Atlanta United allowed a 27th-minute goal to Cucho Hernandez, and despite a strong 2nd half, fell to the defending MLS Cup champion Columbus Crew 1-0 at Lower.com Field to open its 2024 MLS campaign.
No Atlanta fan needs to be reminded of the team’s last meeting — a 4-2 result in game 3 of the first round in the MLS Cup Playoffs in favor of the Crew that ended United’s 2023 season — but Atlanta couldn’t get revenge.
Atlanta started the match with an expected 11 minus two 2 inclusions: Brad Guzan captained the team and started over Josh Cohen, while Derrick Williams started over Luis Abram after an impressive preseason.
After a sloppy first 5 minutes for both teams, Columbus had the first chance of the match. Hernandez settled the ball just outside the 18 and forced a relatively comfortable diving save by Guzan to his left.
Just 3 minutes later, Columbus should have scored. Cucho dropped to collect a pass, turned, and played Mo Farsi running behind Caleb Wiley. Farsi quickly played the ball across to Jaden Russell-Rowe, who, even though he was ahead of the Atlanta United defense, took it first time and sent the ball wide left.
In the 18th minute, Crew goalkeeper Patrick Schulte played a long ball downfield to Farsi, which Guzan rushed out of his box to head away. The ensuing shot from the rebound was handled outside the box by Guzan, but Atlanta got a lucky break as Farsi was offside on his initial run.
Columbus finally broke threw in the 27th minute through Hernandez. As Brooks Lennon stepped to Yaw Yeboah after the Crew switched play to the right, Diego Rossi ran in behind as Saba Lobjandize was late to track him back. Rossi received the ball and played it across goal, with a deflection by a diving Guzan to Cucho who powered it home past the sprawling Atlanta defenders.
In the 38th minute, Columbus were surprised not to make it 2-0. Derrick Williams gave the ball away in a dangerous areas to a sliding Hernandez, who played it to wide-open Russell-Rowe in the left side of the box. Russell-Rowe did not hit it cleanly and his shot bounced off the top of the left post.
The last chance of the first half once again fell to Columbus. A wide-open Hernandez in the box volleyed a shot towards goal, but it was headed away by Gregersen.
Atlanta had one shot in the entire half, and their expected goals (xG) of 0.04 summed up their first half. The entire team was disjoined, sloppy when controlling and passing the ball, and could not push through the Columbus pressure.
Atlanta, though, grew into the match in the 2nd half. In the 46th minute, Giorgos Giakoumakis had a strike from outside the 18 go just wide. But, just 30 seconds later, Columbus played Mo Farsi through again down the right touch line. Gregersen fouled Farsi inside the box in a desperate attempt to win the ball back and, after 6 minutes of referee and VAR deliberation, a penalty was given. Hernandez stepped to the spot and was saved by Guzan, Atlanta’s first on a penalty since March 30, 2019.
After the save, Atlanta finally settled into the game, started to stretch out the Crew’s defense, and created a few chances. In the 68th minute, Thiago Almada chipped the ball to Lobjandize in the Columbus box, who hit it off his chest towards Giakoumakis. What looked like a sure-fire goal was saved when Rudy Camacho slid in and poked the ball away from the Atlanta striker into the hands of Schulte.
Atlanta’s best chance of the game then came in the 71st minute. Almada received the ball from Slisz in space and played an incredible pass in behind to Xande Silva with the outside of his foot. Silva played a short pass across to Giakoumakis who had his attempt saved by a sprawling Schulte.
After some Columbus momentum, Atlanta made their first substitutions in the 80th minute, as Jay Fortune came on for Tristan Muyumba while Tyler Wolff came on for Silva.
After the substitutions, chances for both teams insured. In the 90th minute, Almada had what looked like a screamer from outside the 18 blocked. One minute later, the first of 9 minutes of stoppage time, Hernandez pulled a strike from just inside the right side of the 18 wide left. Rossi of the Crew was played nearly clean through in the 96th minute, but he sent his effort far into the stands. Atlanta continued to push the ball forward, but they could not create any significant chances for a match-tying breakthrough before the final whistle blew.
United’s first regular season match of 2024 finished 1-0 in favor to the Crew after a horrid first half, a penalty save, and unfinished chances in the final 45. How would you analyze Atlanta’s performance? Let us know in the comments below.
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Sorry. Edit: little gear icon at bottom? where?
OK just saw it. Sorry
the match in a word: meh
1st half was pretty bad imo. 2nd half was mostly good with the flashing, neon caveat of “no goals”.
i was surprised by how poorly slisz played (although he did improve a bit in the second). no “hot take” here, as counting the columbus match i have now seen him play in exactly one professional match. but based on the film and the talk, i was expecting a lot more polish (dad joke). he was sloppy in possession, bodied off the ball way to often, and i think he was unprepared for the speed of the game. waaaay too early to question the signing. i still have high hopes for the slisz muyumba pairing. but i was definitely disappointed in his first outing.
lennon, wiley, saba and xande all stood out to me. and i can’t help thinking that saba should get some minutes at the 10 once almada moves on.
tactically, it was disappointing to me to watch columbus make in-game adjustments while we had to wait til halftime to do anything differently. we mostly handled their charging down the wings (either side) pretty well to start the match. but as soon as they started hitting the big switches, it’s like we’d never trained for that.
outplayed and outcoached in the 1st half, but here’s hoping that the 2nd half performance will be more indicative of how we play going forward.
Don’t know guys… I was really disappointed. Posted on another thread. Still a little confused how this new set up works since the threads are not linked? not sure if I’m doing something wrong. Also: do you have to subscribe to each thread separately?
I wish he would have made the adjustments before the half. CLB does not have the most athletic back line. So it puzzled me our attackers faced our goal majority of the first half
I get the shape and really playing for that one moment of brilliance but we were to congested in the midfield with Thiago plugged back in after an abbreviated preseason
For the 101010102 time we have out and out attacking players but every manager oast tata wants to play “attractive” soccer. Our players skill set is suited for a more direct style and when we play that way good things happen
New players
Centerbacks -C but to be expected it takes times
New “6” – guess surprised by the quality of the league he was slow and looked slow, passing was so-so. -C
GUZ – B
Motm-Silva most dangerous attacker until he was subbed off
I was actually ok with the game. We have heard that the team will be more defensively focused, and we saw that. The entire team (especially Saba) tracked back the full 90 minutes to help on defense. We created great chances on the counter and from 2nd half possession. Guzan looked good. Our CBs played well outside of the mistakes that dragged Wiley inside to force the goal and the PK.
I think the team will find a balance playing more attack-minded when they do have the ball along with the new defensive solidity.
And hey, the midfield was ok at least, Colu
No edit button 🙁
Columbus had to play through the wings*
I agree with everything you said.
Also…there is an edit button…somewhere…for like 30 minutes after you post (unless someone promptly replies because you can’t edit after there’s a reply)
Ok it’s the little gear icon at the bottom right
Thanks, I must have just not seen it
My partner keeps trying to convince me this result is a good sign since we lost our first game in all the 2017-2019 seasons.
Here’s hoping it’s magic
[…] Columbus Crew 1-0 Atlanta United: Five Stripes drop 2024 opener vs. defending MLS Cup champs […]
It was just a lackluster performance. Hoping for more. Pineda has to have a better game plan. Our attack was dismal at best. I hope it is not more of the same with just different players. I think CW had his worst game. We need help on our defensive outside as we were not prepared for the outside attack. Lennon was overloaded and not any adjustment for that. How was he so open for the strike that put them ahead. It just shows the cohesion still needs a lot more time. Never leave your man unmarked. If you watch the replay we had 3 people marking one. I so hope it gets better.
More of the same. Disorganized defense, can’t play through a high press, Outcoached. Not impressed by the new guys. The center backs lack speed to cover the space behind Lennon and Wiley, which Columbus exploited. Slisz is slow with the ball and had a bunch of giveaways. Team seemed not prepared. Did Pineda not know how Columbus was going to play us? Not good.
I thought Gregersen was solid! I also didn’t agree with the PK call but it could go either way.
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Honestly, I was pretty disappointed. Not by losing 1-0 on the road to the reigning MSL Cup champions. But because we looked as if we didn’t have a preseason together. Calum summed it up — we were sloppy and disjointed. Also, we didn’t seem to have an offensive strategy other than — “give it to Almada and hope he can do something.” I can’t name a single player that I felt had a good game offensively.
Defensively, we are lucky we didn’t lose 3 – 0 or worse. Shockingly enough (and this is not a good thing), Guzan looked like one of our better players.
I am not saying the season is lost or that we are going to get the wooden spoon. But I thought we should have shown much better than we did. We have 2 weeks before our next game; I certainly hope we play much, much better then.
The worst part was that their goal was embarrassingly bad
It has to be coaching. Too many repeats. I was really excited to see us play but after a few minutes it looked like a replay of the last 2 1/2 years. Now very pessimistic about the season. This was good opportunity to come out of the gate strong
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Popping back in: now you can use the little WordPress icon at the top of the comment section to login to WordPress and/or much easier make a profile. Once you get logged in you can select your account at the top right and choose your avatar photo (called a Gravatar).
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We lost 6-1 last year’s regular season game at Columbus, so clearly we are at least 5 times better than last year! I’ll take it for an away opener.
Glass half full… we should have lost 3 or 4-0
Obviously not the result we wanted, but I think there’s reason to be hopeful. Yes there were Columbus chances we were lucky to not give up, but we also had some great chances in the 2nd half.
Columbus was the better team overall – more accurate, more controlling, more explosive. For the first game with a new defense and a new DM, against the reigning MLS Cup champions, that’s ok. It can’t stay that way, but that the team adjusted and began to take control of the match as the game proceeded, and didn’t give up, is good enough for now.
With Slisz, I saw him distribute the ball well, and I saw him make some defensive plays. The thing though is that he’s not explosive or a destroyer, which I think is what some of us are looking for. I think his play is more controlling and distributing the game, and I think currently it’s at a much slower pace than we’re expecting.
So I guess his strengths are more similar to Rossetto’s strengths had been. Not that I think he’s equal to Rossetto yet; I think he’s more progressive and and has more defensive bite, but he’s like a better Rossetto rather than a better Ibarra. I don’t know whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing long term, but at least for this game though, I think we could’ve used more of a destroyer type who could more aggressively win the ball away from Columbus, and disrupt their possession in midfield.
Great points. I’m with you on most of this.
I think people need to calm tf down about Slisz. He didn’t have a great first official showing (regular season) and it’s going to take time for him to adjust to MLS and our tactics. Not only that, but he was going up against one of the best teams and midfields in the league.
He didn’t do anything egregious last night and I think that’s a decent job by a new DM.
I think there’s something to be said about how you don’t want your CMs to be invisible. We’ve experienced enough of that the past few years, we don’t need more.
But yeah, I think people need to get their expectations right about who Slisz is. I know many of us at DSS kinda picked at how the comparison was made to him being the new Nagbe when Nagbe wasn’t our 6, but you know, now that we’ve gotten to see him play, I think that comparison might have actually been the right one. He’s really more of the new Nagbe, and we don’t have a new destroyer.
Because I don’t know Columbus well enough, is Aidan Morris a 6 or an 8? Just because if he’s the 8 and Nagbe is the 6, that might be all the proof we need to know that it can work.
First away game loss, no biggie. Am hopeful for improvement, based on second half. I still want Boca in Orlando.
Columbus let us have more of the ball so they could counter. In spite of our better possession, we only really had one clear chance to score that Gigi missed. I don’t count Almada’s since it was blocked by a defender, which is what defenders do. Columbus created 10 times more chances in the first half alone.
Random thoughts:
1) Comment section seemed to work but every once in a while, mine would say “awaiting review” and then never post. Not sure if anyone else experienced that, not like the posts were full of foul language that was getting flagged.
2) The CB pairing of Williams and Greg is going to be a great improvement.
3) we only attacked down our left side and need to find ways to use both sides of the field, Saba is a very good player and had zero impact in the first half.
4) I’m not impressed with Barto, but time will tell.
Yeah, sorry about that. I approved them all but not sure what triggered the spam filter. We’ll look into it.
I made a long post, but I edited it just now and it triggered the spam. Do I need to attempt to re-write it, or is it salvageable?
Got you 👍
The attack felt one dimensional for sure…not at all creative and some sloppy touches to boot. We’re defn improved on the back line…midfield continues to be a bit of a void but also hard to gauge how much of that was Columbus and situational…they are arguably still best in the league and it’s a particularly tough match up for us. I’d like to see a few more games to get a better sense.
We also don’t play well in the cold. Is what it is!
Or on grass, or away, or against good teams.