Athletic, Charlotte Play to 1-1 Draw

After opening the season with eight straight road losses, Hartford
Athletic recorded its first USL Championship point in history with a
1-1 draw with the Charlotte Independence on Saturday night.

EAST HARTFORD—After opening their first season in USL Championship play with eight straight defeats—all on the road—Hartford Athletic came home and earned its first point of the season with a 1-1 draw against Charlotte Independence before 11,346 people at Pratt and Whitney Stadium at Rentschler Field on Saturday night.

The scoring started early. In the third minute of the match, Dominic Oduro broke past the Hartford back line and dropped a ball off for a trailing Abdoulie Mansally who fired it past Jacob Lissek for an early 1-0 lead for Charlotte. But Hartford answered quickly. Raymond Lee played a beautiful ball down into the box and Mac Steeves chipped the ball over an on-rushing keeper for the first home goal in Hartford Athletic history. The score would stay tied at one heading into the break.

In the second half, Hartford had a great chance early as Alex Dixon shot from outside the box, but current USL Championship Goalkeeper of the Week Curtis Anderson made a fantastic diving save. Minutes later, Steeves had another great chance that just went over the cross bar. The score would hold for the rest of the half and Hartford recorded the first point in club history. (The Athletic opened the season with eight consecutive losses—all on the road.)  
Next up for the Athletic will be a match with Memphis 901 FC on Friday at Pratt and Whitney Stadium at Rentschler Field. Match starts at 7 p.m. Tickets, starting at $10, are available by clicking to HERE. For fans unable to attend, the match will be televised live on WCTX MyTV9 (Channel 59).

STATS FOR CHARLOTTE GAME:

Shots: 11-8 HFD
Shots on Target: 3-1 HFD
Corner Kicks: 5-4 HFD
Fouls Committed: 12-6 CLT
Saves: 2-0 CLT
Offside: 2-1 HFD
Possession: 58%-42% CLT
Passing Accuracy: 81%-77% CLT

SCORING SUMMARY:

3' Abdoulie Mansally (Dominic Oduro)
12' Mac Steeves (Raymond Lee)

DISCIPLINARY SUMMARY:
39' - Michael Maria (Yellow)
79' - Collin Martin (Yellow)
90 +1' - Zyen Jones (Yellow)

HARTFORD ATHLETIC STARTING LINEUP:

Jacob Lissek; Raymond Lee, Sem de Wit, Philip Rasmussen, Harry Swartz (Giuseppe Gentile 77'); Sebastian Dalgaard, Collin Martin, Nicky Downs, Jonny Brown; Mac Steeves (Jose Angulo 64'), Alex Dixon (Wojciech Wojcik 80').

CHARLOTTE INDEPENDENCE STARTING LINEUP:

Curtis Anderson; Hugh Roberts, Steven Thicot, Andrew Gutman, Joel Johnson; Michael Maria, Alex Martinez (Enzo Martinez 73'), Afrim Taku; Dominic Oduro, Jorge Herrera, Abdoulie Mansally (Zyen Jones, 76').

#UnitedforSoccer, @hfdathletic, @independence, @InsideCTSpts

—Staff Reports