Hartford Athletic went the entire month of April without a goal. Five games, 450 minutes, zero goals.

The basic fact of the drought is bad enough, but for a team that came into the season with high expectations for their attack, the current reality is especially dispiriting.

The question at the moment is very simple: can it get any better? To answer that, it’s first necessary to establish what exactly has been going wrong.

One point that simply can’t be emphasized enough is that Hartford have very few dimensions to the attack, with the only consistently effective play coming down the right-hand side. This perhaps reached its peak against Loudoun United three weeks ago. In that game, approximately 80% of Hartford’s passes into the final third were down the right-hand side, and nearly two-thirds of their passes into the box came on that side of the pitch as well.

The point isn’t that this approach was totally ineffective – Sebastian Anderson and Michee Ngalina absolutely had the beating of their men down the right – it was that because Hartford was offering so little through middle or down the left, Loudoun’s defenders were able to rotate and deny the Latics the ability to turn that success into meaningful opportunities. 

Evidence of that lack of meaningful opportunities can be found in the shots attempted by Augustine Williams. After scoring twice in March, and finding four big chances (three of them from open play), that evaporated in April, when not only did the forward fail to score, he also had zero big chances as measured by expected goals.

And that’s exactly the problem: Hartford can get down the right-hand side – Anderson and Ngalina are simply too good for most defenses to truly contain them – but are unable to provide meaningful service.

An additional problem is that neither Adewale Obalola or Sadat Anaku has really stepped up to add anything to the attack. While they do each have a goal in league play, the pair have combined for just 13 progressive actions (passes + carries) on the season in a total of 586 minutes in the league. It’s not necessarily the role of a forward to be the primary creative force, but when the service hasn’t been here for them to be out-and-out goalscorers, they have to add something, and neither has truly been able to do so.

To be fair to both players, there are some extenuating circumstances. Anaku is still adjusting to the league and has been moved all over the pitch due to injuries elsewhere. Obalola has been asked to occasionally play deeper, rather than in his preferred role up top.

And so the theme of injuries and absences raises it's head again.

So it's obvious that the absence of both Barry Coffey and Samuel Careaga has played a role here. Without either attacking midfielder, Hartford simply have had no bite through the middle of the park. Junior Moreira and Beverly Makangila have positive qualities, but neither is particularly inclined to be an attacking force. They have combined to attempt just four shots in seven league games this season, and have hardly been creating for their teammates either, adding a total of three key passes and a total expected assists of just 0.12 (per American Soccer Analysis). Obalola has dropped deeper here as well, but not to any great effect.

And this flaw manifests in two ways.

Firstly, there’s the obvious lack of movement of the ball through the middle. And secondly, there’s a lack of bodies in and around the box.

There’s nobody making a late run. If Hartford are able to force the ball into the box, there’s no depth to the attack, no additional player for the defense to account for. It’s no real critique of either Makangila or Moreira, as both have been forced into roles that don’t truly suit their skills but the problems on the pitch have been there, regardless of the fault.

Will things now get better?

Well, with Coffey and Careaga healthy and available, things should improve. Speaking to the media on Friday, Brendan Burke emphasized particularly the difference that Careaga makes.

“He's able to get away from you on the ball in tight spaces, he's able to see a final pass, he's able to weight a final pass, an entry pass," Burke said. "You know, he can just open up the game in so many ways, especially in the attacking third of the field. And he does contribute goals. You know, he's had a double digit goal year in this league at a very young age. There's a reason he was the MVP of the [USL Cup] final last year out in Sacramento. He can make a special play and and we've been missing that special play.”

And outside of Careaga, even in limited action against RIFC, Coffey was popping up on the edge of the box, including in one instance where Williams unfortunately touched the ball out of his path when he was well set up for what could have been one of the best looks at goal by either team in the entire game. That’s a moment that should go differently as the players build confidence in one another; in three months time, Williams should expect Coffey to be there, lurking, and feel assured in letting the ball run on. 

Things should also improve on the flanks as well. Matt Real returned to action against RIFC and figures to start on Saturday. He adds an actual left-sided fullback back into the mix, and while he isn’t always the most dynamic attacking force, he’s far more comfortable in the role than either Sadat Anaku or even TJ Presthus, and will add a balance that has been lacking. Baboucarr Njie seems close to a return as well – he could be available off the bench on Saturday – and will give Burke options on the left-hand side. And Emmanuel Samadia, the piece that has been missing for two months now, is on the ground in Hartford and working his way into the side, even if he’s still a few weeks away from meaningful minutes.

The challenge now is that Hartford is months behind the opposition in terms of building cohesion. Most Championship teams have had a full preseason and two months of competitive fixtures to pull things together, where Hartford not only lacked a preseason, but has spent two months scuffling with something short of the first eleven, and is only now bringing all those players together in training and for competitive minutes.

It’s unlikely that things will turn 180 degrees on Saturday night against Detroit. These things take time, and Hartford have lost precious months already. But if things are going to improve, the signs should be there soon. May will be a critical month; home games against Detroit and New Mexico United will bookend a critical USL Cup fixture away at Brooklyn and a visit to last season’s Western Conference champions FC Tulsa. 

In some ways, this is a mirror of last season. In 2025, Hartford’s season really took off in late June. But it was in late May that the signs of the turnaround emerged. A 4-4 draw away at Indy Eleven, followed by a 3-2 come-from-behind win over Westchester in the USL Cup showed that Hartford could, in fact, score goals.

And while things didn’t fully click for another few weeks, the signs were there for those who cared to see them. The hope for Hartford now is that May will bring some of those moments; the proof that the plan still works, as long as all the pieces are in place.