Hartford Athletic will host playoff game
The Hartford area will continue to host high quality soccer.
While Major League Soccer’s Toronto FC, which has used two wins at Rentschler Field to move into a tie for first place in the Eastern Conference standings, won’t play in East Hartford again until Oct. 14, there will be a USL Championship playoff game at Dillon Stadium in Hartford on Saturday night.
After finishing 17th in the 18-team USL Championship Esstern Conference standings in its debut season, the Hartford Athletic secured a home playoff game after Sunday’s 2-0 win against the New York Red Bulls II clinched the Group F title. Hartford finished 11-3-2 and finished tied for the second most points in the league.
Hartford went 5-0-1 in its final six regular-season games to edge out Pittsburgh for the group title.
Tyreke Johnson opened the scoring and then Connor McGlynn became the 16th player to score a goal for Hartford. That was more than enough offense as Parfait Mandanda recorded his fourth shutout of the season.
Hartford, 7-1-1 at home this season, will play host to St. Louis FC, the second-place finisher in Group E, at 7 p.m.
“We worked hard to get ourselves into this situation and the taste of it is great,” Hartford Athletic coach Rahdi Jaidi said. “It was not easy, the time we spent on the road, it is something that makes it more tasteful and more enjoyable for us to celebrate and enjoy it.
“We are looking forward to it. We wanted to do it, we got it and we are hungry and strive to go meet our fans in Dillon in the playoffs.”
Alimited number of tickets are available by visiting www.hartfordathletic.com and being added to the waiting list.