Brendan Burke on Hartford's Playoff Exit: "It Hurts"

The Hartford manager reflects on a disappointing end to the best season in club history

Photo Courtesy of Hartford Athletic

Just under two weeks ago, Hartford Athletic’s season came to an end at Highmark Stadium in Pittsburgh, as the Latics bowed out of the USL Championship playoffs by way of a penalty shoot-out loss to the Riverhounds.

It was perhaps a somewhat sour ending to the season, particularly for a team that from late June to early October was the hottest side in the league and picked up a trophy along the way, beating Sacramento Republic to hoist the USL Jägermeister Cup. In the last two games, however, Hartford’s attack evaporated, recording just 11 shots across the two games, with four on target, and a combined expected goals of just 0.66.

Those two games were the worst attacking performances by the Latics in months and the first time they had been shut out in back-to-back games since the middle of July when they were held scoreless in a 1-0 defeat by Tampa Bay Rowdies and a nil-nil draw against RIFC. Since that point, Hartford had scored in 17 of 18 games in all competitions. The losses in Louisville and Pittsburgh represented their worst two performances by expected goals in the entire season.

So, what happened? For Burke, some of it was simply about the opposition.

“Well, the level of competition plays into that,” Burke told The Blazing Musket. “Louisville were the best team in the history of the league. You know, we didn’t look like we were going to score that night.”

That’s a fair enough observation. Louisville ran away with the Player’s Shield, and in the final game of the season were playing for the record books, aiming to secure the best record, as measured by points-per-game, in a single season in the entire history of the USL Championship.

And of course, the playoffs are a different animal entirely. Burke was complimentary of his team’s effort at Highmark, highlighting some of the well-known difficulties of playing at Highmark Stadium, while also focusing on what his side did well.

“Yeah, the energy, the effort was there,” Burke said. “We gave up one shot on goal away from home. In a playoff game, you win 99% of the time. We found a way to lose. That was it. Ugly game. We knew it was going to be ugly because it’s Pittsburgh, the field is a little too small, you know their energy level. We started the game really well, positively. Ultimately, none of our attacking players could make a play on the day.”

At the same time, it wasn’t just about making a play, as Hartford was hardly present in the attacking third. One of the Latics’ calling cards over the summer and early fall had been to turn a relatively low proportion of possession into dangerous attacking opportunities. In the Jägermeister Cup final, for example, Hartford actually had more final third entries than Sacramento despite being outpossessed nearly two-to-one on the night.

The Latics also had an expected goals of nearly two in the game. Again, despite conceding the bulk of possession. In the loss to Pittsburgh, it was an entirely different story, with the Hounds doing far more with the ball in attack and Hartford struggling to get up their much stronger left side with any regularity.

With Hartford’s season ending on such a punchless note, it’s fair to wonder about the effect of the mid-season departure of all-time leading scorer Mamadou Dieng. The forward was transferred to Minnesota United in late August, and while the side didn’t exactly struggle to score down the stretch, they were clearly missing something at center-forward as the season reached its conclusion.

For Burke, there was no doubt that his side missed Dieng and that with him in the eleven, things might have gone differently.

“Did we miss him in the playoffs? Big time,” Burke said. “If he plays in that game, we win that game categorically. I think that’s belief amongst our staff and players. Mo plays in that game, we win that game.”

Perhaps with Dieng, things would have been different, but without him, the Latics were unable to find a way through, and the game went to penalties. Despite the team’s struggles on penalty kicks this season, winning just one of three prior shootouts, Burke was positive about the approach in the playoff game.

“We thought we did everything right going into penalties to very specific substitutions right at the end,” he said. “And then, you know, sometimes guys miss penalties and two of our best attacking players missed. That happens. No one is to blame. It’s just the way the ball bounced at the end.”

Much like the regular season, there was one other talking point from the playoff loss, the officiating, with the most critical moment being Elijio Arreguin’s decision to only issue a yellow card to Luke Biasi when he brought down Michee Ngalina in just the 8th minute. Arreguin determined that Biasi was not the last man, and therefore, a red card was unwarranted, but Burke disagreed.

“I think the game was heavily mismanaged by the referee, which has been a common theme in our losses this year,” Burke said. “So that’s disappointing. I mean, it’s certainly a red card on the player that takes down Michee early in the game and that changes everything. I mean, it’s a stone cold win if he makes the right call. It ended our season. Honestly, I’m livid and that’s why I didn’t take any media after the game.”

Burke has long had complaints about the standard of officiating in the USL, and he’s not the only one, with Kartik Krishnaiyer of Beyond the 90 reporting that critiques of that nature are so widespread around the Championship that the league is contemplating the introduction of VAR.

While calls like that might balance out over the course of a season, in key moments of playoff games, certainty about a decision of that magnitude would be very welcome.

Despite those concerns — the officiating, the absence of Mamadou Dieng, the inability to generate much in the way of an attacking threat — Burke still knows Hartford had a chance to win the game.

The reality that Hartford was in the playoffs with a chance to win, despite playing poorly? That’s a new reality for this club and hopefully a sign of brighter days ahead.