level, you say, ‘Well, I remember when they first announced this.’”