Saint Louis FC hosts Hartford Athletic on Sunday night in match for week 26 of the United Soccer League. This will be the first of three home matches in six days for a Saint Louis FC needing victories to stay close in the postseason race. Hartford beat Saint Louis FC at Hartford this season by a score of 2-1 in a match played on June 8th when Hartford was last in the conference standings and Saint Louis had an undefeated streak of five matches. That was the beginning of the actual streak of 8 consecutive away losses for Saint Louis as well as the beginning of a bad streak for Saint Louis in league play.
Hartford is currently 16th in the Eastern conference with 19 points from 5 wins, 17 losses and 4 ties. Hartford has 2 wins and 3 loses during its last five matches. Last week, Hartford defeated Atlanta United 2 at home 3-2. The notable players in Hartford are Wojciech Wojcik with 5 goals y 3 assists, midfielder Danny Barrera with 4 assists and two players who have played for Saint Louis FC in previous seasons, Jose Angulo with 4 goals and 3 assists and Sebastian Dalgaard with 4 goals.
Saint Louis arrives to this match with a 5-match winless streak and only one victory in its last 15 matches. Audi Jepson, Albert Dikwa, Joaquín Rivas y Matt Thomas are still recovering from injuries and will not be available against Hartford. Oscar Umar will not be available due to the red card received against Ottawa. Guy Abend, who traveled to Ottawa and was on the bench, could play his first minutes after missing several matches due to injury. With 3 matches in the next 6 days, coach Anthony Pulis may rotate the lineup and players like Paris Gee, Bradley Kandem Fewo and Nichi Vlastos could be part of the game plan for these matches.
Saint Louis has 11 matches left to get into postseason positions. It is 4 points behind the 10th position and these three matches at home will be pivotal on the route to the postseason. It is important to start with a victory against Hartford to regain confidence and to get the first 3 points of the 7 points Saint Louis needs in these matches to keep the postseason hopes alive.
Líder Sport Media will be broadcasting live from the stadium starting at 7:15 pm. Follow the audio broadcast on https://liderusa.wordpress.com/live-stream/
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