Hartford Athletic will aim to bounce back from a disappointing loss to FC Tulsa as they welcome New Mexico United to Trinity Health Stadium on Saturday night. The Latics were perhaps a little unfortunate to leave Tulsa empty-handed, as they controlled large portions of the game and gave up only two real chances to the hosts on the night but Tulsa seized both of them. 

“To concede on two throw-ins is really, really hard to take when you've performed that well for most of the night,” said Hartford manager Brendan Burke on Friday, “But it's going to happen, especially away from home. And then, to their credit, they show great grit just to hang on and stay alive long enough to steal a goal at the end of the first half.”

Burke was not overly concerned about the result, focusing instead on a performance that saw his side come out on top by many measures, and expressing confidence that if they continue to deliver that type of performance, Hartford will begin to see more of the results go there way:

“Thee math tells you that over the course of the season, if you continue to perform in that way, it's going to tilt your way eventually and then you could get really hot if you are consistent putting up those underlying numbers. So we don't read too much into it. We mention it every week, but it's also the eyeball test. I mean, we pumped them.”

That echoes Burke’s assessment of the 2025 season, where a belief in the underlying metrics was validated as Hartford went from ice cold to red hot once the summer hit, putting together a run of games that rivals the best stretches in the history of the league. And with the Latics much more strongly positioned in 2026 than they were last season, they don’t have to even get quite as hot as that to really elevate their current campaign.

Part of what they need to do is obvious: score more goals, something that begins with the front line. Michee Ngalina – who, like most of Hartford’s attacking players, has struggled to find the net this season – said that the team is going to continue to “keep pushing” to find those goals. There’s certainly been an adjustment period in the front four, with Ngalina having to learn to play alongside newcomer Augi Williams, but Ngalina expressed confidence in his new strike partner.

“He’s a top player and I feel always confidence, it’s comfortable to play with him," Ngalina said. "He's a really good player and yeah, we've been fighting so hard to just get more goals.”

Another thing that Burke is looking to tighten up is to bring the club back to the elite pressing that characterized their 2025 campaign. There have been hints of it this season, but Hartford are still looing for some consistency, and Burke emphasized this again ahead of Saturday night’s game.

“We need to get  all of our pressing keys right consistently at the right intensity, but then also, you know, resetting and popping, re -establishing the pressure in the middle third of the field, even in our defensive third where we can set up and create transitions instead of waiting for them to happen. So being more proactive.”

How Hartford gets that right is something that happens during the week, with Burke placing a high emphasis on getting that press exactly right. Given that it is a critical part of what makes Hartford so successful – when it’s working – it’s no surprising that it consumes a lot of time during training each week.

“We do video every day. I don't know what other teams do at this level, but Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday leading in and our tactical setup typically happens on field on a Thursday. All of those things go into that. But then individual players meetings and video and conversations to the side. But even functional training on pressing angles and timing and triggers. So a lot goes into it. We spend as much time on that as we do on anything else in our training sessions because I do believe you can beat any team in any league if your intensity and your preparation on the defensive side of the ball are such that they can't breathe.”

Hartford will have to do all this on Saturday night without midfielder Samuel Careaga, who is suspended after receiving a red card in the loss to Tulsa. It’s a frustrating absence for a team that has struggled to get it’s first-choice players on the pitch at the same time, and Burke emphasized that he’d made that point to Careaga as well.

“I told him after the game we can't be without our number 10. He's one of the best 10s in the league. He has a huge impact on every game he plays in. So I went at him a little. The reality is that is costing him a huge opportunity to play at home against a very good team in New Mexico this week.” 

It’s a big loss for Hartford, but hopefully not a fatal one. An emphasis for Burke and his team in the offseason was to get “two deep” at every position, and Barry Coffey is likely to step in and fill the gap created by Careaga’s absence. That might limit Burke’s options elsewhere on the pitch, but it should at least give the Latics a reliable contributor in the front four; something they didn’t always have last season when Careaga was unavailable.

Saturday night will be a challenging game. Brendan Burke characteriszed New Mexico as "well-drilled, well-coached" and while it might currently sit right on the edge of the playoff places in the Western Conference, they are a team that will expect to be playing meaningful games in October. To claim a valuable three points, Hartford will need to keep getting things right; and plan to be the team that takes their chances.