Hartford Athletic Return to USL Championship Action Against Loudoun United
The Latics aim to get their first league result of the season on Saturday afternoon
Hartford Athletic head south to take on Loudoun United on Saturday afternoon as they try to kick their USL Championship season into gear. The Latics are winless in three league games and were recently knocked out of the U.S. Open Cup by USL League One side Portland Hearts of Pine in a midweek matchup.
In the Championship, Hartford has struggled mightily in attack. Through three games, only Oakland Roots have attempted fewer shots per game or have produced fewer expected goals, and the Latics struggles in attack culminated in a game against El Paso where they only attempted two shots through the ninety minutes.
One obvious problem for Hartford has been the absence of midfielder Samuel Careaga. Following a 2024 campaign with Memphis 901 FC in which he scored eight goals and added two assists, the Argentine was expected to be a key piece of the Latics’ attack in 2025. Offseason delays meant he was unable to even join the team in training until the week prior to the season opener, and after a substitute appearance in Lexington, he has been missing in action with an undisclosed injury.
Manager Brendan Burke has pointed to Careaga’s absence as a significant problem for Hartford, and a glance at even the most basic statistics shows why: Marlon Hairston is the only midfield for Hartford to have attempted a shot through the first three games.
Shots aren’t the only measure of a midfield — or even necessarily the most important one — but here they stand in for the larger problem which is that the Latics’ midfield has simply been absent in the attacking third through the opening weeks. Without Careaga, Hartford has lacked dynamism and creativity in midfield and while his return won’t solve all of their problems, it will be critical to un-stagnating the attack.
Looking at Saturday’s opposition, the Latics were unbeaten in their first 11 games against Loudoun — including winning three and drawing one in the 2020 season, and winning all four matchups in the 2021 season — but have lost four of the last five including both games in the 2024 season as well as three straight at Segra Field. Over the last three seasons — which coincides with Loudoun’s transition from an MLS II side to an independent club with more serious aspirations — Hartford have won only two of six games and been outscored 10-4, including three games where they were shut out.
Loudoun United are flying high in the early stages of the USL Championship season. Their only blemish on their record is a road loss to Lousville City and they own road victories over Birmingham Legion and North Carolina FC to go with a home win over 2024 Eastern Conference Champions Rhode Island FC. They also recorded victories over two NPSL Sides — West Chester United SC and Virgina Dream FC — in the U.S. Open Cup, setting up a third-round showdown with Lousville.
One of Loudoun’s key players so far has been Abdellatif Aboukoura, who currently leads all scorers in the USL Championship with four goals. Aboukoura, who made his professional debut for Loudoun back in 2021, was also nominated for USL Championship Goal of the Week in Week 4 for the second of his two goals against RIFC. Alongside Florian Valot — whose three assists lead the Championship in that category — Aboukoura gives Loudoun an undeniable cutting edge in attack and will challenge Hartford’s sometimes-shaky defense on Saturday afternoon.
This will be the Latics’ third game in eight days and rounds out a challenging week with two road games — and with one of the smallest squads in the league — there has been little opportunity to rotate and rest anyone. This makes what would already be a challenging fixture against one of the success stories of the first weeks of the season even harder and Hartford will have its work cut out for them to get a desperately needed result from their afternoon in northern Virginia.
