Memphis, Tenn. – Memphis 901 FC rallied with three unanswered second half goals to take down Hartford Athletic 4-2 on Saturday night at AutoZone Park.
The Beale Street Boys used four goals from four different players and two assists from Aiden McFadden to grab the three points and move closer to clinching their third consecutive postseason berth.
McFadden first connected with fellow loan acquisition Samuel Careaga in the 60th minute to equalize after falling behind in the first half. Careaga knocked in a sliding finish in the box to grab his first goal in Memphis.
A deflected ball set Memphis loose again in the 73rd minute as McFadden laid the ball out for Luiz Fernando. Fernando stepped inside and delivered a world class left-footed strike to the far post to score his seventh goal of the season and take the lead back.
Rodrigo Da Costa would join the fun as he struck a left-footed free kick from outside of the box for the dagger in the 78th minute. Da Costa matched a career high with his 11th goal of the season.
Memphis moved to 12-8-9 with the victory at No. 5 in the Eastern Conference standings. With 45 points, 901 FC sits one point behind Louisville City FC with five matches remaining in the regular season
901 FC hits the road to face rival Birmingham Legion FC on Wednesday, September 20 at 7 p.m. CT.
Quotables
HEAD COACH STEPHEN GLASS
On tonight’s performance:
“I’m delighted with the comeback in the second half there. We were pretty poor in the first half and we didn’t accept that. It takes a strong effort to bounce back there. Hartford hasn’t won a lot of games this year but they looked pretty dangerous. We weren’t quite at it in the first half and we got punished. It wasn’t as severe as it could have been. It shows the strength of the group to come back in the second half. We started rolling and looked like we were brave then scored a number of goals like we’ve done for weeks to be fair.”
On halftime adjustments:
“We changed shape. We felt like we were in danger of losing if we didn’t change shape. I don’t really like changing shape too much but I felt like drastic action was needed so a couple of subs. It could have been anyone of them so the two that came off, it’s not singling them out. We felt a change of shape would help let us take grasp of the game and we came out with traps and looked like we wanted to score goals. I think when you start the second half like that with a new shape it gives the boys belief and the crowd got up again. They could feed off of it. If you give enough effort on the pitch the crowd will get behind you and we’re grateful for that support again.”
On Samuel Careaga:
“He was brilliant. We’ve worked a lot this week on getting in the box late, on crosses and deliveries. I won’t claim any responsibilities for Rodrigo’s goal, but Samuel was magnificent when he came on. His use of the ball, his energy was good and he told me he could’ve scored three goals. He’s disappointed with one.”
On a variety of contributors:
“The biggest thing is there’s a group that’s very hungry. Everyone recently has contributed. Jelani (Peters) has come on, he’s not played for a number of weeks and he came on and he was brilliant in the second half. That was the sort of performance we needed to strengthen us up a little bit. Made a bunch of tackles and clearances that you’d have to say were goal-saving. I think everybody’s contributed over these last three games. It’s a competitive group to see who plays. Coming up we’ve got Birmingham away and Tampa away. Then we’ll start to really think about playoffs.”
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Contact
Joshua Clayton – Communications and Public Relations Coordinator – jclayton@memphis901fc.com
