It was tale of two halves for Miami as the hosts gave up three second half goals behind a two-goal performance from Hartford’s Dieng in Miami on Saturday night. The second half letdown spoiled what appeared to be a strong performance for Miami FC.
The hosts began the match confident and seeing a wealth of possession in the first 45 minutes.
Miami’s first chance was early in the 9th minute after Alejandro Mitrano took a cross and played the ball in front of goal to set up a great opportunity, but no Miami attacker was available to put the ball in the net.
Hartford’s strongest chance came in the 17th minute, but Miami’s Ndiaye stayed consistent in goal to keep the score 0-0.
Miami had another great chance in the 29th minute off the shot from Allen Gavilanes, but this time it was Hartford’s goalkeeper making the diving safe to keep things even.
While Miami was clearly the better side in the first half, they went into halftime without capitalizing on their opportunities. It cost them dearly in the second half.
The second 45 minutes was a completely different story for both Miami and Hartford. Miami came out of the locker room flat, while Hartford became the aggressor.
In the 50th minute, Hartford’s pressure paid off quickly as Dieng took a quick ball played behind Barbir which left the Hartford’s forward one on one with Ndiaye. While Ndiaye got a piece of Dieng’s shot, it wasn’t enough to keep it out of goal and Hartford found itself up 1-0.
It was more bad news for Miami in the 73rd minute as Hartford played a quick ball down the left side and put a cross in reaching Farrell’s right foot. The forward took the volley and blasted his shot at Miami’s goal. Ndiaye made an excellent save on the ball, but no Miami defender recovered to get the rebound, and Farrell was left all alone to collect his own shot and place it easily into goal to send the visitors up 2-0.
In the 81st minute, it was insult to injury for Miami resulting in Dieng’s second goal and the match sealer for Hartford after a bad mistake by Miami’s Ndiaye.
The keeper for Miami called to receive the pass from Junior Palacios, however when Palacios played the ball back to Ndiaye Miami’s keeper missed the ball causing it to fall right to Dieng’s feet. The Hartford forward made no mistake on his chance and sent the ball easily into the back of the net to seal Miami’s fate.
Miami will try to rebound after a disappointing result as they begin a difficult road journey for the next three weeks with Birmingham, Indy Eleven and Louisville approaching before hosting their final home game of the season on October 5th against Pittsburgh. Kickoff will be at 7:00pm ET. Tickets for the match are on sale now at www.MiamiFC.com.
