Hartford Athletic Continue USL Jägermeister Cup Campaign Against Westchester SC
The Latics take on the League One newcomers in their second game in the group stage of the 2025 USL Cup
Hartford Athletic will play their second game of the 2025 USL Jägermeister Cup on Saturday, as they head to Mount Vernon, New York to take on Westchester SC of USL League One at The Stadium at Memorial Field. The Latics have won their only other game in the competition this season, defeating Portland Hearts of Pine 2-0 at Trinity Health Stadium thanks to a brace from Jack Panayotou.
For Hartford, Saturday’s game is a quick turnaround from Wednesday’s fixture in Indianapolis, where it shared the spoils following a pulsating encounter that saw the Latics fight back after going behind, only to squander leads of 3-1 and 4-3.
A key concern for Hartford remains a lack of defensive focus — it conceded twice from set pieces, and also twice in stoppage time — but there were also significant positives in that game as well. 18 shots, a season high in USL Championship play and four goals, only the seventh time in club history the Latics have hit that mark, were encouraging signs for an attack that had been arguably the weakest in the league up to that point. It remains to be seen if that output represented a true turning of a corner or just a blip, but it was in any event encouraging to see that this side can produce some kind of attacking threat.
Brendan Burke also struggled through another selection crisis midweek, as he only had 16 players available in Indianapolis, with five first-teamers missing through injury or suspension. Two of those players (Adewale Obolola and Emmanuel Samadia) will be available for selection on Saturday but three others (Michee Ngalina, Adrián Diz Pe and Jack Panayotou) remain questionable with injuries.
Hartford may still need to explore more personnel moves, whether it’s a short-term contract like the one the club gave to Justin Ingram, a loan move like the one that brought in Panayotou, or another kind of acquisition. It’s not a recipe for success to continue to play games with fewer than 18 professional players available for selection.
As for Saturday’s opposition, Westchester is ice cold at the moment, winless in their last eight games. The USL League One club have also particularly struggled in their matchups with Championship opposition. In two games (in the U.S. Open Cup vs. Detroit City and the USL Jägermeister Cup vs. RIFC), Westchester have been outscored 7-2.
The club played well for 75 minutes in the Open Cup against Detroit, with the game tied at one all in the second half, but a late collapse saw them fall 3-1. Against RIFC, a catastrophic ten-minute spell in the first half saw them fall behind 3-0, with the final score coming in at 4-1. Hartford will take that as a sign that there are goals to be had in this game and following Wednesday’s offensive eruption, the aim will be to maintain that momentum.
There will be a number of familiar faces on the pitch, as Westchester SC has four former Latics on the squad: Conor McGlynn, Juan Carlos Obregon Jr., Prince Saydee, and Joel Johnson, all of whom were with Hartford in the 2022 season. McGlynn, who signed from an open tryout prior to the 2020 season, has the second-most appearances all-time for Hartford, totaling 103 over four seasons. Following his departure from Hartford after the 2023 season, he signed for RIFC, before joining Westchester in the 2024-25 offseason.
Obregon scored 15 goals for the Latics over the 2021-22 seasons before joining Pittsburgh Riverhounds in 2023, and then League One side Charlotte Independence in 2024, where he scored 15 goals in 20 appearances. Saydee, who had 15 goals and 11 assists in all competitions over the 2022-23 seasons, followed McGlynn to RIFC and now to Westchester.
Johnson spent one season in Hartford sandwiched between eight seasons with Charlotte Independence in both the Championship and League One, and followed his Charlotte teammate Obregon to Westchester this offseason.
With ex-players a kind of bête noire for Hartford, former Latic Romario Williams’ midweek brace for Indy Eleven just the latest example, Burke’s side will need to be switched on and maintain focus on Saturday afternoon. A challenging stretch of Championship fixtures awaits on the other side, but another three points in the Jägermeister Cup would be a welcome development for a club that is still trying to get things completely on track for the 2025 season.