Hartford Athletic claimed all three points in their season opener on Saturday night, with new faces Augustine Williams, Barry Coffey, Britton Fischer, Matt Real and Sadat Anaku making their debuts.
It's the biggest win in a season opener in club history - and in fact the first time ever that the team has won their first game by more than a single goal. And while things weren't perfect, there were more than enough good things to leave everyone feeling pretty positive.
Here's three thoughts on Hartford's season-opening victory.
1 - The attack is light-years from where it was at this point last season
In 2025, Hartford started the season dismally. They didn’t score multiple goals in a USL Championship game until May 3rd - a 4-2 loss to Charleston Battery - which was their sixth league game of the season. They didn’t manage 10 shots in a USL Championship game until May 10 - a nil-nil draw against Detroit City. While things obviously improved in 2025, it was an open question heading into Saturday whether Hartford would suffer another slow start.
What Hartford showed in their season opener Saturday night against Sporting Jacksonville was far more akin to what they delivered later in the season. Despite holding just 31% of possession, they took 14 shots, with 8 of those being on target, needing just 64 completed passes in the Jacksonville half to manage that. Hartford also had 26 touches in the opposition box, behind only Louisville (27) and Tampa Bay (29) over the opening weekend - and both those clubs attempted over 200 more passes than the Latics did.
All those numbers are essentially how Hartford played during their hot spell last summer. In their USL Cup final triumph over Sacramento, for example, they had just 36% of the possession, while putting five of 14 shots on target off just 81 completed passes in the Republic half. They also had 22 touches in the opposition box in that game - exactly as many as Sacramento, despite again attempting almost 200 fewer passes than their opponents.
And even discounting the penalty, Hartford had a better expected goals for than any other Championship team over the weekend. Expected goals aren’t actual goals, but it’s another demonstration that for this game at least, Hartford are doing the things they want to be doing - and of course, last night, the Latics turned those chances into three goals.
Another measure of just how vertical Hartford was on Saturday night: their average completed pass traveled 12.4 yards up field, the most of any team that has yet played. That’s also exactly how Hartford played at their best in 2025: during their peak last summer, the Latics’ average completed pass was clocking in at just shy of 10 vertical yards.
All of which is a long way to say that much of what Hartford accomplished on Saturday night was exactly what they want to be doing - and a strong positive indicator that, despite their disrupted preseason preparations, they’re a lot closer to where they want to be than they were in March of 2025. There will be sterner tests ahead, but it was overwhelmingly good news for Brendan Burke & Co in attack in their opener.
2 - The Real Deal
Real is not going to be Brendan Burke’s first-choice on the left-hand side of the defense all season. That will be Emmanuel Samadia. But with both Samadia and Baboucarr Njie unavailable, Burke turned to a familiar face on Saturday, and was amply rewarded for his trust in the experienced defender.
While Real might not have been quite as far forward as he could have been, he hardly put a foot wrong defensively, winning all six of his duels and leading all players with six interceptions. There may have been a hint of fortune about his assist on Augustine Williams’ opener, but even so, Real was in the right place, got his head to the ball, and knocked it upfield - exactly what he needs to do to give Hartford’s forwards a chance to chase the ball in a dangerous area.
Burke wants to be “two deep” at every position, and Real’s performance on Saturday shows that, one Samadia is available, there will be no issues with depth on the left-hand of the Hartford defense. Even if Samadia earns a summer move to MLS or elsewhere, there will be no worries about that side of the pitch as long as Real remains available - and that might be one of the most important things to come out of the opener.
3 - Defensive wobbles
Hartford kept a clean sheet on Saturday, but may have been slightly fortunate to do so. Jacksonville had an expected goals of 1.39 - the highest among all losing clubs of games played through Saturday night, as well a the highest of any club to be held scoreless. More than once, a Jacksonville player got a free header in the box, and while neither Wahab Ackwei or Emil Jääskeläinen was able to put their effort on frame, it has to be a source of concern that it was just a little bit too easy to get those chances in the first place.
The Latics also played themselves into a little bit of trouble as well, with a bad turnover coming right out of half-time resulting in a great look for the hosts, as they were able to carve open the defense with just a few passes. It’s the downside of Burke’s approach to the game - one error can cascade very quickly - but overall, the Latics will have been disappointed to serve up quite so many gilt-edged opportunities. Certainly, better clubs than Jacksonville will take advantage of them in the future.
This might simply be a product of a disrupted preseason, as there were other signs of Hartford’s limited preparations as well. A series of set-piece opportunities in the first half petered out into nothing when the Latics tried anything more intricate than simply banging the ball into the box. For a team that won the USL Cup with a goal built on the training ground, that kind of ineffectiveness from set-pieces is definitely not the expectation, and Burke and his staff will be looking to clean those things up in the coming weeks.
