Tag Archives: Riccardo Silva
A decade of Miami soccer in review The Miami FC 2

Miami Soccer in Review: Silva, The Miami FC offer direct challenge to MLS, Beckham in 2015

By on Saturday, December 28, 2019
Miami Soccer in Review | Riccardo Silva, right, poses with The Miami FC co-founder Paolo Maldini in 2015. Photo via NASL.

Magic City Soccer will take the last 10 days of 2019 to review the last 10 years of Miami-Dade County soccer. Today in Miami Soccer in Review, we take a look back at 2015. An unexpected rival enters the Miami professional soccer market, and plans to be playing games sooner than anyone would imagine.

By the middle point 2015, the David Beckham proposal bandied about anonymously in 2013 and shared publicly in February 2014 was looking ragged. Proposals for Dodge Island and Downtown were shot down. A compromise location next to Marlins Park was being stonewalled by property owners abutting the stadium’s property. It was clear that building a stadium would be the defining problem of the plan.

Seeing the instability, Italian businessman and investor Riccardo Silva made a play. Silva and Italian legend Paolo Maldini announced that The Miami FC would be competing in the North American Soccer League in the 2016 season. Instead of building a new venue, it would play at Ocean Bank Field at FIU Stadium. A head coach (Alessandro Nesta) and jersey unveiling soon followed.

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Inter Miami CF Miami The Miami FC

The SPORTELSummit will offer robust discussion about U.S. soccer, with local representation and some notable absences

By on Monday, May 14, 2018
SPORTELSummit

Soccer fans in South Florida have an interesting event to look forward to next week. The SPORTELSummit Miami Beach will bring a number of important figures in the sports world together to discuss the issues of the day. However, there are some notable absences that leave participants and followers asking: What happened?

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Miami The Miami FC

NASL Turns Lights Off For 2018 Season; Miami Shut Out Of Pro Soccer

By on Friday, March 2, 2018
The Miami FC will not field a team in the NASL for 2018.

In a way, most of the people who were told about the North American Soccer League’s decision to cancel the 2018 season were ready for that outcome. It almost seemed as if it was destined to happen after all of the events leading up to this point. Hell, the most pessimistic supporter of an NASL club could have told you the writing was on the wall after the tumultuous offseason of 2016-17. Be that as it may, Miami currently has zero professional clubs ready to play in a professional league for the 2018 season.

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The Miami FC

North America’s Best Pro Soccer Team In 2017 Is Now Homeless

By on Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Losing anything isn’t nice. Losing a soccer match can hurt. Losing your keys is annoying. But there’s nothing like losing your sanity as you follow a legal battle between the league your soccer team plays in and the nation’s soccer federation. A battle that leaves a team without a league, players without jobs and supporters with a lot of summertime weekends free.

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The Miami FC

An Unforgettable Season: A look back on The Miami FC’s 2017 campaign

By on Sunday, November 12, 2017

Writing this on the day of the NASL’s 2017 Soccer Bowl seems fitting. A day where any fan of The Miami FC would be much happier heading to the Riccardo Silva Stadium to see the culmination of an incredible season in the Soccer Bowl versus the Deltas.

But thanks to Gio Savarese’s stubborn Cosmos side our season has been over for seven days. A long week of thinking what might have been.

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The Miami FC

Selling the Drama: How to make promotion and relegation work in America

By on Tuesday, August 15, 2017
Die-hard Sky Blues supporter John Mullaney (43),with his sign during Coventry City’s relegation match against Aston Villa. Promotion and Relegation is common in European football. (Photo via Coventry Telegraph)

Four billion dollars. And now a court case. You’ve got to give it to Riccardo Silva, when he puts his mind to something he really goes at it! Loads has been written about the merits of promotion and relegation and if it can work in North America.

I think it’s something that needs to happen but there’s obviously some opposition. So how do we turn a few more people on to the idea? How do you sell the terrifying, gut-wrenching fear of relegation to American sports fans? Well here are some options.

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The Miami FC

Miami FC continues magic run through Open Cup, eliminates Atlanta United

By on Thursday, June 29, 2017

Riccardo Silva couldn’t have dreamed it when he first formed The Miami FC.

9,000-plus fans. A hot but beautiful night. Major League Soccer competition on the field against his squad. A back-and-forth affair keeping everyone in their seats until the final seconds, when a Miami FC player streamed toward goal and finished a one-on-one opportunity to send the club into the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup quarterfinals.

His, and many other, dreams were realized Wednesday night when Miami FC dispatched yet another Major League Soccer side from the U.S. Open Cup, this time toppling Atlanta United 3-2 with one of the best finishes a soccer fan could ever hope to see.

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