Hartford Athletic Aim to Clean Up Errors as They Host Loudoun United
Costly mistakes have been a feature of recent performances
Hartford Athletic play their third of four consecutive home games on Friday night, hosting one of the hottest teams in the league, as Loudoun United - who currently sit third in the Eastern Conference with a game in hand - arrive at Trinity Health Stadium for a Friday night clash.
Mistakes and a lack of focus continue to plague the Latics, who went behind early against Charleston Battery following an error by defender Adrián Diz Pe. This follows points dropped against Indy Eleven and NCFC in the preceding Championship games, as Hartford conceded deep in second-half stoppage time in both fixtures.
A lack of continuity driven by injuries and suspensions hasn’t helped the Latics build defensive consistency, but mental errors are the main culprit, with manager Brendan Burke once again acknowledging the need for his squad to clean these up.
“You just have to, you know, point the mistakes out, the guys that make them or us collectively have to put our hands up and say these are preventable and, you know, not repeat those errors,” he said. “It's as simple as that really.”
At the other end of the pitch, it’s been a struggle to put the ball in the back of the net, with a brief offensive outburst against Indy Eleven giving way to a toothless one at home against NCFC, and a wasteful one this past weekend. The opportunities were encouraging, but the lack of cutting edge was notable, with Burke highlighting both elements of the performance.
“But the reality is, you know, we have 2.17 expected goals and Charleston has 1.07 and we gifted them the one,” Burke said. “I mean, you couldn't tactically beat them any worse than we did and you couldn't, you know, put our guys in any better position than we did. And the guys know that. And now you know it's just about individual performances to finish off.”
Saturday’s match against Charleston also featured a protest from The Bonanza (one of the main supporter’s groups for Hartford Athletic), as members watched the game silently, rather than singing or chanting, and at the conclusion of the game, hung a banner reading “100 Losses Well Done Bruce!” In a subsequent statement this week, the group indicated that they would return “in full force and with full voice,” but the frustration of key groups of fans was clear, as Hartford once again languish at the bottom of the table in the Eastern Conference.
Friday’s opposition, Loudoun United, are in excellent form in 2025, having dropped points only five times in 17 games so far in this campaign. Two losses to Louisville City, a road loss to a better-than-expected Miami team, and a draw against Charleston are all fair results, with the only real setback having been a road loss to a middling Las Vegas Lights team.
They’ve been led by 10 goals from Abdellatif Aboukoura, who trails only Charleston’s Cal Jennings to lead all Championship scorers this season. Burke highlighted his contributions, saying: “[T]hey probably have the hottest midfielder in the league in Aboukoura. So we highlighted him a little bit in ways that we want to hope to contain. But honestly he looks like a talent that's going to emerge out of this league very soon in my opinion.”
The last time Loudoun United visited Trinity Health Stadium, the game was marred by allegations that a player from that club directed a homophobic slur towards a Hartford player. No discipline was assessed to any player during or after the match, and both clubs declined to make any official comment, but after that game, manager Brendan Burke said: [T]here's no place in this league for hate speech. There's no place in any league for hate speech.” At the time, he also expressed regret for not taking stronger action, adding: “The game probably should have been ended and I probably should have walked my team off the field tonight.”
Speaking ahead of this weekend’s fixture, he reiterated that sentiment.
“Yeah, I have no time for that,” he said. “I know my team have no time for that. It was an unfortunate incident. You know, I hope to never see that again in the game. I would be happy if I never saw an incident like that again in the game. Pride Night touches every family and, you know, in a positive way. It should be in a positive way, so my hope is that we can celebrate the night, not have any issues and quite frankly not have any issues like that throughout the year.”