Hartford Athletic Fall Short Against Charleston Battery

The Latics suffered their 100th loss in less than seven seasons

Saturday night’s game between Hartford Athletic and Charleston Battery was bookended by protests from supporters of the host club. Before kickoff, Hartford supporters hoisted a banner reading “Kick ICE out of CT.” The federal agency has been active in Connecticut, with detentions in the last week including four employees at a Southington car wash, a high school senior from Meriden, and a mother from New Haven who was arrested in front of her children.

Protests against the current administration — including its immigration policy — were widespread on Saturday, with an estimated crowd of 10,000 at the State Capitol in Hartford joining nationwide “No Kings” protests.

After the game, supporters raised a different banner, highlighting the club’s losing record, with this one reading “100 Losses Well Done Bruce!,” a reference to principal owner and chairman Bruce Mandell. The banner was something of an exclamation point on a silent protest from one of the club’s largest supporters groups, as they declined to sing or chant through much of the match, citing a multitude of factors for that decision, including the results on the field.

Speaking of on the field, the Latics’ performance there was much improved, although the result was — as the banner suggested — another loss for a club that has only one winning season in its seven years of existence.

Hartford actually came out of the gates quite brightly with two shots inside the first couple of minutes but it was the visitors who scored first, with MD Myers pouncing on a defensive error to put his side ahead. Adrián Diz Pe looked to have dealt with a through-ball, but stumbled, gifting the ball to the Charleston forward, who evaded two other scrambling defenders and finished well for his seventh goal in nine league games. The error led someone from one of the Liberty Bank Suites to yell “Stop playing Diz Pe” although the defender has in fact hardly played lately due to injury.

Despite the goal, through the opening 20 minutes, the game in some respects felt rather balanced and the hosts had more than one excellent opportunity to equalize as the first half progressed. The first came in the 23rd minute when the ball pinged around the area following a corner, but Charleston defenders blocked efforts from both Diz Pe and Mamadou Dieng to preserve the lead. Later, a cross from Emmanuel Samadia found it’s way to Dieng, and Charleston keeper Luis Zamudio had to be alert to deny the forward from close range.

At the conclusion of the first half the visitors had the lead but it was hard to say that Hartford had not been in the game having taken more shots than Charleston, an unusual occurrence for what has been a limp attack and had numerous opportunities where it could have with slightly better finishing put the ball in the back of the net. The chances were from advantageous positions as well, with eight of their 10 shots in the first half coming from inside the box.

The Latics started the second half as brightly as the first but it was once again the visitors who found the back of the net, very much against the run of play. A Cal Jennings shot was well blocked, but it fell to the feet of Houssou Landry, who unleashed a shot from outside the box that wrong-footed Antony Siaha and doubled the visitor’s lead.

Despite the setback, Hartford continued to manufacture opportunities, and were finally able to pull one back in the 80th minute. The Latics were able to recycle the ball following a corner, and when Sebastian Anderson whipped in an inswinging cross, TJ Presthus was able to get his head on the ball at the near post for his first goal for the club. It was too little, too late, and Hartford lost for the seventh time in the first 11 games of the USL Championship season.

There were positives despite the result, with the team bouncing back from last weekend’s dire attacking performance to suggest that there might be some life in them yet. Manager Brendan Burke highlighted aspects of the strong attacking performance while also lamenting the lack of a cutting edge in front of goal.

“We turned their back four 23, 24 times tonight. We had ten corners. I mean, five shots on target, I think 15 shots in total,” he said. “Just got to score those two, three goals in the first half that were sitting up for us, you know, 5-6 yards away from their goal. They just have to be goals at this level.”

Things don’t get any easier for Hartford and perhaps it’s fair to say that there are no longer any easy games in the Championship as high-flying Loudoun United will visit on Friday night. If Burke’s men can translate tonight’s performance and find their shooting boots they may be in with a shout, as tonight’s showing was probably enough to deserve a result. If they can’t put together a more complete performance -and get a result, the voices of discontent in the stands will only grow.