Hartford Athletic Head to Tulsa, Aiming for Playoffs
With three to play and a game in hand, the Latics know what they need to do for postseason football
Hartford Athletic heads to ONEOK Field to take on FC Tulsa on Saturday night, aiming to continue their run towards a first playoff appearance since 2020. Despite sitting in 11th place, and two points out of the playoff positions in the Eastern Conference, the Latics have the advantage of a game in hand and winning all three of their remaining fixtures would see them guarantee postseason football.
Last time out, Hartford rode a Player-of-the-Week performance from club legend Danny Barrera to a 4-3 win over fellow Eastern Conference playoff contenders North Carolina FC. It was the first time in just over two years that the Latics had managed four goals in one game and it was just enough to see off a late comeback effort from the visitors. Hartford also finished out its home slate of games with the best home record in club history, recording nine wins and 31 points at Trinity Health Stadium, both club records.
The Latics have struggled to perfect an identity this season, but up until Saturday they were locked in defensively, going a club-record 503 minutes without conceding over a stretch of four clean sheets and gave up no more than one goal in seven consecutive games. That run of games saw them collect 15 points to haul themselves back into playoff contention after looking very much like also-rans following a dispiriting 3-0 defeat to rivals RIFC.
And despite conceding two to Loudoun, one came via way of a penalty and United were otherwise short on meaningful chances. The team seemed to switch off in the last 15 minutes of the NCFC game, with the result that the visitors not only scored three goals but produced one of the best performances by xG for an away side at Trinity Health Stadium this season. It might only be a blip, but it’s a warning sign not to lose focus for a club that needs every single point they can muster.
Four goals was welcome for another reason: Hartford’s season-long struggle to score. Only bottom-dwellers Miami and El Paso have scored fewer goals than the Latics this season and they’ve actually been shut out 12 times this season, one more than in the entire futile 2023 season. It might not be sustainable — the only other times this season that Hartford have managed at least three goals have been against the league-worst defense of Miami FC — but it’s still an encouraging development as the club had a fifth goal wrongly disallowed as well.
Danny Barrera’s continued contributions would be welcome, as would signs of life from Marcus Epps, as the attack is otherwise entirely built around Michee Ngalina and Mamadou Dieng and a third or fourth option woud open things up considerably.
On the other side of the pitch, FC Tulsa are sliding their way out of the playoff picture in the Western Conference. Since the calendar turned to September, they’ve won only once (a 1-0 victory over Oakland Roots) in nine games, losing six times, and drawing the remaining two games. It’s not been an easy stretch — the draws came against New Mexico and Las Vegas who currently sit in the top two spots of the Western Conference and they lost narrowly to Louisville City and RIFC — but it’s seen them fall into a position where they not only need to win out to make the playoffs, they also need a lot of help.
The main issue has been an inability to score. Phillip Goodrum had not been lighting the world on fire but he was Tulsa’s leading scorer with five goals and three assists through 17 games. Since his departure for Louisville in mid-August, Tulsa has scored a total of nine goals in 12 games. Three of those came in a draw with New Mexico United on August 14th and since then they’ve been shut out five times and have failed to score a second goal in any game. LA Galaxy loanee Aaron Bibout has four of the six goals that Tulsa have scored since their outburst against NMU, and the club is taking fewer shots — and creating fewer chances — than any other team in the league.
Tulsa has been poor at the other end of the pitch as well. Over the same timeframe, only Eastern Conference bottom-dwellers Miami FC have been consistently worse in defense and while Tulsa has not leaked an enormous number of goals, it concedes good chances with regularity.
Given Hartford’s difficulty in consistently putting the ball in the back of the net, this may not be the sternest test of their defense but the Latics will need to approach the game with a mindset that there are goals to be scored if they take their opportunities.
Hartford enters a difficult stretch on Saturday — three games in eight days that will decide their season — and desperately needs to get off on the right foot. A loss might not be absolutely fatal to their playoff aspirations but three points in Tulsa will boost the Latics to the very edge of the playoffs with two more games to play.