Hartford Athletic Keep Rolling, Drop Miami FC 2-0
The Latics put in another convincing performance to grab three valuable points in the race for the playoffs
A first goal for Junior Moreira and a Mamadou Dieng penalty were enough for Hartford Athletic to claim back-to-back home wins and vault to the edge of the playoff places in the Eastern Conference. They now sit in ninth place, level on points with Birmingham Legion and Miami FC, but with the edge on both clubs on tie-breakers and a point behind RIFC who claimed a win over Detroit City to move into the eighth and final playoff spot.
Hartford got off on the right foot and probably should have been ahead inside the opening minutes when Michee Ngalina got into space down the left-hand side and put an inviting ball into the area, only for Dieng to fire wide from close range.
It was all Hartford in the early going, with Michee Ngalina having a couple of cracks from outside the box, but the hosts were unable to find a breakthrough. Miami had good chances at the other end — Antony Siaha making a fine finger-tip save from Lucas Melano — but the bulk of the chances were falling to Harford.
Despite the chances, the Latics were unable to quite find the right combination with some attacks petering out because they couldn’t find the right weight of pass and others being squandered when Hartford players couldn’t quite find the target with Bill Hamid forced into only two saves despite the Latics taking nine shots over the first 45 minutes.
With the score still level at halftime, the missed opportunities raised the spectre of the Tampa Bay game from earlier this season, where Hartford dominated throughout, but did not find the breakthrough and ultimately conceded late to gift the visitors all three points. However, Hartford eased those concerns almost immediately out of the break.
Ngalina was once again the architect of the opportunity, with another inch-perfect ball across the face of goal and Moreira was the man on the spot to fire it into the roof of the net from extremely close range. It was Moreira’s first goal for the club, and his first goal for any club in any competition since scoring the winner for Cancun FC against TapatÃo in the Liga de Expansión MX in March of 2022.
The Latics continued to search for a second goal, but struggled to find the breakthrough until the 70th minute, when Ngalina was alert to a long ball that split the Miami defense. The winger latched onto the ball and drove into the box, where a recovering Bolu Akinyode made no attempt to play the ball, instead tugging Ngalina to the ground conceding a penalty and earning himself a red card in the process.
After a brief interlude for Ngalina to receive treatment, Dieng stepped up to the spot and although Miami keeper Bill Hamid guessed right, the Hartford forward’s penalty was inch-perfect and doubled his side’s lead. It was Dieng’s ninth goal of the season, and 20th all-time in all competitions, extending his scoring record.
When the whistle blew, Hartford had secured another valuable three points, climbing up the table as it heads to another critical fixture against fellow playoff aspirants Birmingham Legion on Saturday.