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The Sarasota Paradise’s tenure in USL League Two came to an end Sunday evening when the team fell 2-1 to Fort Lauderdale United FC in the Southern Conference Semifinal. The Paradise, which will make the jump to the fully professional USL League One in 2026, hit a number of milestones this season from moving to Premier Sports Campus in Lakewood Ranch to repeating as South Florida Division champions and notching its first postseason victory on July 18.

Although much of the roster and staff will likely not return when the team makes the jump to USL League One, the 2025 season laid the foundation for the future of professional soccer in Sarasota. Not only did the Paradise post a dominant 9-1-2 record in a division that head coach Mirko Dakovic said was “20-30% better” than in 2024, the team also averaged over 1,200 fans during home matches. Dakovic looks back on the team’s 2-1 victory over Fort Lauderdale on June 4, the regular season finale victory over FC Miami City on July 12 and the postseason victory on July 18 as high points of the season.

“When we went into Fort Lauderdale, they were 7-0,” says Dakovic. “The look of utter shock on their faces after suffering a defeat and conceding their first two goals of the season is something that will stick with me. Beating FC Miami City in our last game of the season was an ego thing for us to avenge the only league loss we’d had. The amount of grit and resiliency we displayed in a game after we’d already clinched the division spoke volumes about the integrity of our players and their desire to win.”

The Paradise’s season was also filled with moments of growth. Dakovic looks back to a discussion he had with local standout Andres Freire, a Riverview High graduate who plays at Stetson University. Freire, who sat the first game of the season, ended up being the team’s leading scorer in 2025. “I told him that I felt he could bring a lot more to the team and we needed that,” says Dakovic. “I’m not happy about the tough love I had to give him, but after that conversation he was one of our best players, just dominant on all levels and I’m extremely proud of him.”

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