Hartford Athletic open their season tonight against the Riverhounds, filled with expectation, just as any USL team would to start their year. Although I think more so than ‘we want a cup!’, Hartford fans likely crave some measure of consistency for 2022. Since their entry into USL Championship, it’s been a bumpy ride.

Their first year in 2019 was a fairly standard first year, as they finished with a dismal 8-5-21 (WTL) record. They began the year with eight straight road games, losing every single one. Only in the final two games of the year were they able to string together two wins in a row. Of note, that team included former Riverhound José Angulo, current Riverhound Alex Dixon, and current Hartford Athletic captain Danny Barrera. So of course, they tore it down and built it back for 2020.

That next season was of course ‘the season we really would rather not talk about’ because of Covid-19, except it was a pretty darn good year for the Athletics. Playing in five-team Group F (and riding a lot of buses), Hartford topped the table with an 11-2-3 record, better than the second-place Riverhounds. Pittsburgh and Hartford basically spent the summer of 2020 stuffing poor NYRB II, Philly 2, and Loudoun into their proverbial lockers and taking their lunch money. Unfortunately, the Turf Whalers (not their official nickname) couldn’t parlay regular season excellence into post-season relevance, and got waxed, 1-0 in their first playoff game against St Louis FC, who were disbanded at playoffs end. Last note on 2020: Hartford started Parfait Mandanda in goal, and I challenge you to find a better name in sport than Parfait Mandanda. I will conceded that God Shamgod and Candy Maldonado are equally cool names. But not better.

In 2021, the Soccer Whale was pretty mediocre. Danny Barrera had 7 goals and 12 assists….