Hartford Athletic take on Charlotte Independence in a USL Cup quarterfinal on Wednesday night, looking to continue to defend the trophy they won in 2025.
It’s part of a busy week for Hartford, which saw it play Indy Eleven on Sunday night before traveling to Charlotte on Monday. After Wednesday’s game, they’ll return home to Hartford for a Championship fixture against Miami FC on Saturday night.
That travel is wearing on Hartford, with the club having already played four consecutive road games.
“Cumulatively it’s torture,” said Hartford manager Brendan Burke when speaking to The Blazing Musket on Tuesday. “This is our fifth straight away game, we’re just flying all over the country.”
And it’s not been the most fruitful trip either, with the Latics having collected just two points from the preceding four games, and failing to score until Jordan Scarlett found the back of the net in the 74th minute of Sunday’s fixture in Indianapolis. That goal earned them a draw, which for Burke was both gratifying and frustrating, as the Latics were well on top for long stretches of the game but fell behind early to a goal that was exactly the sort of thing Indy would have been looking for.
“We put 20 shots on them, 14 of those inside the box. The reality is, we did enough to win the game,” said Burke, “But we gave up a really soft goal three minutes into the game. I was disappointed with that part. That’s a really bad goal to give up, when you know you’re going to a team that just lives for that.”
Hartford has rarely attempted 20 shots in a game this season. The most recent time the Latics had done it in the USL Championship was in a 2-all draw against Orange County on July 8.
While a number of those efforts were not of particularly high quality, it was encouraging to simply see the Latics get forward that often. And on Sunday, they did something they also haven’t done in the league since that game against Orange County: score a goal. Unfortunately, that soft early goal left them needing more than one to take all three points, and that proved to be a bridge too far for the Latics at the moment.
“It was on us to score multiple goals, but we haven’t had a forward scoring goals for over a month now," Burke said. "We had multiple good chances, Sadat [Anaku] had multiple good chances. We pushed them back, we made them defend, they were completely shot. We just couldn’t take advantage. But overall, I was pleased with the performance.”
One particularly encouraging thing in Hartford’s performance was that it came in the midst of heavy rotation. Barry Coffey, Sadat Anaku and Abdullah Taofeek started the game and after that early goal, Hartford were able to get well on top of Indy for the remainder of the first half. In the second half, Sebastian Anderson, Augustine Williams, Emmanuel Samadia and Adewale Obalola all came on, and Hartford were able to control the game with that group on the pitch as well. It’s the first game in a while that Burke has been meaningfully able to affect with substitutions – probably again since the Orange County game – and it’s a good sign for where this club might be headed.
Contained in that rotation is a hint that Hartford might finally be getting healthy at exactly the right time. Sadat Anaku, Adewale Obalola and Emmanuel Samadia all saw their minutes extended on Sunday, and Sebastian Anderson made his first league appearance since June. Additionally, Abdullah Taofeek and Augustine Williams were both back in the matchday squad after missing the 2-nil loss to Loudoun with relatively minor injuries, and Brendan Burke expects to have Michee Ngalina and Beverly Makangila also available on Wednesday.
While Barry Coffey will miss the game due to a one-game suspension for receiving a second cautionable offense in Hartford’s 2-1 win over Westchester in the last group-stage game, Burke will have plenty of options in the front four, with Anaku, Obalola, Williams, Taofeek, Adedokun and Ngalina all available for minutes.
Now, it’s up to someone to really seize the moment, a point Burke emphasized.
“I said it to the guys in our video session today [Tuesday]: our energy, our effort was great," Burke said. "Whoever scores, any one of our forwards, we have no argument to take you off the field. We’re just waiting for someone, anyone, to break out.”
On the other side of the pitch, Charlotte have what is probably the most dangerous attack in all of USL League One.
“They’re the best team we’ve seen in this competition on the attacking side of the ball,” said Burke, “So if we walk in with anything other than 100% respect, we’re in for a long day.”
Charlotte’s attack isn’t solely dependent on one player, with Jon Bakero (5 goals and 6 assists in 22 games in all competitions, Souaibou Marou (11 goals and 4 assists in 24 games) and Luis Álvarez (10 goals and 5 assists in 19 games) all contributing at a high level. That does not count three goals and four assists in 17 games from former Latic Prince Saydee, or five goals and two assists (also in 17 games) from long-time Hartford killer Enzo Martinez.
Martinez, who has scored more goals (8) and has more goal contributions (13) against Hartford than any other player, has not played since mid-June and seems unlikely to take the pitch on Wednesday. That will be welcome news to Hartford fans who have seen the midfielder contribute to five stoppage-time goals against the Latics in his career, including assisting on two injury-time game-winners as well as scoring one of his own. Charlotte have more than enough scoring punch without Martinez, but given his history, no Hartford supporter will be sad to see him out of the lineup.
Facing such a dangerous attack, Hartford will need to kick on from what was promising on Sunday evening and find the back of the net, probably more than once. Burke believes his team can do that if they can find the right approach.
“I think if we bring the right energy, if we have the right intent, we have the ability to find multiple goals here,” said Burke, going on to say that players like Anaku and Adedokun could play a big role. "He [Anaku] has a different type of pace. He’s so much faster than anyone else on the team. World class speed when he’s fully fit. That gives us a different dimension. Mikey [Adedokun] is very shifty. He gives us the ability to switch the point, to drive by people in midfield, all things we’ve been missing.”
It’s not a moment too soon for some of those missing pieces to click, as Hartford still have the opportunity to advance deeper in the Cup, despite everything that has gone wrong for them so far in 2026. Nobody would say that the Latics are right where they want to be, but they’re still playing meaningful soccer in multiple competitions, which is more than a lot of other teams can say, a point Burke emphasized.
“43 teams started this tournament and only eight are still playing soccer. Those are all pro teams, those are all teams that work hard, and we came out again on top in our region. That’s a huge step, especially when we have massive clubs in our region, like RIFC and Portland. We think we’re right where we need to be, and hopefully getting healthy. But there are a lot of good teams watching from home, and we’re not one of them.”
