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MASL Florida Tropics SC

Two-Time All MASL Second Team All Star Hugo Silva Signs Five-Year Deal to Stay with Tropics

September 20, 2021 - Major Arena Soccer League (MASL)
Florida Tropics SC News Release


Hugo Silva enters the field for the Florida Tropics
Hugo Silva enters the field for the Florida Tropics
(Florida Tropics SC)

LAKELAND, Fla. - The holder of virtually every major Florida Tropics goaltending record will be back with the team for the next three seasons.

Hugo Silva, an All MASL Second Team all star each of the past two seasons, has signed a new three-year contract to stay with the Tropics. Per league and team policy, no further detail of the deal will be released.

Silva is the team's career leader in wins, goals against average and saves percentage, and in 27 starts over the past two years he has posted 23 wins.

Since joining the Tropics three seasons ago, Silva has a 5.41 goals against average, and a .686 save percentage, which includes a career best .734 mark in the 2021 season. His goals against average has been a stingy 4.43 last year and 4.14 two seasons ago.

Including two years with the Harrisburg Heat, Silva has appeared in 88 career MASL games, with a record of 45-43, a GAA of 5.68 and a saves percentage of .694.

"Hugo is one of the best if not the best goalkeeper in the league," Head Coach Clay Roberts said. "For him to be all league the last two seasons just speaks to his talent. The importance of the goalkeeper in the indoor game is just huge, if you don't have it, you're not going to have success."

He lead the entire MASL with 160 saves last year, and also recorded his first career shutout in a home win over the Dallas Sidekicks on Jan. 16, 2021.

"For us to have who I consider the best goaltender in the league back for a long-term deal for us is just fantastic," Roberts added. "His ability to make those big saves out of nowhere helps us when we have breakdowns. Indoor soccer is about goals, and good defenders make mistakes and the ball going off the boards, so that goaltender has to shine in that moment and we've seen Hugo do that time and time again."

The Tropics will kick off their sixth season in the Major Arena Soccer League later this fall at the RP Funding Center in Lakeland, playing a 24-game schedule. The Tropics were the 2019-20 Eastern Conference champions with an 18-3 record. The season and playoffs were cancelled in March that season because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Last year, the Tropics won the regular season title with a 10-3 mark, but fell in the first-round of the MASL playoffs to the eventual champion San Diego Sockers in games played on a neutral field in Kansas City.

The league expects to announce its full schedule in the coming weeks, at which time the Tropics will also release information on tickets including a new fan-friendly policy that will allow thousands of local soccer fans to attend MASL games over the winter.

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Hugo Silva enters the field for the Florida Tropics
Hugo Silva enters the field for the Florida Tropics
   

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