Hartford Athletic Look to Deliver Oakland First Home Loss of 2023
Hartford Athletic Look to Deliver Oakland First Home Loss of 2023
The Green and Blue are set to continue a three-game road trip with a trip out west to Oakland, still in search of their first win of 2023.
Following a heartbreaking loss to Charleston last time out, Hartford Athletic are set to continue a three-game road stretch tonight, looking to deliver Oakland Roots SC their first home loss of the year as they travel out west for a 10 p.m. ET kickoff.
Still in search of their first win of 2023, Hartford find themselves sitting in 11th in the Eastern Conference on just two points with an 0-2-3 record on the season. Oakland, however, come into tonight’s contest 2–0 at home, looking for a fourth consecutive win in all competitions. They sit seventh in the west on seven points.
Hartford had the upper hand early last time out in Charleston, taking the lead inside of 15 minutes through Prince Saydee before conceding an equalizer late in the first half. The Green and Blue would find themselves 2-1 down late in the second half, but would rally back to level the game at two through Connor McGlynn’s first goal of the season, before finding the net a third time minutes later for a goal that was eventually called back for offsides.
Holding on to a valuable point on the road, Hartford eventually conceded a 92nd minute free kick from almost 30 yards out, sending the visitors home empty handed with their third loss of the year.
For Oakland, it was very much a different story in their last game. Traveling to Eastern Conference side Indy Eleven last weekend, they took a 1-0 lead into halftime thanks to Lindo Mfeka’s goal just minutes before the whistle. He headed the ball past an onrushing Yannik Oettl well outside the box, before taking another touch into the open goal to give Oakland the lead.
Despite being forced on the defensive end for the better part of the second half, the visitors would only build on the lead from there, piling on the pressure with two more second half goals to extend their lead to three. Darek Formella, who was credited with the assist on the first goal of the night, would find the back of the net off of the rebound from Mfeka’s saved shot in the 71st minute before Edrago Rito completed an elegant counter-attack with a calm, long-range chip over Oettl in net to give the Roots their third of the night. The dominant second-half performance would see Oakland through their third consecutive win, a stretch in which they outscored their opponents 7-1.
In need of an attacking threat to match one of the most in-form teams in the league, Hartford enter tonight’s game without striker Elvish Amoh, who was forced off the field with a thigh injury in the second half of last week’s loss. The forward, who had played every minute up until the injury, has notched a pair of goals in USL Championship play and recorded the second-ever hat trick in club history in Hartford’s 3-0 U.S. Open Cup win over Lansdowne Yonkers FC.
The Green and Blue will also be without Andre Lewis, who is still out with a head injury sustained on match day two and Kembo Kibato, who is unavailable with a foot injury.
Kickoff from Cal State University is set for 10 p.m. ET on ESPN+, WTNH.com or WCTX MyTV9.