Hartford Athletic Kick Off Second Half Of The Season With Visit To Pittsburgh RIverhounds SC
The Latics look to put an end to their road woes with a nationally-televised, Saturday night trip to Highmark Stadium.
Hartford Athletic head to Pittsburgh on Saturday night for the first game of the second half of the season, looking for a first result away from Trinity Health Stadium since a 1-0 win over El Paso Locomotive on opening night of the 2024 season in March.
The Latics will head to Pittsburgh in search of their first win at Highmark Stadium since September of 2020, and their first points of any kind there since the last day of the 2021 season, when they secured a scoreless draw. Having downed the Hounds earlier in the season, Hartford are also trying to secure the double over Pittsburgh for the first time in club history.
The first half of the season concluded in a mixed fashion last Friday. Hartford took a deserved lead into halftime after playing some of their best football in weeks at home against one of the East’s best sides, but a Renan Ribeiro red card early in the second half was followed by two Charleston goals, and the Latics were forced to share the points. While the result goes down as a disappointment given the scoreline at half time, the first half performance was encouraging, and Hartford supporters will be hoping it portends more improvements to come.
While the Latics have had occasional bright spots at home, there’s been much less to cheer about on the road. Hartford have now dropped seven straight games away from Trinity Health Stadium, and have been shut out in five of them. They have just three road goals all year — only one of which has come from open play — and have failed to score as the visiting team since the middle of May.
Pittsburgh are coming off a surprising result; after being shut out in six consecutive games, they hammered Oakland Roots 5-0. The scoreline might have flattered them a little — aside from a penalty, the scored four goals on only 11 shots and an xG well under two — but they also throttled Roots defensively, limiting them to two shots all game. It was a typically good defensive performance by the Hounds, who are conceding the fewest shots per game in the league, and are in the top five defenses by both goals against and expected goals against. The numbers are even more impressive at home, where they are giving up fewer than six shots a game and are arguably the most water-tight defense in the league.
All of this adds up to a difficult challenge for Hartford, who will be trying to generate some kind of attacking spark on the road in one of the most difficult environments to do so. The whole team needs to show more attacking verve from the first whistle, but key players like Michee Ngalina and Anderson Asiedu, both of whom played well in the encouraging first half against Charleston, will have to deliver. Mamadou Dieng, who scored a fortunate first goal last time out, will also need to repay the confidence Brendan Burke has shown in him with some more clinical performances, and Saturday night is as good a time as any to start.
Hartford currently sit eight points out of the playoff places in the Eastern Conference (although they do have games in hand), and need to start picking up points in a hurry if there is going to be postseason football for them this season. The challenge on Saturday is a difficult one, but one the club needs to meet in order to get the second half of the season off on the right foot.
Kickoff from Highmark Stadium is set for 8 p.m. on ESPN2.