Hartford Athletic Down Greenville Triumph, Advance to USL Jägermeister Cup Final

Three goals in the second half lifted the Latics to a 3-1 victory

Hartford Athletic booked their place in the USL Jägermeister Cup final with a 3-1 win over Greenville Triumph on Wednesday night. Second half goals from Joe Farrell, Marlon Hairston and Michee Ngalina were enough to give the Latics the victory.

The first half of the game was not much to write home about, with teams combining for a total of four shots. After a somewhat cagey opening phase, the game settled into a rhythm where Hartford had the bulk of the possession and Greenville looked to break on the counter, and neither side was able to find a breakthrough.

Despite holding nearly two-thirds of possession throughout the first half, and having about 60% of that in the Greenville half, Hartford failed to trouble Triumph keeper Gunther Rankenburg throughout the first 45 minutes. There were some opportunities, but the Latics were unable to find quite the right ball to break down the packed Greenville defense, and none of their crosses found the mark.

Hartford did finally find the breakthrough in the 70th minute and it came from a set piece. Jonathan Jimenez was fouled out on the left hand side, giving the Latics a free kick in a dangerous position. Sebastian Anderson whipped in a good ball that evaded the Triumph defenders, and Joe Farrell headed the ball past Rankenburg to put his side ahead.

The lead lasted only a few minutes though, as Triumph showed the resilience that had got them to this stage of the competition. After a foul by Baboucarr Njie, the resulting free kick found Zane Bubb, who headed the ball back across the box where it was poked home by Evan Lee.

Hartford are no strangers to being resilient themselves - having needed to come from behind against RIFC in the group stage to even advance to the knockout rounds — and bounced back well from the Greenville equalizer. With five minutes remaining in regulation, Hartford took the lead again, this time through Marlon Hairston.

Michee Ngalina was the originator, bursting into the box on the right-hand side and whipping a dangerous ball across the area. It found it’s way to Kyle Edwards on the opposite side, and after his effort was well saved by Rankenburg, the ball bobbled across the face of goal and Hairston turned it home to restore Hartford’s advantage. It was Hairston’s second goal of the competition, after he scored the Latics’ second in their quarterfinal win over San Antonio.

With seven minutes of injury time announced, Greenville may have felt like they had a chance to stage a second comeback, but Michee Ngalina put the game to bed in the third minute of added time. A loose pass at the back gifted him possession in midfield, and after outracing the Triumph defense, he made no mistake in putting the third goal of the night past Rankenburg and sealing Hartford’s progress to the final. The goal was Ngalina’s fifth of the season, making him the sixth player in club history to score five goals in two different seasons.

There was no further meaningful action in the game, and the final whistle blew on a victory for Hartford that sends them to the first final of a knockout competition in club history.

In the other semifinal, Sacramento defeated Rhode Island on penalties after the game finished nil-nil in regulation. The result denies everyone a fourth installment of El Clamico on the season, and instead means that Hartford and Sacramento will play in back-to-back weeks, with the final scheduled to be played the weekend of October 4, and Republic already coming to Trinity Health Stadium on October 11.

After the match, gamewinner Marlon Hairston praised his teammates and predicted that his side have more in store.

“[W]e stuck together for 90 plus minutes,” he said. “We were able to pull through late and you know, I'm so happy, man. I can't even put in into words and describe what this feeling is like, man, to do it here in front of our fans. Continue making history. And I said this one once before, but we're not done yet.”