Hartford Athletic got a look at the Jagermeister Cup, the in-season United Soccer League prize they can take home with one night of solid soccer on the West Coast.
“I don’t think anybody expected us to be here right now,” defender Jordan Scarlett said. “We were buried at the bottom of the table for so long. We clawed our way out. I keep telling the group, ‘This is not a Cinderella story, we deserve to be here.’”
Hartford got off to a rough start to the season, but began playing winning soccer consistently in mid July. After the 32 teams began competing for the Jagermeister Cup, Athletic earned nine points to get out of the group stage with a wild-card berth in the knockout round. Hartford then defeated San Antonio and Greenville to reach the championship game, to be played at Sacramento Republic FC on Saturday night at 10 p.m.
The game can be viewed on CBS Sports Golazo Network nationally, and locally on MyTV9 in Connecticut. Watch parties are planned for Vaughn’s Public House on Pratt Street in Hartford, Dave and Busters in Manchester and Gio’s Brick Oven Pizza in East Granby.
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“In Europe, when you’re competing for trophies, you’re changing cities, that’s how I view it, and how important it can be,” Athletic coach Brendan Burke said. “Especially for a small city like Hartford, it’s a great place to live but there are no pro teams since they lost the Whalers. I still have neighbors flying the Whalers’ flag. This would be really special for Hartford.”
Scarlett, 30, signed with Hartford in January and has become one of the senior leadership core on the improving young team. He has two goals and an assist in 23 matches.
“We’ve come a long way and we’ve developed our identity and we’re just ready to go,” he said. “We started with 32 teams and there are only two teams left, so its a privilege to be here.”
Hartford, with 11 wins, 10 losses and five ties in regular-season play, won at Colorado last weekend and stayed in California all week to train for this game, scouting Sacramento (12-6-8) in its home game. Afterward, Athletic resumes its playoff push with a game at Oakland on Tuesday. Burke has developed a rotation of 21 players, and can start a completely different lineup game to game if he chooses, keeping players fresh and in attack mode.
“Transition moments are massive,” Burke said. “When we’re sharp in transition, we’re really good. Some of that comes with game management and picking your moments to be aggressive, and we have to play with intent. That’s what we put on the board before every game now. What’s your intent? How fast can you break their last line? How many times can you break our last line? That’s the name of the game for us. If we can get into a shootout, we’ll get into a shootout.”
