Hartford Athletic Host Greenville Triumph In USL Jägermeister Cup Semifinal
The Latics are aiming to take another step closer to the first silverware in club history on Wednesday night
Hartford Athletic hosts Greenville Triumph of USL League One in a USL Jägermeister Cup Semifinal game on Wednesday night at Trinity Health Stadium. It’s the first time either club has reached this stage of the USL Cup, and the first time Hartford has reached this stage of a knockout competition of any kind.
The Latics bounced back from a disappointing loss to Indy Eleven a week ago to get a win over Miami FC at the weekend, and as they head into their fourth game in 12 days, Brendan Burke is satisfied with the results so far.
“[W]e took care of, you know, getting the points we needed on the road,” he said. “So to have three games in seven days in the league and then leading into a cup semifinal and get six points out of those three games was a good return.”
The loss to Indy notwithstanding, Hartford has been in excellent form this summer. Since June 20, it has played 15 games, winning nine of them in regulation, as well as a penalty shootout victory over RIFC in the final group stage game of the Jägermeister Cup. Hartford outscored opponents 29-12 over that span, and has kept seven clean sheets.
A busy schedule has required Burke to rotate his squad fairly often, but every player who has been called on has done what was asked of him, with Owen Presthus, Baboucarr Njie and Cameron Duke all stepping into starting roles over the last few weeks and Hartford hardly missing a beat along the way. The return to fitness of Jack Panayotou who scored on his first start in fourth months at the weekend and the addition of former USL Championship MVP Hadji Barry, who made his debut against Miami contribute to something of a selection problem for Burke.
It seems likely that Burke will return to essentially the starting eleven that dispatched San Antonio in the quarterfinals, with the absences of Mamadou Dieng (sold to Minnesota United) and Emmanuel Samadia (on international duty with Sierra Leone) necessitating the only real changes. With another Championship fixture at the weekend, Hartford will need to keep something in reserve for a logistically challenging trip to Monterey Bay, even if focused on the task at hand on Wednesday night.
As for the task in front of them: Greenville’s season is something of a mixed bag to this point. On the positive side of the ledger, the Triumph knocked off three Championship sides — Charleston Battery, Miami FC and Indy Eleven — on their run to the Jägermeister Cup semifinals. On the negative side, they currently sit 11th in League One, out of the playoff places.
In their Jägermeister Cup journey, they’ve shown resilience. After dropping their opening fixture 3-1 to South Georgia Tormenta, they bounced back to defeat Charleston Battery 1-0, despite being outshot 15-2 in that game. An excellent team counterattack was finished off confidently by Ben Zakowski, and that was enough for Greenville to take all three points. A 2-0 win over Miami put it in a good position heading into the final group stage fixture against FC Naples. Naples took an early lead, but the Triumph stormed back to win 2-1 with a barrage of attempts on goal that could easily have seen them go four or five to the good.
The result was enough to see them finish top of their group and set up a quarterfinal with Indy Eleven. It was a somewhat cagey affair, and Indy seemed on course for victory after Romario Williams put them ahead in the 55th minute. Greenville kept itself in the game, however, and when substitute Ezekiel Soto put the ball across the face of goal in second-half stoppage time, all Indy’s Aodhan Quinn could do was turn it into the back of his own net. When the game went to penalties, both teams scored on the first five efforts, but after Soto scored Greenville’s sixth, Triumph keeper Gunther Rankenburg turned away Oliver Brynéus to give is side a place in the semifinals.
Since that victory, however, Greenville have dropped three straight games in League One, causing them to fall out of the playoff places. Wednesday’s semifinal will be their third game in eight days, and the preceding two have seen them allow ten-man Portland to come from behind to take all three points, and then concede two goals in first-half stoppage time as it fell to FC Naples.
Burke and his men are not taking Greenville lightly, even though Hartford are the favorite here.
“[Y]ou have to concentrate,” he said. “You can't lose focus and think that in any way, shape or form that this is an easy game. It's just not. They've knocked off Charleston, they've knocked off Indy, they've knocked off Miami….we view them as a championship team tomorrow, nothing else.”
It might be, as Burke says, “the most important game the club has ever played,” but Hartford supporters will be hoping that there is another, more important one in the future: the final.