Hartford Athletic Stumble in Tampa
A Michee Ngalina brace wasn't enough as the Latics fell to the Rowdies by a score of 3-2
Hartford Athletic fell to Tampa Bay Rowdies on Saturday night at Al Land Stadium, despite a brace from Michee Ngalina. The loss denied the Latics the opportunity to clinch a home playoff game, and leaves them needing to get a win next Saturday at Louisville City, or for Pittsburgh Riverhounds to lose to Phoenix Rising; to ensure that there will be meaningful soccer played at Trinity Health Stadium again this season.
Before the game, Hartford manager Brendan Burke acknowledged that Tampa Bay would need to push and would likely start the game aggressively. Hartford were ripped open on the counter-attack for the first goal, with Manuel Arteaga played into absolutely acres of space by Alex Méndez, and no Hartford defender in the vicinity. Emmanuel Samadia did excellent work to get back, but Arteaga’s shot went through his legs, and with Antony Siaha guessing wrong, the ball slid just inside the near post to put the hosts ahead in just the eighth minute.
Tampa doubled its lead in the 25th minute, taking advantage of another opportune moment. The Latics were as much to blame for the second goal, as a bad giveaway gave Tampa Bay the advantage of numbers, with Woobens Pacius ultimately the beneficiary for his 13th USL Championship goal of the season.
With the two-goal advantage, Tampa were more content to let Hartford possess the ball and try and force them into more bad turnovers, and as the half-hour mark approached, the Latics began to look a little ragged. They were not totally without attacking life, but were struggling to find quite the right final ball in and around the Rowdies’ penalty area, and if they had gone into the break down two goals, it would have been no more than they deserved.
Hartford did however, change the complexion of the game when it pulled one back right on the stroke of half-time. Jack Panayotou rolled the ball across the box, where a completely unmarked Michee Ngalina just had to roll it into the back of the net to reduce the deficit to one.
It had hardly been a thrilling game at halftime, but Tampa had done what many of Hartford’s recent opponents had been unable to: take advantage of mistakes and convert those opportunities into goals. The Latics had made their fair share of mistakes as well, and it was hardly the kind of performance Burke would have been hoping for following his team’s preparation this week.
Under the circumstances, fans might have expected Hartford to have a little more pop out of the gate in the second half, but it struggled to manifest much in the way of attacking opportunities, and it was Tampa who struck first to restore their two-goal lead. It was the first shot of the second half for either team, with Méndez adding to his earlier assist with a strike out of the top drawer. From more than 35 yards out, he hit a screamer that left Siaha with absolutely no chance as it rocketed into the far corner in the 56th minute.
Michee Ngalina completed his brace in second-half stoppage time, following an excellent through ball from Hadji Barry. It’s the first time the two have combined for a goal since August 12, 2022, when Ngalina set up Barry for the opener in Colorado Springs’ 4-all draw against El Paso Locomotive.
The goal did make the remainder of stoppage time a little more interesting, but Ngalina’s goal was ultimately too little, too late, as the whistle blew on a 3-2 victory for Tampa Bay. The result brought Hartford’s run of six consecutive road victories in the USL Championship, and 13 games unbeaten in all competitions, to an end.
Despite the result, Hartford held on to 3rd place in the Eastern Conference, as North Carolina fought to a nil-nil draw with RIFC, and Loudoun fell 2-1 to Indy Eleven. Pittsburgh’s late-night win over Monterey Bay compresses the battle for the final two top-four seeds, with four teams now separated by only two points. Hartford can still claim one of those — and a home playoff game — with a victory next week, but this has to go down as a missed opportunity.