Hartford Athletic welcome Pittsburgh Riverhounds on Saturday night, as they look to build on a famous win against the Tampa Bay Rowdies last weekend. That result brought the Rowdies a red-hot start to the season to a screeching halt and reminded the entire league that even if they’re scuffling, Hartford are still a force to be reckoned with in the Eastern Conference.

In that game, Brendan Burke made some tactical changes, playing not two, not three, but four center backs against Tampa Bay Rowdies. It was an unusually defensive formation for a club that wants to get on the front foot, and Burke was full of praise for how his team carried out the plan in Tampa.

“We changed a lot tactically and the guys executed to perfection. We took on a lot of waves of possession from them, but it didn't really lead to too much. Anto makes two fantastic saves, which at this point we expect him to do. We ended up out shooting them in terms of shots on target so that it couldn't have gone any better in terms of what we intended to do.”

Burke’s decision to field the alternative lineup was driven in part by a recognition of Tampa Bay’s strength: their defense. Entering the game, they had easily the best scorind defense in the entire league, and for the Latics to take something from this game would require them to continue their own excellent defensive form. For Burke, it was also down to his belief in his wing-backs to play well at both ends of the bitch, and that his forwards would sacrifice for the team.

“I recognized that they didn't concede much, so I knew we were going to have to put up a zero to have a chance to win. And that was the reason that we basically played six in the back. And I know that Seb and Manu have phenomenal engines, engines high above this level. So we relied on them to be able to get us forward and, and recover consistently. And when we got pinned back, you know our midfielders and our forwards, Michee and Augi sacrificed themselves and just did a a lot of work off the ball.”

It wasn’t perfect, as Hartford spurned other good looks at goal, “We held on to the ball too long,” said Burke of those missed opportunities, “It should have been a simple slip pass and a cross or a slip pass and a goal and we just held on to it.”

That’s been a recurring theme for Hartford this season, and it’s something they will be looking to improve on as the welcome the defending champions to Trinity Health Stadium.

Pittsburgh’s biggest change came at the tail end of their season, before their title run, when they placed longtime manager Bob Lilley on administrative leave, with assistant Rob Vincent taking over. After the season, Vincent – who had been an assistant with the club since Lilley’s arrival in 2018 – was given the job on a permanent basis. Unsurprisingly, the team is structurally quite similar to previous Riverhounds team, with Vincent making few changes to the basic approach, something Burke commented on.

“They've changed shape a little bit in the middle third. I've noticed that. But outside of that, I think their ethos is their ethos. They they work hard, they put their head down, they run when they have to run and they duel well, but they're all competent on the ball. They rely on their structure to win them games and not every team does that. So I think they're really hard to break down and they're always going to be one of the best defensive teams in the league. I don't think that's changed with the change of coach.”

On thing that has changed is that Vincent has brought back striker Albert Dikwa. His previous spell in the Steel City culminated in a golden boot-winning campaign in 2023, when he scored 20 goals. A move to RIFC did not produce quite the same level of goal output, and he’s now back in Pittsburgh where he already has six goals in the league in just ten appearances. Burke is fully aware of the threat the striker poses, and emphasized the need for his defense to maintain a high level of awareness.

“He doesn't really leave the the middle channel, the width of the six yard box. He's aware of where goals come from and if you lose track of him, he can slip off your back shoulder, he can float to the back post, he can run across you at the last second. He just moves well around the box. And that's why he picks up a lot of scrappy goals, but a lot of good goals too.”

Hartford will want to contain Dikwa, but they will also want to start to get in gear in attack themselves. The Latics might have a top-tier scoring defense, but their attack is the worst in the league in terms of goals scored on a per-game basis.

In recent weeks, Burke has emphasized the need for more commitment in attack, and he doubled down on that ahead of Saturday’s game.

“The number of guys that arrive when we get service, even if it's in a heavy transition moment, it's put your head down and get there. And when you're arriving in those numbers, we have the quality in every position now to finish.”

Everyone from Burke to the players to the fans will be hoping that this is the game where the Latics finally find their finishing touch, especially as they've had precious little success in the past against the Riverhounds, with just two wins from 18 prior meetings. Putting a couple into the Pittsburgh net – exactly a year on from the summer-opening 3-0 win over Loudoun that heralded Hartford's remarkable turnaround – would be a fine way to kickstart their season.