Hartford Athletic eased past FC Motown on Wednesday night in the US Open Cup, with goals from TJ Presthus and Andres Hernandez enough to see them through to the second round.
With a squad featuring a number of débutantes, here are three thoughts on Hartford's win and the Open Cup.
1 - A stretched squad does just enough
With a squad depleted by injuries and other absences, Brendan Burke was forced to use a number of untested players on Wednesday night. Jack Loura, Sean Canada, Galen Flynn, and Enzo Carvalho all made their professional debuts, while Spencer Gordon made his first substantial appearance for the club.
Even among the more experienced professionals, Christos Hadjipaschalis had not previously seen the pitch for the club, and Andres Hernandez had been limited to 13 minutes as a substitute against Birmingham Legion. Even Barry Coffey, who has started both of Hartford’s league games, had not passed 150 minutes played in this country after spending most of his career in Ireland. All told, eight of the eleven players who started the game for Hartford either had essentially no professional experience or are still newcomers to Burke’s approach.
The performance on the field was about what you’d expect under those circumstances. As a unit, Hartford struggled for cohesion at both ends of the pitch. In attack, things bogged down between the halfway line and the box, and for most of the game, their best chances – and both their goals – came from set-pieces.
Defensively, there were more than a few wobbles, and Flynn and Loura were regularly beaten on the sides, with the pair combining to win just four out of 17 duels. Hartford also had to clear the ball off the line twice, and on another night, FC Motown would have got the goal that they probably deserved.
Of the players who were either making their debut or their first start, the standout was certainly Hernandez, who marked his first start for Hartford with a goal and an assist, both coming from set pieces.
“He's so meshing into our system of play," Burke said after the game. "So I thought that in the run of play, there still things, we need to identify. Timing and things like that, and distances, connection to the forwards is something we talked about, but great for him. Look, you got a goal and an assist in your first start for the club. No one's going to complain about that.”
Those things will hopefully come in time – and Hernandez certainly looked better in the run of play in the second half – but Wednesday also demonstrated how much work there still is to do for Burke’s side. This team is not particularly deep, and while the squad that Burke assembled was good enough to get a win over an amateur side in the Open Cup, it won’t be enough against professional sides in the Championship.
2 - TJ Presthus reminds everyone of his quality
If there’s an area where Burke does have some quality depth, it’s center back. TJ Presthus, who logged over 2800 minutes in all competitions last season, has so far been consigned to the bench in 2026. On Wednesday, he stepped into the starting eleven and delivered a man-of-the-match performance.
His rock-solid performance included 13 defensive contributions, as FC Motown was simply unable to find a way past him. When things got wobbly, Presthus was there to close the door, with two clearances off the line in the game.
He also chipped in what turned out to be the game-winner, heading home from a corner in the first half. Presthus did well to get in front of his man at the near post and was able to flick the ball on and past Dominic Ridge in the Motown net. He’s not known as a goal-scorer – that was just his third in all competitions for Hartford – but once again he was exactly where he needed to be and executed perfectly.
Britton Fischer might have won a spot in the starting lineup so far this season, but on Wednesday, Presthus showed that he’s always ready to contribute. While some of his teammates struggled on a frigid night in Newark, he turned in a complete performance, which should give Burke confidence that no matter who he has to turn to, his back line will be able to deliver.
3 - The Open Cup is what is best in life
In the MLS era, the U.S. Open Cup has for the most part become just another piece of silverware fought over by teams in America’s top division. Only one team outside the top tier – Rochester Rhinos in 1999 – has won the Cup since 1996. Since then, only Charleston Battery in 2008 and Sacramento Republic in 2022 have reached the final while playing outside of MLS. There’s a blandness to this, especially as MLS clubs continue to care less and less about America’s oldest domestic competition in search of greater revenue opportunities elsewhere.
It's not a knock on the fans of MLS clubs, who continue to be passionate even as the league, and many of its constituent clubs, seem determined to squeeze everything that is good out of the game in the name of profit.
Nonetheless, the early rounds of the cup continue to be a reminder that this game is far more than the corporate soullessness of MLS. A packed house saw USL2 side Vermont Green cruise to victory over League One Portland Hearts of Pine. Elsewhere, Asheville City (also of USL2) and Valley 559 (of UPSL) claimed victories over other professional sides. Charleston Battery, New Mexico United, and Spokane Velocity needed late goals to eke out victory in regulation, all in games against amateur opposition.
This is, ultimately, what it’s all about. The game is healthier and better when winning and losing is not simply a matter of being the bigger or richer club. Amateur and semi-pro sides beating fully professional clubs will always be welcome, and the scenes on the pitch at Virtue Field after Vermont’s victory show how much those outcomes mean to the fans.
Because, at the end of the day, the fans make or break the experience. Whether it’s thousands of Portland Hearts of Pine supporters trying to get tickets to their club’s first-round clash against Vermont Green, or seven Hartford Athletic fans traveling down to Newark, New Jersey, on a Wednesday night, the passion of the supporters is the best thing about soccer.
But if the best was on display over the last few days, so was the worst. The contest between El Farolito and Sacramento Republic went to extra time, and then devolved into chaos. A contest that had already been heated got even more so as time wound down, with altercations between players resulting in two red cards, and then a handful of El Farolito players climbing into the stands to confront some fans. There will probably be retroactive discipline for some players – and maybe even consequences for fans – depending on what facts can be established about exactly what transpired.
There's an instinct to talk about incidents like this as ugly – which they certainly are – and to insist that they can somehow be eradicated from the game, which seems less certain.
You truthfully can't have the high-intensity passion that makes the game so great without that occasionally turning ugly. If the game demands that players give their all, if the game inspires fans to the heights of passion, then sometimes it will spill over in bad ways as well as good ones.
Incidents like what happened in Sacramento are far from ideal, but as long as soccer inspires both the players and the fans to care, they will continue to happen. And for my money, it’s a small price to pay to be reminded that there are still places in American soccer where the messy business of simply caring about the sport can be on full display.
