Reports: Hartford Athletic Fall to RIFC, NYRB in First Preseason Tests
From a 1-0 loss to Major League Soccer's New York Red Bulls to a rumored closed-door scrimmage with Rhode Island FC -- Here's what we know about Hartford's first preseason contests.
We don’t know much about Hartford Athletic’s preseason campaign beyond the official schedule release, and what we do know doesn't tell us much: a narrow 1-0 loss to Major League Soccer’s New York Red Bulls and a rumored scrimmage with regional rival Rhode Island FC marked the beginning of a busy preseason slate for the Green and Blue.
Hartford traveled to New Jersey to take on the Red Bulls in what was the first publicly-announced contest for Brendan Burke’s new-look Hartford squad. The team’s limited Twitter feed confirmed that the game stayed scoreless for at least 60 minutes before the Red Bulls eventually pulled ahead for a narrow 1-0 win.
Sources also confirmed to The Blazing Musket that 21-year-old homegrown product Roald Mitchell was the lone goalscorer for the Red Bulls.
It was also rumored last week that USL expansion side Rhode Island FC traveled to Hartford for a pre-season scrimmage. While neither team has confirmed the legitimacy of the rumors, it was first reported by the Raising Anchor podcast’s Matthew Entrekin and Jason Carey in their most recent episode that the two teams met at the Day Hill Dome for a pair of 45-minute contests that featured two separate XI’s for each team.
The scrimmage, which was reportedly won by RIFC in both periods (score unknown), was dominated early in the attack by the Green and Blue, before RIFC eventually took advantage of their opportunities and took the lead.
The visitors then were said to have come out firing in the second period, forcing Hartford to play a much more physical game in repose to the increased intensity. Tensions apparently heightened to a point of what Entrekin called a “dust-up” between the two sets of players, the severity of which is unknown.
If true (a big if at that), the results still don’t give much insight — the formation, lineups and tactical setups of two brand-new squads in their early days are unlikely to yield a contest that would provide any valuable information based on the score alone. At a minimum, it lets fans know that the teams are familiar with each other, and that it wasn’t always pretty.
That could lead to a rivalry worth watching in the future.
Up next on the preseason trail for Hartford — a trip to the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida and a second-straight meeting with MLS competition. The Green and Blue are set to meet the Colorado Rapids on Feb 14.