Sophomore Slump: 2025-26 Sun FC Season Review
A sophomore slump is common enough – in sports, music, pretty much anywhere. So it was with the Sun in their second season.
With Sporting Jax joining the Super League, raising the competitors to nine, Tampa Bay finished eighth. The aforementioned expansion side finished second before getting dumped unceremoniously out of the playoffs despite playing at home. The only possible silver lining is that the final team from Florida, Fort Lauderdale United finished dead last. The Blue and Gold got several hits in on their rivals from the south this year.
For fans looking for points beyond those earned at FLOOTD’s expense, it was slim picking. The Sun earned five victories: one at home vs. Fort Lauderdale and four on the road vs. Spokane, DC, Dallas, and Fort Lauderdale. Naturally, that is extremely poor from a 28-game season, and it was good for joint last with Fort Lauderdale. One more: there was only one club with a worse goal differential. Three guesses as to who that was.
How does a team go from winning the title to almost finishing last? While the Sun lost a few important players from their first ever season, several others remained. Captain Jordyn Listro continued to play behind Carlee Giammona and Sydny Nasello, both of whom were heavily involved in prior success. Brooke Hendrix and Viv Bessette retained their roles in the center of defense for much of the season. With a frequent starting rightback returning, one could argue there was an upgrade on the left side in Sabrina McNeill (more on her later). The losses were too much to overcome, though, and what was left behind was not up to the task in front of them.
To make up for the players lost including Tash Flint, Cecilie Floe, Jade Moore, Paige Almendariz, and Ashley Orkus, the club signed several new players over the course of the year. They brought in even more in January via loans from NWSL teams. Keeping a large roster is not inconsistent from one season to the next. There’s certainly something to be said for going out and trying to add better players in positions of need. It helped in certain places, most notably with Faith Webber and Shea Connors as the season wrapped up.
However, the constant turnover appeared to be more of a function of poor options than that never-ending desire to improve common in sports. Giammona did not reach the heights from the previous season. The lack of Flint partnering with her might have contributed. Missing Floe’s speed on the wings certainly did. There was a severe lack of options for getting the ball forward. The Flying Dane’s raw ability to run in behind defenders might have papered over some cracks that were more visible this season. She most definitely kept the opposition more honest, always offering a quick release valve and real danger if the back line was too close to the Sun’s attackers.
Chance creation effectively fell to two people, and even that’s a little generous. Left back Sabrina McNeill ended the season with two goals and four assists, the latter good for best on the team. Nasello was the real engine for Tampa Bay, getting six goals in addition to her own three helpers. Frequently, she was on the opposite wing from McNeill, seemingly offering options down both wings. In practice, what fans saw was the left back turn into a left wing back with few options and the right winger trying to do everything on her own.
To be clear, Nasello is capable of doing a lot on her own – hence those numbers. However, asking her to do so, or allowing a situation where that becomes the default, is simply not feasible. Multiple review articles for RBLR this past year talked about Nasello being marked by two or three defenders, bruised and battered every game. Whether she held onto the ball due to selfishness or a lack of options can be determined on a case-by-case basis. But, the vast majority of the time, going her own way was the best choice. This is not conducive to getting many goals, and the team overall simply did not.
Connors and Webber offered dynamism sometimes through speed and at other times through pure desire. Unfortunately, they were brought in when much of the season had already been played, and the problems on the field behind them persisted.
Tampa Bay didn’t always look like they had a strong idea for how to get the ball forward. Indeed, some goals came from well out because they just needed to get a shot off. When a team is limited in an attacking sense, oftentimes a good strategy is to shore up the defense and try to make each game a low-scoring affair. If this was a goal, the Sun didn’t achieve it.
Possibly worse than the faltering attack was the consistently leaky back line. The Blue and Gold started four different keepers this season, ranging from two starts to eleven. The keeper with two starts gave up four goals; the keeper with eleven gave up 19. There were four clean sheets all year. Linking the bad stats to those actually standing in net is unfair, though. Some shots went in that shouldn’t have – when it rains it pours after all. But, it was far and away a problem of the players in front of the 18-yard box who left us with these bad numbers.
Hendrix did not start a couple of matches in 2026. Bessette did for all but one the whole season. They looked like shells of themselves at times, at least when compared to the first-year versions. Victoria Haugen dealt with multiple injury issues, never allowing her the chance to build up form. Taylor Chism inked her first professional deal after finishing her senior season of college and immediately jumped into the backline. However, for all the other signings around that time, no one else joined her in the defense. Possibly, that is where it was most needed.
Looking back on the RBLR Sun spreadsheet for 2025-26, Nasello, Webber, McNeill, and Gabby Provenzano earned the most Player of the Game nods from our podcasting team. Bessette had one, Hendrix had two, Mackenzie Pluck had one, while Chism and Jordan Zade each had two. Provenzano was not a member of the defense even if she mostly played more defensively in the midfield. Either way, this is not a good record from the players at the back. Their 46 goals against was the ignominious end result of a lack of cohesion.
Defense, like attack, is a part of the game that extends beyond the players whose positions actually go in that category. While it’s true that pressing was often disjointed, and the midfield got caught napping as often as the centerbacks, it seemed at times like the Sun were not playing up to the level necessary. Saying that now is easier because the table is finalized and Tampa Bay weren’t where they need to be. But, the signs were there throughout the year – even including what appeared a visible lack of confidence in dropped shoulders and other gestures.
Sadly, this second season will be remembered by those who were there for the negatives. The attack wasn’t helped or helping, while the defense did active harm at times. By this, I mean the systems. Players didn’t seem to be in the positions that would allow them to succeed. Some of this is down to selection. Inevitably, some of it is also down to ability. What comes next with that understanding is also inevitable: firm and large scale changes. Manager Denise Schilte-Brown pulled a rabbit out of the hat during the second half of her first season after the team hadn’t started all that well. She couldn’t do so this past season that ended two weeks ago.
If DSB ends up sticking around, she’ll know this is not what Sun fans expect from the team. The USL Super League doesn’t have a lot of history to go off (without even mentioning the demise of Spokane Zephyr). But, Tampa Bay are the inaugural champions. That can’t be changed. Reaching those same heights requires bold visions and the individual pieces and plans to execute them. The club from top to bottom needs to look in the mirror and figure out where they can improve, leave no stone unturned, and be brutally honest if that’s what’s necessary.
