Hartford Athletic can’t be stopped these days.
After capturing the club’s first-ever trophy with a win in the Jagermeister Cup, the team steamrolled its way past Oakland Roots SC on Tuesday night, completing its Northern California trip with a 3-1 win at Oakland Coliseum.
For the fans watching on TV, it might have been slightly eyebrow-raising to see Hartford sprinting and kicking, blocking shots and scoring goals on the same field the Oakland Athletics and Raiders used to play on. It may have even contributed to the growing feeling that Hartford has a major professional sports team to root for again.
With the USL’s growth and the league soon to become Division 1 in the United States– officially recognized by major soccer governing bodies as the highest level of competition, on par with Major League Soccer– it’s starting to feel like the Whalers on grass, except maybe more successful (with apologies to Emile Francis).
Fans are able to watch games on myTV9 and ESPN+, and hundreds of diehards traveled to Sacramento for the team’s Jagermeister Cup Final last Saturday. Others hosted or attended watch parties for the game, which started at 10 p.m. eastern. Hartford defeated Sacramento Republic FC, 1-0, to take home the trophy.
James Campbell, an Athletic season ticket holder since 2023, was one of those fans who had friends over for the late kickoff, and he said the atmosphere felt like a Super Bowl party. Soccer has a deep-rooted tradition, especially overseas, of fans rooting for their team in a diehard fashion, no matter whether they’re in the top division or not, and that culture has carried over to Athletic fans in Connecticut.
“It’s almost like, life. It’s something you look forward to,” Campbell said. “And you can understand why it’s such a big thing in Europe, and you see it here, it’s like a lifestyle. How deep you can get emotionally into the games, and into the standings. It’s 90 minutes of tension.
“You look at England, everyone watches Premier League, but you still see the super-fandom for the Championship, League One, League Two, even National League (the fourth tier). You see all these superfans in Hartford … I mean, it really is a community.”
The televised games certainly contribute to the big-time feel, as does the fact that you can select Hartford as a favorite team on national sports apps such as ESPN, follow the USL there and get up-to-the-minute scores and game start and final score alerts.
The USL is planning on introducing promotion and relegation in the coming seasons, coinciding with the move to Division 1 status, which could further increase its popularity and some believe, even pose a threat to MLS. It hasn’t been made official that Hartford will begin in the Division 1 league, with stadium size stipulations and other details to be ironed out, but with a pro-rel system, the team will have the opportunity to win its way there, regardless of where it begins, as is the case in soccer leagues around the globe.
Athletic’s win Tuesday saw the team erase a 1-0 first half deficit and score three goals in the second, including a record-breaking eighth of the season as a sub for Kyle Edwards. Jack Panayotou assisted on Edwards’ strike in the 64th minute, and also on Josh Belluz’s equalizer in the 56th. Beverly Makangila added one in stoppage time for the convincing 3-1 final scoreline.
The win in Oakland, on the field Rickey Henderson and Bo Jackson used to play on, vaulted Hartford to third in the USL East standings, with 41 points on the season. The team sits at 12-5-10 (W-D-L) and has lost just three of its last 21 games.
Hartford returns to Trinity Health Stadium on Saturday to face Sacramento Republic FC in its final home game of the season.