Hartford Athletic Take On Sacramento Republic In USL Jägermeister Cup Final
It's a chance for the Latics to claim the first trophy in club history
Hartford Athletic take on Sacramento Republic in the final of the USL Jägermeister Cup on Saturday night. The Latics are contesting the first final in club history as they seek a first-ever trophy, while Republic are aiming for their first silverware since winning the league title in 2014.
For Hartford, this has felt like a long time coming. Since the club entered the USL Championship in 2019, it has had just one winning season. That came during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, when the Latics played 12 games against MLS II clubs, none of whom had an average squad age above 20.
Earlier this season, it felt like the wait might go on. In June, Hartford supporters protested on the occasion of the club’s 100th all-time loss, citing a lack of results and investment as their key concerns. From that moment, though, the Latics have been on a tear, and only Louisville City have recorded more points per game in the entire Championship in the subsequent months.
Hartford also capitalized on the only part of the season that had previously been going right: the Jägermeister Cup. Wins over Portland Hearts of Pine and Westchester SC had given the Latics six points in Group their group, the only bright spot in what felt like another dismal season. A fightback against RIFC in the final group stage game was enough for Hartford to secure advancement to the knockout stages, and they haven’t looked back.
The knockout stages have been very different for the two clubs. While Hartford has outscored opponents 5-1 in the quarterfinals and semifinals, Sacramento has played two games that finished nil-nil in regulation and required penalties to determine a winner.
Overall in the competition, Hartford’s strength has been the attack, as it has scored 14 goals across six games, and has netted at least two goals in every single fixture. Republic, on the other hand, has just six goals, with four of those coming in one game against Las Vegas Lights and they’ve also been held scoreless three times.
Sacramento’s strength has been its defense. It has recorded five shutouts in six games in the competition, conceding exactly one goal. Hartford, on the other hand, has conceded seven goals in the cup, giving up a pair of goals in half their games.
This difference has been evident throughout the USL Championship regular season as well. Sacramento have arguably the best defence in the league, with only Louisville having conceded fewer goals, and only Rhode Island and Pittsburgh sporting a lower expected goals against. Hartford have the second-best attack by expected goals (behind only Charleston), and have scored the fifth-most actual goals.
The highlight of the team’s strengths should not result in discounting the other side of the coin: Sacramento are no slouches in attack, and Hartford, while sometimes fortunate in defense, has just one fewer clean sheet than Republic on the season. With that said, Hartford’s irrepressible attack against Sacramento’s stifling defense is a significant storyline, and the game may very well hinge on which team’s strength wins out.
A second significant storyline is that while Sacramento are almost unbeatable at home, Hartford have turned into one of the best road teams in the league. Republic have lost just one game at Heart Health Park this season, and are unbeaten in their last seven. The Latics are on a run of 11 games unbeaten in all competitions away from Trinity Health Stadium, and haven’t tasted defeat on the road since the beginning of May.
All in all, it promises to be a fascinating final, and while Sacramento’s water-tight defense might make the Cali club a slight favorite, Hartford have shown this season that it doesn’t need much of an opening to score multiple goals, and has repeatedly demonstrated that it has one of the most explosive attacks in the league.
For Hartford, it would be easy to say that the run to the cup final has been enough, but these chances are never guaranteed to come around again soon. Sacramento is proof of that. After winning the 2014 USL title, it didn’t reach a final again until a run to the 2022 U.S. Open Cup final, which it lost to Orlando City.
When the Jägermeister Cup competition kicked off earlier this season, Hartford manager Brendan Burke spoke about the appealing nature of the structure: a team that got out of their group was just three wins from silverware. The Latics have done the first part, and now are two-thirds of the way to the second part and will hope to take the final step and bring home the first trophy in club history.