USL CHAMPIONSHIP: Detroit City FC, Hartford Athletic settle nothing in scoreless draw
- Dan Stickradt
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
NATIONAL SOCCER NEWS: www.nationalsoccernetwork.com
HARTFORD, Conn. – Detroit City Football Club and Hartford Athletic settled nothing on the soccer pitch Saturday night.
Visiting Detroit City FC and host Hartford played to a 0-0 draw and shared the USL Championship-Eastern Conference points.
The Le Rouge found themselves unable to get going in the attacking phase of the match. Detroit City outshot Hartford 14-10 overall, including 6-1 with shots on frame, and even held a 7-4 edge off cornerkicks but came up empty handed.
Detroit City FC head coach Danny Dichio deployed a heavily rotated squad from Wednesday’s loss in the US Open Cup to the Chicago Fire, giving first starts of the USL Championship season to forward Sebastián Guenzatti and midfielder Dominic Gasso. Defender Shane Wiedt also came in for Stephen Carroll, meaning Devon Amoo-Mensah wore the Captain’s armband.
It was a relatively slow start to the match for both sides, with most of the play taking place between the 18-yard boxes, but traffic would slowly begin to pick up. In the 19th minute, fullback Alex Villanueva was shown a yellow card for a tackle near the far side touchline in what would start a start-stop period of the match that continued into the halftime break.
Saturday’s match ended with 35 fouls, 18 for Detroit City FC and 17 for host Hartford Athletic – higher than team averages in 2025.
Out of the halftime break, Detroit City FC put their foot on the gas in search of the match’s opening goal, leaning on top-scorer Darren Smith who fancied a few chances for himself with strikes from distance, all met by Hartford’s Antony Siaha, who was named FotMob’s Player of the Match with an 8.0 rating, making six saves.
Danny Dichio would bring on Haruki Yamazaki and Connor Rutz in place of Alex Villanueva and Sebastián Guenzatti in the 68th minute in an attempt to get more out of his side going forward. Still, they were met with the same struggles as time ticked by. Jeciel Cedeño was also introduced for Ben Morris in the 79th minute.
This was Detroit City FC’s fourth draw of the early 2025 USL Championship season, and will next take the pitch against Birmingham Legion at Protective Stadium next Sunday, May 18.
Detroit City FC (4-1-4 USL) has 16 points, while Hartford Athletic (1-5-1) has four points. Detroit still owns a 13-9 scoring edge in USL games, while Hartford has been outscored 11-4.
BOX SCORE
Detroit City Starting XI – Carlos Herrera, Alex Villanueva (68’), Devon Amoo-Mensah, Shane Wiedt, Michael Bryant, Ryan Williams, Dominic Gasso, Ben Morris (79’), Rhys Williams, Darren Smith, Sebastián Guenzatti (68’)
Detroit City Substitutes – Jeciel Cedeño (79’), Connor Rutz (68’), Matt Sheldon, Haruki Yamazaki (68’), Marcello Polisi, Carlos Saldaña, Jordan Adebayo-Smith
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