March 10, 2023 – United Soccer League Championship (USL) – Monterey Bay FC News Release
SEASIDE, California – Monterey Bay F.C. (0-0-0, 0 points) begins league play Saturday with a 7 p.m. PT kickoff at Cardinale Stadium against Hartford Athletic (0-0-0, 0 points) in Week 1 of the 2023 USL Championship regular season, presented by Cardinale Automotive Group. Saturday’s match will be broadcast locally via KION on Central Coast CW (35.1 over the air, channel 14 Xfinity), with live streaming available on ESPN+.
Monterey Bay F.C. and Eastern Conference side Hartford Athletic are set to square off for the first-ever time on Saturday. Last season, the Crisp and Kelp took the league by storm with a 15-match run from July to mid-September in which the Club went 8-3-4 (W-L-T) highlighted by nine shutouts and a +12 goal differential to surprisingly invite themselves into the playoff conversation in 2022. Now entering 2023, Monterey Bay will look to recapture the magic from that stretch to kick off the new campaign on the front foot. Meanwhile, new-look Hartford has their own aspirations to make noise in the league this season, beginning with an upset result in Seaside.
The two clubs share a few connections, starting with the first-ever signing in Monterey Bay F.C. history, Walmer Martínez. The Santa Cruz native signed his first professional contract with Hartford in 2021 and scored two goals before transferring back home to the Crisp and Kelp ahead of the Club’s inaugural campaign. In addition, two of the players the Union signed this offseason have connections of their own to Hartford. Both Alex Dixon and Alex Lara spent portions of their respective careers in Connecticut prior to making the move to Seaside.
With unfinished business the theme of the offseason, both the Crisp and Kelp’s returning group and new signings Dixon, Max Glasser and Lara are determined to see the season through to the playoffs – one match at a time. “We’re locked in right now,” said Monterey Bay F.C. defender Kai Greene. “The preseason didn’t really go as planned for us. We brought back the core, but we were missing some of the chemistry that we normally have. But we scrap that and we move on. We’re all focused right now, ready for a big crowd and ready to put on a show against Hartford. It’s already a must-win game for us. Last year we started off with six losses in our first seven matches, so it’s important to get on the front foot this season. We’ve got to make the playoffs and we…