Vermont Green FC and Hartford Athletic battled to a nil-nil draw on Tuesday night at Trinity Health Stadium, as both teams made their debuts in the USL W League.
Hartford Athletic came out in what was basically a 4-2-3-1 with a back four of Olivia Beauvois, Taylor Jenkins, Natalie Chudowsky and Emma Gregorski with Domi Richardson and Ashley Reyes in front of them. Jocyline Koffi, Juliana Garcia, Rachel Wygant and Shea Kelleher made up the front four, with Garcia at the 10, Koffi and Wygant on the wings, and Kelleher playing up top. Katrina Chorzepa got the start in net.
Vermont played a 4-3-3 that saw Olivia Shippee get the start in net. The backline was made of Georgina Clarke, Bridget Kennedy, Violet Rademacher, and Chloe Gorman. Olivia Grenda, Isabel Smith, and Brenna Connell made up the midfield trio while Emily Mara, Lauren DeGroot, and Tess Barrett led the attack.
The opening stages of the game were a little cagey, but Vermont Green were just about on top, finding some pockets of space, particularly on the left, where Mara gave Beauvois fits in the early going. The Hartford defender recovered nicely, however, and Mara found the going increasingly difficult as the game progressed, with Vermont ultimately switching sides to give Mara a chance to run at Gregorski instead.
She had some initial success there including creating one of Vermont’s best moments of the night, cutting inside before sliding the ball in for DeGroot, who’s attempted flick was easily picked up by Chorzepa. After that, though, Gregorski found her feet as well, Mara faded from the game as Vermont’s chances became few and far between.
After the game, Hartford manager Danny Barrera put some of this down to nerves.
“I think the first half, it was a lot of nerves," he told The Blazing Musket. "Obviously it's an emotional game for the girls when they're playing in front of friends and family in a big crowd. And they were all fighting for positions. I mean, we created a very professional environment, you know, and, and everyone has a real competitive mindset. So with that said, I think there's a little bit of jitters,making mistakes, things like that.”
As the Hartford players began to settle, they also began to grow into the game, with Koffi repeatedly finding space down the left-hand side of the Vermont defense. The Ivory Coast native was the most electric player on the pitch on Tuesday night, with Barrera saying that she “really showed her personality."
One of Koffi’s best moments came just before the half-hour mark, when she found space on the wing and curled the ball into the box with both Reyes and Wygant lurking, but neither was able to set themself to put the ball on target.
A few minutes later, Koffi played a little give-and-go in the midfield and drove at the Vermont defense before unleashing a shot from distance that went just past the post of Shippee in the Vermont net.
The game was starting to lag a little as half-time approached as there had somewhat surprisingly been no hydration break, but in an unusual thirty seconds of stoppage time Kelleher received the ball in a very dangerous spot and unleashed a shot from close range – but a tight angle – that Shippee did well to parry out of bounds as time expired.
After half-time, Hartford were the dominant team, outshooting Vermont 6-1 over the second 45 minutes. For Barrera, this was a combination of shaking off the first-game jitters, and a few well-timed substitutions, with the manager making particular note of the decision to bring in Diana Baffor.
“I just felt like we needed a little bit more composure in that middle area," he said. "So to bring in Diana, who's played along Josie for years, they played together in high school, they have a really good chemistry, good connection. I felt like that that was the right move. And and obviously the weather, girls getting tired, fitness being a being a point here. As far as first, first half, we were just running, running, running, running. So I think we just needed fresh legs as well and throw something different.”
Baffor showed off a good range of passing, as well as confidence and composure in the middle of the park, and may very well have earned herself more minutes with her second-half showing on Tuesday, with some excellent diagonal balls giving Hartford a dimension that they had lacked before her introduction.
Outside of the substitutions, it was also a matter of Hartford settling into the game and trying to execute Barrera’s vision, with the manager full of praise for how his team responded in tiring conditions.
“I think they really grew into the game and I talked to them about our identity, which is taking care of the ball, moving the other team around, getting them tired, swinging them and then breaking lines and being dangerous," he said. "And I think they did that really well in the second half.”
Hartford did do a much better job of that in the second half, with both Koffi and Wygant finding space to attack both down the wings and through the middle. There were moments where it felt like Koffi might be trying to do a bit too much including one attacking move where she attempted a speculative effort from 25 yards out when it looked like a better option might have been to pick out one of two overlapping runs but the teenager’s dynamism brought so much to the game that one or two poor decisions are easy to overlook.
The game did bog down a little in the last quarter of an hour, with an unfortunate injury to Koffi the main thing to note. The forward had to be helped off the pitch, and her status is currently unclear but with such a short season, it’s to be hoped that it was nothing more than a bad cramp, and that she will be available again soon.
A scoreless draw was perhaps not the expected result, given the typical rate of scoring in the W League, and Harford might feel like it had earned a goal, particularly given the way they were on top of the game in the second half. Nevertheless, there were enough bright spots to leave Barrera in a positive mood.
“I think they kind of got out of their own heads now and they kind of realize how good they really are and they just have to build on that," he said. "They have to continue to play without confidence, continue with that composure on the ball, continue being dangerous and now we just have to believe in front of that.”
Hartford will have its first opportunity to build on this performance on Friday night, as the Latics head to Ludlow Massachusetts to take on the New England Mutiny at Lusitano Stadium. The Green have their home opener on Saturday versus the Hudson Valley Crusaders.
