Hartford Athletic 2025 Season Review
Taking a look back at some preseason predictions after the best year in club history
With the USL Championship season fully in the rearview mirror, it’s time to take proper stock of how things went for Hartford Athletic. The final analysis has to be “things went well,” considering the team not only landed it’s first playoff berth since 2020, but also brought home the first trophy in club history, winning the USL Jägermeister Cup. No season in which a club brings home silverware can be rated any less than a success —at least not yet — but it’s worth revisiting preseason expectations to see what did (and didn’t) happen.
Did Mamadou Dieng take another step?
In the first few months of the season, it seemed like the answer to this question was not only “no,” but that the Senegalese forward actually seemed to have taken a step back. Through Hartford’s first 11 games, he had just two goals, one of those coming against amateur side New York Shockers in the U.S. Open Cup and was sporting an anemic 2.07 expected goals in the Championship as the entire side struggled to generate chances.
On May 28, Dieng got a goal and an assist in a four-all draw against Indy Eleven and never looked back, scoring a further nine times in 15 more games in all competitions before earning a move to Minnesota United in MLS. His expected goals over that stretch in the Championship led all players in the league, and included an explosive three game run that saw him net five times and be named to the USL Championship Team of the Week in back-to-back weeks.
By the time of his move to Minnesota, Dieng had broken his own single-season scoring record with 12 goals in all competitions, and become the club’s all-time leading scorer, with 23 goals in his Hartford career. Despite not playing in the Championship after August, Dieng still earned a nomination for USL Championship Young Player of the Year, another feather in his cap. It’s yet to be determined if he’ll thrive in MLS or beyond, but for the 2025 season, he certainly took that next step.
Did Michee Ngalina play like a star?
In short, not really or at least, not consistently.
On one hand, he added another eight goals and six assists on the season, taking his total for his Hartford career to 27 goal contributions in all competitions. On the other hand, he was still less than his irrepressible best, making the TOTW just once on the season as he struggled to get into top gear on a regular basis.
It’s fair to say that Ngalina has barely been fully fit in his Hartford career, carrying one knock or another for long stretches. Despite this, he’s still managed to log over 5000 minutes in 65 appearances in all competitions across two seasons. Only one other player in club history — Danny Barrera in 2021 and 2022 — has surpassed 2500 minutes played in more than one season. He’s easily deserving of his spot in the first eleven when he’s available, which is almost always, but it’s hard to shake the feeling that there’s still another gear for him to find.
It’s also fair to say that Ngalina was at his best when Dieng was on fire, a reminder of how much the best version of the winger is as part of a symbiotic relationship with another forward. That stretch of games where Dieng netted five times in three games? Ngalina had a goal and three assists in the same span.
In Colorado Springs, Ngalina and Hadji Barry brought out the best in one another. Dieng’s sale denies Hartford fans to see if a similar kind of relationship could have fully emerged here, but it’s something to keep an eye on as Brendan Burke retools for 2026.
Where did the creative spark in midfield come from?
To be frank, nowhere.
Samuel Careaga will always be a club legend for his match-winning goal in the USl Jägermeister Cup, but he was rarely a truly creative force in the middle of the park. Jack Panayotou was excellent when healthy, but was not fit for long stretches and was, like Careaga, more of a goal threat than a creator. Jonathan Jimenez struggled to settle in and find a real role in the front four, and Marlon Hairston, Beverly Makangila and Junior Moreira provided competence and stability rather than creativity.
Ultimately, it didn’t matter much; Hartford made the playoffs and won the USL Cup largely on the strength of creativity elsewhere on the pitch. Emmanuel Samadia and Sebastian Anderson were by a large margin the best wing-back/full-back pairing in the league, and their ability to get forward and create opportunities made the lack of spark in the middle of the park entirely irrelevant.
How quickly did the defense come together?
Not all that quickly, but when it did, it was more than solid.
Through the end of May, Hartford had conceded 17 goals in nine league games, but then locked in, giving up just 19 more goals over their remaining 21 games in the USL Championship. They were particularly stingy when it mattered, conceding just two goals in six knockout games across the U.S. Open Cup, USL Cup and USL Championship Playoffs.
Ultimately, returnees Joe Farrell, Jordan Scarlett and Emmanuel Samadia gelled nicely with newcomers Sebastian Anderson, Arturo Diz Pe and TJ Presthus, with Presthus’ emergence as a USL-caliber starter a particularly excellent revelation. Rough spots as they worked things out were to be expected, but they did ultimately work things out, and when they did, the defense was more than good enough.
It was also fair to worry if there would be a drop-off from Renan Ribeiro to Antony Siaha, and while there was, it was not nearly as much as might have been feared, and Siaha played well enough to attract interest from clubs at a higher level, including NY Red Bulls of MLS, where he has been training in the offseason. It remains to be seen if that interest results in a move, but there’s no doubt that Siaha’s performances this season fully earned whatever is in store for him next.
An unexpected surprise: Hartford were road warriors
It wasn’t part of the preseason conversation — Brendan Burke went out of his way at the beginning of the season to squash talk of the club’s road struggles in previous years — but Hartford were ultimately one of the best road teams in the league, and that was ultimately critical to its success.
It’s long been a sore spot for this club, but they managed to go 13 games unbeaten away from Trinity Health Stadium, including a stretch of six consecutive road wins in the Championship, good for the third-best run in league history while picking up a total of 23 road points in the league, the best in club history, and in fact more points than they earned at Trinity Health Stadium.
Two of their three knockout games in the USL Cup were played on the road, and Hartford were the better team in both. Things soured a little but the club more than did enough away from home this season.
If anything, Hartford will enter 2026 hoping to be a little more productive at home; the 21 points they record at Trinity Health Stadium was neither particularly good nor particularly bad, but it was (just) the lowest total record by any playoff team in the Eastern Conference this season, and the 9th-best in the conference overall.
The bottom line
The season was absolutely a success. There’s simply no arguing with a trophy. How they got there might have been surprising in some places — the road success in particular was not really on the radar in March — but that it was a success is undeniable.
Before the season, the line here was that Hartford needed only to be a little better than 2024 to make the playoffs. In the league, it recorded exactly the same points total as a year ago but did it in four fewer games, at a PPG of 1.47 as opposed to 1.29 in 2024.
That difference was enough to finish fifth instead of 10th, and secure a playoff spot for only the second time in club history. A rough early patch gave way to the hottest stretch in club history, as they recorded 38 points from their next 17 games, before dropping their last two to close out the season.
Brendan Burke and company will head into 2026 with higher expectations to manage now, but that’s a welcome change from virtually every prior season in club history. Defending their USL Cup title will be job one — and a tough job at that — but they will also be targeting another playoff appearance, and ideally a much deeper run at a title there as well.