Hartford Athletic Head Back on Road, Seeking Turnaround
The Latics arrive in Indianapolis on a five game slide, searching for an identity and momentum
Hartford Athletic are back in action on Saturday night, looking to end a skid that has seen them lose five games in all competitions and fail to score in three straight. This time they head to Carroll Stadium in Indianapolis for a matchup with Indy Eleven, who are unbeaten in their last six games.
The Latics last showing was a dispiriting one that a visibly frustrated Brendan Burke branded as “unacceptable”. A flat first half that saw them take only two shots left many fans questioning what happened to the energetic, pressing team that showed such promise in attack over the first handful of games.
After the game, Burke had stressed the need to get back to basics; comments he echoed when speaking to media this week.
“We’ve talked about…our pressing action, our triggers, we’ve tried to simplify everything this week and get back to the team that we were in the first four games,” he said.
A key component of this will be landing on a more permanent preferred formation and starting eleven, as well as executing more effectively. An experiment with a back three in the last game did not bring joy (with Burke saying of the different formation “we didn’t like it”) and a return to a back four might be in the cards as the team looks to establish an identity for the rest of the season.
The biggest story out of Indianapolis over the last few weeks has truly been off the pitch, as Indianapolis mayor Joe Hogsett pulled his support for their long-awaited stadium project to back a bid to bring MLS to the Circle City instead. Fans who have followed the USL for any length of time will remember previous MLS entries into USL markets in San Diego, Austin, and Charlotte leading to those teams folding or dropping down to a lower division, and will probably view this latest turn of events with some concern for Indy Eleven’s future.
On the pitch, however, things have been trending in a more positive direction for Indy. Following a somewhat scuffling start to the season that saw them drop four of their first six games, Indy Eleven are on a good run winning five of their last six games in all competitions including two wins in the U.S. Open Cup.
Forward Augustine Williams - who has 70 goals in his USL career - has been a key driver of their results alongside fullback Aedan Stanley and midfielders Jack Blake and Cam Lindley.
Heading into this matchup, Indy are hot and Hartford cold; a state of affairs that fans will be hoping reverses itself on Saturday night as the Latics desperately need to arrest their slide and demonstrate that they can get the job done.