We started 2023 with a closed-doors friendly against a European professional team - Hertha Berlin BSC and ended in front of thousands of people versus Lionsbridge FC in the semi-final of the league. Let’s take some time to look back at this incredible year!
New Home Our move to the H G Morse Range this season was a big change. Most of theresponse from you was very positive as we were able to provide golf car access, more bathrooms, better streaming, a very cool scoreboard, and an overall beautiful location. We did receive a bit of kickback as some fans felt that at our facility they were closer to the action but overall it was a very good move and one that allows us to bring even more people together in the future.
Moving up We had 110 players at our tryouts. The ones selected had the opportunity to join our UPSL or USL Academy teams before the Summer allowing them to become a part of the club before the USL2 team started. Tryouts > UPSL > USL2 Alvaro Carrera was one of those players. He not only moved to the main team but he became a staple of the Buffalo line-up scoring some very nice goals and later was selected by the league as player of the year for the Southeast Division. Aidan Kaczmarski was another player who got his chance to play for the main team. The 16-year-old from Belleview resident was the youngest player to play for us in the history of the club.
Uniform The unlucky black kit...The gold kit - home), black kit - away, was the idea. That was until the black kit became “bad luck.” It started with the Florida Elite game at our home field. They said they only had their neon green kits available so we had to change. That game was very heated and ended up in a tie. Then, we had a tie versus Nona FC (away). After that, Florida Elite again at home only had their neon green to play with, we not only lost but had 2 of our defenders ejected and Niclas Wittur had a season-ending injury. Though we had won twice against Tampa United wearing the black kits, players were convinced the black kit was bad luck. When it was our turn to play at Florida Elite at their home we conveniently forgot our black kits. It was an issue. The game was delayed and they tried to make us change, again. But in the end, we did get to play in our gold kits. We won that game. From then on all the players wanted to wear was gold. Did you notice all of our playoff games we had our gold kits on?
By the numbers: Black kit - 5 games - 2 wins, 2 ties and 1 loss Gold kit - 11 games - 9 wins, 1 tie and 1 loss Maybe it was just superstition... who knows... but we did win that 3rd Florida Elite game ;-)
The return Lucas Mauro, Pedro Santos, and Nick Butler had all played for the Buffalo in2021. After a year hiatus, for different reasons, all three of them returned to join an already solid lineup. We are so glad they did!Speaking of return…The coach, the player, the legend - Yago Lopes! This year Mr. Lopes had played more seasons and started in more games than any other Buffalo player ever. In 2023 he decided it was time to take a new role and to the surprise of many joined the coaching staff. A natural fit. It was all going according to plan until both of our starting defenders received red cards in the same game leaving theBuffalo looking for options. They didn’t have to look too far. Yago was registered to play the very next day. He played the following game as well as 2 others as the team needed, juggling his role as coach and player for the rest of the season.
Down to the wire With our division divided in half and the strongest teams in the top half of theState, we got ourselves a very tight race. We played strong teams, TampaUnited and Florida Elite, 3 times. Against Tampa United, we won all 3 games but 2 of those by only one goal difference. With Florida Elite we tied the first game, lost the second and it wasn’t until the third game that we got a 2x1 win.Nona FC was looking to take the Southeast Division from us again and they didn’t make it easy. Both of our games ended in ties (0x0 and 2x2) in some ofthe most exciting matches of the season. The final home game of the regular season (home against Tampa United) ended 1x0 giving us the very small edge we needed to once again take our division. We finished the regular season with 27 points. Nona FC just behind with 26.
Playoffs The first playoff game had plenty of excitement with Mauro scoring 2 goals and Tieppo saving a penalty kick. 2x0 was the score until the end of regular time. Atthe 90th SC Bantams scored a goal. After that, we watched as the referee kept allowing for more and more time (probably hoping the local team could tie it up.) Those were some of the longest 9 minutes, yes, 9 minutes of extra time.
The second game was versus the host team, Asheville SC. The Buffalo scored in the 50th minute (Fred Ferreira). 6 minutes of added time was announced but the game went on for another 9 minutes with plenty of drama including a red card issued to Asheville. Tieppo was named man of the match as he kept a clean sheet with many, many incredible saves. This was the first time in the season that our league noticed a player from our team and one comment from Asheville fans at the end of the livestream sums it up “Sad, but their goalie is a beast!”
The third game in the playoffs was scheduled for 5:00 PM. The game didn’t start until 7:15 PM due to extreme heat! The Buffalo scored at the 75th-minute mark (Matheus Ferreira). The game was 1x0 as the regular time ended. 7minutes of extra time were added. With only one minute left in extra time, the LLR Rangers scored!!! 1x1 had us going into 30 minutes of extra time. That is the beauty and also the frustrating thing about the game we love. After the 30 minutes with no deciding goals, we went on to penalty kicks. We scored all 5. LLR Rangers 3 and we moved on! This was the night we got our Southern Conference award and it felt so good to be able to celebrate after such a long game.
The fourth game had us 0x0 in the first half. In the first minute of the second half, we scored (Carrera.) Lionsbridge equalized in the 67th minute. 1x1 regular time and we went on to extra time and then penalty kicks, again. With 4 scored by the home team and 3 by the Buffalo, our incredible run was over. Over 450 minutes played in 4 games with 2 of them decided in penalty kicks. What a run! What a season!
Furthest This year was the best run for the Buffalo. We won the Southeast Division in2016, 2017, 2019, 2021, and 2023 (no competition in 2020) and the Southern Conference in 2018 and 2023. This is the first year we won both our conference and our division. In 2018 we won the Conference but were second in our division only getting the playoff spot as a wild card. Even more exciting was making it to the final four in a league almost doubled in size. In 2016, when we first joined, the league had 67 teams. This past season they boasted 122 teams with yours truly making it all the way to the National Semi-final! So, close!
Thank you! With such a long break from one season to the next we never know who will still take time from their summer plans to join us. It’s so cool to see fans who have been with us from the very beginning returning as well as meeting new faces. Thank you to all of our supporters. The ones who came to our home games. The ones who travel to away games and make us feel like we were playing at home. Those who moved away but watched and cheered nonetheless. The youth parents who came just because their kids wanted to see their friends and got caught up in the excitement. The families, friends, and girlfriends of players who came for their loved ones and turned into Buffalo. The ones who tuned in to watch matches and made sure we knew they were cheering for us. The ones who put together watch parties.
The ones who brought lunch to the players and staff. The ones who drove to Virginia with signs to welcome the team to the stadium. The kids who we met while practicing in North Carolina and then came to the game. Cheering for us in the middle of the fans from the home team and then running onto the field to celebrate. The bus driver who drove us to the first round of playoffs that didn’t know much about the game but put out a red carpet for the team every time we got off the bus and couldn’t get enough of the games. Who made sure to do whatever he could to get assigned to drive us again in the second round. The ones who stayed up late to welcome our team home. There are so many more.
Thank you everyone. We truly appreciate you being apart of this.
