Hartford Athletic Adapting To Burke-Ball
“To put ourselves in a position to be dominant, it’s gonna require 3-5 subs every game, and it’s gonna require guys to be as fit as they’ve ever been."
Two wins, two clean sheets and six points to start 2024 — the best start in club history — has Hartford Athletic perched atop the USL Championship table for the first time through three weeks of regular season action.
Heavy wind and freezing rain were not enough to stop the Green and Blue in a 1-0 win against Eastern Conference heavyweight Birmingham Legion on Saturday, in what was a virtually unrecognizable display from the team that won only four games last season.
For Hartford, it was a story of two halves: all-out attacking dominance through the first 45, and gritty defensive resilience through the second.
The first half — which was played almost entirely in in the attacking third for Hartford — saw the hosts outshoot the Legion 20-2, forcing seven saves from Matt Van Oekel. Hartford’s 36 touches inside the opposition box (compared to Birmingham’s 8) led to 18 efforts from inside the area while the Green and Blue held the 58-42% edge in possession. A 23rd-minute Michee Ngalina goal eventually gave the hosts a thoroughly-deserved breakthrough after testing the goal eight times through the opening 20 minutes.
“If we perform like that, and execute tactically the way that we did and win duels on top of it, we have chance creators all over the field,” Head Coach Brendan Burke said postgame. “It should have been 3-0 at halftime, at a minimum, and if we played like that against a team like that…and we can really suffocate teams, then we’ll win most of our games.”
Although it could have been more comfortable at the half, Ngalina’s effort was eventually enough to give Hartford all three points. For Burke — despite not putting away more of their 27 total shots on the night — the buildup play and chance creation vs. Birmingham showed clear improvement from their 1-0 win in El Paso two weeks prior.
“Chance creation [and] our pressure put them in situations where we turned them over in their half of the field,” Burke said. “We did a good job of that in El Paso, but probably double that today…We were on target, Van Oekel is just a magnet for the ball right now. He was in their game vs. Phoenix and he was again today.”
However, Hartford could only keep up such a high-pressing chokehold for so long. Birmingham began to find their way into the game as the rain continued to pour down out of the break, unleashing 16 of their 18 total shots and forcing three saves out of Paul Walters. Once again stepping in for the injured Renan Ribeiro, Walters’ secured a second consecutive clean sheet for the first time in his career, and only his fourth total.
The highlight of his night came with just 16 minutes remaining when he was quick off his line to react to a one-on-one scoring opportunity from close range. Cutting down the angle at his near post, he swiftly denied what looked to be a surefire equalizer from Tyler Pasher with his left foot before quickly getting up and punching away a potential rebound opportunity.
Yes, the game could’ve been all but over at halftime. It didn’t have to be as nervy as it was towards the end. Nevertheless, what Burke called a “great” game from his back line helped supplement an attack that was still working to adapt to a physically exhaustive pressing style and did exactly what they needed to do to get the result.
"We didn’t assert ourselves in the same way [in the second half], tired legs happen when you press the way that we do and you try to react at the level we do to every situation,” Burke said. “To put ourselves in a position to be dominant, it’s gonna require 3-5 subs every game, and it’s gonna require guys to be as fit as they’ve ever been. Learning that takes a little while, and it’s a really high-octane way to play, which can be really rewarding and very painful at the same time.”
As the team continues to adapt to Burke’s style, Hartford will look to stay perfect when they once again hit the road, this time for a first-ever meeting with North Carolina FC on Saturday, March 29. Kickoff from is set for 7 p.m. on ESPN+ and MyTV9.