Hartford Athletic begin the second half of their 2026 USL Championship campaign with a trip to Arizona to take on Phoenix Rising on Saturday night. As they do, they sit just outside the playoff places in the Eastern Conference, level on 19 points with RIFC, but currently missing out on postseason football on goal difference.

The Latics closed out the first half of the season in a rain-soaked game in Pawtucket, losing 1-nil to RIFC through a first-half Frank Nodarse goal. After that game, Brendan Burke pointed to three culprits that contributed to that outcome: Hartford’s own sloppiness, a rash of injuries, and poor officiating. 

“First half, we were really sloppy on the ball,” said Burke about his own team’s errors. “We have to raise our hands for how sloppy we were in the first half. We weren't playing in the patterns that we had rehearsed. And second-half we did and we were way more effective. We played most of the second-half in their half of the field. Some of that comes from them being up a goal. But the reality is we had a real foothold there and a lot of box entries and our forwards just weren't able to latch on to anything meaningful.”

Two of those missed opportunities were by Augustine Williams, who has continued to struggle to find the net on a consistent basis. First, he missed a close-range header after an inch-perfect cross from Abdullah Taofeek, failing to even test Koke Vegas from just a few yards out. And then, with Hartford in transition and Taofeek and Barry Coffey available on either side of him, Williams hesitated, picked neither, and instead shot from long range, with his effort being easily blocked.

That lack of real cutting edge – the failure to turn promising moments into good looks at goal and then to turn good looks at goal into actual goals – has haunted Hartford for the entire season, and Saturday was no different. If there’s something that the Latics absolutely have to do to truly kickstart their season, it’s find some goals, and as the calendar inches towards August, they don’t seem to be any closer to figuring that out.

But Hartford had additional problems last weekend, as their list of injuries grew even further. Five first-choices selections: Emmanuel Samadia, Samuel Careaga, Sebastian Anderson, Arturo Diz Pe and Michee Ngalina were all missing from action in Pawtucket, with key reserves Matt Real, Sadat Anaku and Adewale Obalola also unavailable. And midfielder Beverly Makangila went off with an injury as well, compounding the problem even further. 

Given those circumstances, Burke was not entirely disatisfed with the result.

“It was closer than I thought it would be given how depleted we are," he said. "You know, missing 7 or so guys who would be starters on a normal night is a mountain to climb. But I have to give a lot of credit to the guys that did play. They were phenomenal. They pushed, they never stopped. But the reality is those seven guys that are missing, a couple of them are candidates to be all league. So it's we're in a massive hole right now because of our our lack of availability and we're not going to come out of it anytime soon. So I'm just really proud of the guys who played tonight and how hard they pushed and they just scrapped right to the final whistle.”

Burke had one final target coming out of El Clamico: the officiating. Hartford’s manager is no stranger to criticizing the quality or consistency of officiating in the USL Championship, and his opinion on Saturday was no different.

“That referee was horrendous all night and the whole crew were horrendous,” he said after the game.,"It's become a massive issue for this league, not being able to to raise the bar on that side of the game. It's unfortunately ruining almost every game that we that we take part in in one way or another.”

As attention now turns to the second half of the season, one of the biggest questions looming over the Latics is health and whether or not Hartford can supplement their squad. And make no mistake, Hartford’s injury crisis is almost as bad as it can be.

"I think we have something crazy like 44% of our roster budget is unavailable right now,” said Burke. “We've combed through every training session to make sure we never overdid it in training. You know we lost our grass field this year, and that's put a huge hole in us. But I don't want to make excuses either, like we have to find a way to win without those guys until they start coming back. That's just our reality. We're right below the playoff line right now. Even though we're tied on points, we're in a bad spot right now.”

Despite being in a bad spot right now, Burke is positive overall about how things are going in 2026.

“We started well, we’ve been solid defensively, only one real blow out game, against El Paso," he said. "So I’m very optimistic in terms of where this could go.”

And Hartford have been solid defensively, compiling one of the best defensive records in the league at the midway point. That is reason enough for optimism, particularly as the Latics have managed to achieve that while navigating numerous injuries. 

Those injuries are where the focus is for Hartford at the moment, with the club leaning on head athletic trainer Mike Dias to help them recover.

“We trust Mike,” said Burke, “He’s great at what he does, so we’ve got to give him time to work. He’s careful, but not overly careful. What we don’t need is long term injuries, season ending injuries, recurring injuries. He’s always done a great job since I’ve been here, so we’re just trusting him.”

Dias is in his fifth season with the club, and is one of the few technical pieces from the pre-Burke era that has been retained year over year, a sign of the trust that the manager has in the head athletic trainer.

He has his work cut out for him now, with the sheer volume of injuries, but two of the players he’s coaxing back to fitness should be ready soon, and more in the coming week.

“Sadat [Anaku] and Addie [Adewale Obalola] are both likely to make the bench [on Saturday], that’s a huge boost for us,” said Burke: “So if they both make the bench and are able to eat some minutes this weekend, next weekend, we keep pushing towards full availability. We hope to have three more guys next weekend as well.”

Having five of their nine missing players available by next weekend would be excellent news for the Latics, even if it will still leave them missing some pieces heading towards their cup quarterfinal. And Hartford have also added another piece, with Michael Adedokun coming in on loan from Lexington SC in the hopes of giving Hartford a boost in their attacking group. Adedokun has not quite found his scoring touch in the Championship, but the Latics will be trying to recover some of the player who won the Hermann Trophy for best men’s college soccer player in 2024 as they try to unlock a few more goals to accompany their excellent defense.

As for Saturday night, the story of Phoenix Rising in 2026 is all about forward Ihsan Sacko. The RC Strasbourg youth product came to the Championship ahead of the 2025 season, and added 13 goal contributions for Rising in that campaign. He’s been even more productive in 2026, with 12 goal contributions already, and his nine goals have him fifth among all players in the league.

And Phoenix provide him with plenty of service, with the rest of their attacking players and midfielders making plenty of contributions, something Burke highlighted ahead of the game.

“Their front four are really good, dynamic, electric, they can beat you on their own," Burke said. "Their central midfielders are a great pair, they both get at you.”

But while Burke believes that Phoenix have plenty in attack, he also believes there might be opportunities to get after them, even with his depleted attack.

“Structurally, they’re very sound, but they aren’t dominant," Burke sais. "So we’re not going there to sit back.”

It might be tempting to sit back and try to scrap out a point, but Hartford probably don’t have the bodies for the strategy they’ve employed to varying degrees of success earlier in the season. Getting something in Phoenix will require taking some other risks, and that’s exactly the message Burke delivered about his team’s approach for Saturday night.

“We’re playing the lottery.”