Hartford Athletic look continue their seven-game unbeaten run in all competitions as they host Tampa Bay Rowdies at Trinity Health Stadium on Saturday night. Across that stretch of games, the Latics have picked up 11 points in the league and won two knockout games to advance to the final of the USL Cup for the second straight season.

While Hartford have hardly been the most fluid team over that stretch, they’ve ground out results, coming from behind to claim eight of those 11 league points from losing positions. And the Latics are also able to take care of business when they get a lead, too, dropping just two points all season from a game in which they had a lead and in that game, against Indy Eleven in March, the fought back from 2-1 down to grab a point after squandering an early 1-nil lead.

“We know that we can grind with the best of them,” said Hartford manager Brendan Burke when speaking to the media this week. “We know that we can grind out and nil-nil if we have to. We know that ultimately, this team is full of grit.”

They will need to continue to be full of grit on Saturday night. Their busy schedule will require them to dig deep once again, with fixture congestion raising the question of exactly how much they might rotate on Saturday night.

As the Latics prepare for their fifth game in just 15 days – and with two more to come in the following seven – Brendan Burke will need to manage minutes, which might consign several first-choice players to the bench. At the same time, this is unlikely to be a true “empty the bench” game, like last Saturday in Detroit, and  likely to feature against the Rowdies.

Ben Mines is a player Burke is quite familiar with, as he was loaned to Colorado Springs in 2021 when he was the manager there and actually made just his third appearance in the league against Burke’s Bethlehem Steel side back in 2016. He’s gone on to make nearly 150 league appearances for seven different teams.

He had a career year last year with Loudoun United – 14 goal contributions in all competitions – and is versatile enough to play anywhere along the right-hand side, as well as in multiple positions across the front four. That flexibility and familiarity is part of what made Burke want to add Mines to his roster, with the Hartford manager praising his latest addition.

“I expect him to play minutes right away. That's what I'm expecting and that's why he was the target for this loan. I didn't want to bring in a player on loan who there I had any question marks about. And before Ben got hurt that year [in 2021], when he was on loan from Cincinnati with us in Colorado, it looked like he was going to have a huge year. I got to see him for multiple weeks in our environment in a very good team, so I I jumped at the opportunity and I feel like this could be a big signing for us.”

On the other side of the pitch on Saturday are Tampa Bay, the current leaders in the race for the Player’s Shield. It has one of the most effective attacks in the league – to which they just added Jürgen Locadia – and a virtually water-tight defense as well. No team in the entire league is as consistent at both ends of the pitch, which would present a tall order for Hartford even if it weren’t faced with the prospect of meaningful rotation.

At the same time, Hartford already own a 1-nil road victory over Rowdies this season, having handed them their first loss of the 2026 campaign when the two teams met at Al Lang stadium. That result will give the Latics confidence that they can continue their run of good form and get a result out of the league leaders on Saturday night.

They'll need the same kind of solid defensive performance that propelled them through the first part of the season, but will also be aiming to continue their improved run of goalscoring form, which has seen them add nine goals in just five games, after their first 17 league games netted just 12 goals. A little bit of both could see them take another point – or more – from the league leaders, an outcome that would see the confidence that has been building in this team go to entirely another level.