Two words: Boom. Giakoumakis.
The Five Stripes looked to bounce back from an away loss to the Columbus Crew on Opening Day and they did it in style. Four goals, including a convincing three-goal argument for Giorgos Giakoumakis’ Golden Boot campaign, were the story of the game as Atlanta United defeated the New England Revolution on Saturday in front of a crowd of over 67,000 fans in Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
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The Five Stripes rolled out an unchanged starting XI from the one that fell 1-0 to Columbus Crew in the season opener. Derrick Williams was once again chosen as the starting left center back over Luis Abram after a good performance against the Crew. Edwin Mosquera and Jamal Thiaré returned to the squad for the first time this year after recovering from preseason injuries.
High pressure and tons of possession was the name of the game in the first half. The Five Stripes dominated the ball with 53.5% possession and created 1.6 xG with it. The team took advantage of its width to frequently switch the play and find open spaces out wide to run into. Despite having so much going on in the attacking third, the team just couldn’t seem to find that final pass to create a concrete chance.
That changed in stoppage time after Giakoumakis was taken down in the box by Revolution goalkeeper Henrich Ravas, resulting in a penalty for Atlanta United. Thiago Almada stepped up to take it and made no mistake to secure a 1-0 lead going into halftime.
The second half saw the Five Stripes picking up where they left off as they stayed on the front foot and caused all sorts of problems for New England’s backline. In the 55th minute, a Xande Silva cross was blocked by a New England defender’s hand, which resulted in a second penalty for Atlanta. This time it was Giakoumakis who fired from the spot, sending Ravas the wrong way to score his first goal of 2024.
But the goals kept coming. Just five minutes later, Giakoumakis headed home a Brooks Lennon cross to make it 3-0.
Despite having a sizeable advantage, the Five Stripes didn’t take their feet off the gas. After a sequence of passes probing around the New England box, Almada found Giakoumakis open at the back post. The Greek volleyed in Atlanta’s fourth of the night and grabbed his first hat trick with the club.
The visitors did manage to get on the board, however, after Carles Gil fired a curling shot into the top corner. In the 83rd minute, New England had a consolation goal, but it was too little, too late and the final whistle blew to announce Atlanta’s first win of the season with a 4-1 final score.
Atlanta United returns to action on Sunday, March 17 when Orlando City comes to town for a big rivalry game between two Eastern Conference heavyweights.
What did you think of the match? Let us know in the comments below and use this link to submit your player ratings for the game!
Did you watch the Miami game yesterday? It was a MLS horrorshow. It is incredible that a pro team can have this defending (Miami). And Montreal was an attacking mess.
Tata seems to be all about midfield and offense, which is already pretty good (though that striker who came in later is an offense to the game).
You mean Miguel Berry? We got rid of him. I think a tree stump can play better, at least you can bounce the ball off it. MLS is not a defense oriented league by design. I can’t think of a single team that can defend… MLS is designed to promote scoring and spending money on attackers. Very few teams have high earners on defense.
[…] Giakoumakis hat trick seals 4-1 win for Atlanta United over New England Revolution […]
I think the result flattered us. New England are not as bad as their record suggests and they will improve as the season goes on.
I thought we were quite poor in the first half. Muyumba had one of the worst games I’ve seen him play. Very uncharacteristic performance. For all the hype, I am concerned at how disjointed we were in the first half. Pineda has had the time to prepare this group of players and we keep making the same mistakes in transition. Execution is part of it, but I feel like the players were a bit jaded in the first half.
The 2nd penalty was generous to say the least, and the game really turned on that call. I recognize it seems strange to be so negative, but the result is less the issue. Very happy we won 4-1, but this was hardly a convincing performance. A better team would have killed the game in the first half.
Highlights, though, besides GG, Brooks, and Almada, were definitely Gregersen and Williams. They both look solid and that is a base we can build on. Slisz looked good as well, if a little timid. We have all the pieces, but it’s down to Pineda to motivate and get these players to jell. It’s early, so I am certainly not making any definitive claims, but it is alarming that so many of the same errors and mistakes were evident as have been throughout his tenure as Atlanta United’s coach.
I don’t disagree with your points, but I’m willing to reserve any judgement until the 5-6 game mark. Then we can start seeing real patterns and tendencies of both players and coach. I mean, I think Pineda is a known quantity at this point, so it’s really about how that translates to the players – whether they buy in and execute, or even if they’re the right fit, etc.
A 1-0 road loss to the reigning champs and a 4-1 home win over a tired CCC competitor (with 2 weeks off in between) isn’t enough data points to draw on imo.
If that header goes in… we would having a different take on this game. NE had played on Thursday? And I think looked tired in the second half. To me the glass is half empty and AU needs to prove we can be a consistently good team at home and on the road.
Great win despite looking disjointed a bit, the game and 2 week break didn’t help I believe as we get rolling we’ll get more comfortable and start looking like a team that can battle up top. GG despite the flopping and tantrums displayed some MVP type talent today, Almada and Lennon can place passes on a dime. Next week will be a little more difficult let’s see what happens.
I was unimpressed with the first half. The two penalty goals made things comfortable, and the team looked better after that. They did what they needed to do (including conceding to Carles Gil, which we all knew would happen at some point).
Next week should be interesting.
I finally got to watch your game! My son and I had our cinema session earlier, and your game was on at 21:30 (more like 21:40).
My take, dear Atlantistas: it is crazy not to celebrate a 4×1 win, and the 3 points. The points are an absolute, and we have to feel festive about them. I am going beyond the game, ok?
You know, one measure of talent is THE TOUCH. Crack players, or near crack players, they have this touch on the ball. I am sure you know what I mean. They hit it with this force, and weight, and effect (as we say here), that is just different.
Well, I got to see your new players, finally, or say the 2024 formation. And two of your players have THE TOUCH. Almada, of course, and surprisingly, your big striker from Greece. (which is probably two players more than your opponent´s team, which was a footballing desert.
This is not enough talent to get you past the average positions, in my perception. Is there time to add talent soon?
The other team was really bad. Maybe they had their minds elsewhere, at the Champions Cup, maybe. But, man.
I really liked the striker´s third goal. I love it when a striker can invent goals, dealing just with effect and angle. Great strikers can do this, they simply look, and see. Josef could.
Anyway, that´s what I saw. A good win, weak opposition, need for more talent to go further into the championship. What say you, Atlantistas?
Always love your insight Marcelo! It’s funny because at times last season, Giakoumakis’ first touch occasionally got the better of him, but the much needed offseason did wonders.
New England isn’t great right now, but hopefully this is what was needed to kickstart the squad to come out hot from the opening minute. I actually think this is the most talent in an Atlanta United starting XI since 2019.
Hey! I think the smartest footballer I ever saw, and read, is Tostão, our great number 9 from that incredible 1970 Brazil. He says that in the end, it is talent that matters. Even when not properly used, having or not having the touch is a huge difference in a player´s potential. I was surprised because your number 9 has the physique of a bricklayer, not a sophisticated player. And we see many successful strikers who make a living just from being in the right place and getting the stupid ball into the net. Your striker is a big guy who can build play! And often he has to do it because he lacks company.
Things are relative, and Atlanta being better is surely a good thing. But does better mean good, or good enough? I need to see the team against better opposition, and then we talk again. For now, and since I do expect great things from your club, my feeling is not good enough.
At the risk of revealing my age, I saw Tostao, Pele, Gerson, Jairsighno, Manga, Carlos Alberto and many more play when I was a kid. Also the great Garrincha.
I think GG’s first touch is improving, I think the turf plays much faster than what he’s expecting and then you go away and play on outdoor grass. In any event, I also think the passes he’s expecting are not delivered at the correct “weight” so it takes time to get in tune with all your teammates. Almada is about the only one that gets the right weight on most of his passes consistently.
I agree, FIRST TOUCH, to me is the most important skill that is hard to find in MLS, I’m gonna venture and say that 50% of MLS lack the finesse first touch common in SA futbol. But it’s also missing in European soccer, for the most part, since it’s a different way of playing. MLS is a rare mix of SA and European soccer; aren’t we a melting pot? A Brazilian player, playing in NY, mentioned it: physicality and speed (much faster than Brazilian league) over technique, totally different. I think Muyumba and Silva also have a good touch skill.
Good to hear your perspectives.
That was satisfying. Nice to see the D has more teeth with Williams and Gregersen. Everyone is still clearly gelling, but not bad after 2 games. Lennon is such a solid player now and has become a team leader. Thought GG might get 5 goals. I think he has it in him. Would love to crush Orlando on Sunday.
So, good crowd; still a lot of empty seats though. I’d say maybe the real attendance was maybe 50k? Still a good showing but I think if we keep this up, we’ll get really full attendance.
the bad: to my eye, the defense still struggles in transition. We were lucky not be down in the first half. That header looked like it was going in… we were giving them too much space. I think Gil has scored on us in every game and similar in scenarios; why do we keep giving him space to shoot? Our left flank was the weak link and they tried to exploit it.
the good: our midfielders are definitely better this year. Our wingers create problems for opposing defenses; Gigi can finish. Wow, that last goal was awesome. Almada keeps getting better, it’s a pleasure to watch him play.
Not sure if this is better or worse, but regarding your bads: I don’t think we gave up the goal because we were giving Gil space necessarily, but because the whole team turned off leading up to the corner. I saw it coming before the corner was kicked – our team was milling about, not really jumping into position, and then you could see NE start running to take the quick corner, and only one or two ATL players respond to that. In regards to struggling with transition, I think there’s a caveat that we actually did very well with transition this game – I’m thinking of all the times NE got the ball and immediately tried to pass upfield only for Slisz or Muyumba or Gregersen to come out of nowhere, poke the ball out, and regain position before anything even happened. The problems came when that initial transition defense failed.
We saw on DSS too, on packed home games the comments were less active. I wouldn’t worry too much about activity yet.
Wonderful game.
What about Gremio?
Well, alive, at 120 years of age. How good the team really is, we don´t know yet. This still pre season (state championship, meaning nothing). We have a whole year ahead of us, and I think the goal is to at least make it to Libertadores semis, which gets us into the FIFA intercontinental cup.
This is what I meant. Where is Marcelo? Here he is! We’re getting the band back together.
Oh. Oh yes, rumors of my departure have been greatly exagerated.
Boom. Was beautiful game. The crowd was in it and the team showed up. Now we just need people to show up here as well!
If you build it (a great team that was entertaining to watch), they will come 🤩
You guys are building this site nicely, I think people just don’t know where to go and what happened. You should see if you can get another post on DSS…
Yeah, problem is that all of us have lost access to DSS. It’s just… sitting there now. SBN higher-ups removed the post Tyler wrote explaining the situation, so there’s not much else we can do.
Are you guys doing game posts on twitter/x? I always enjoyed those from whoever was doing it on dss. Good way to get visibility. Lmk who I should be following now!
We are! Follow @ScarvesNSpikes on Twitter for our live tweets during the game.
And also, we didn’t do one last night only because Tommy was in town and we all got out of the Benz super late. I didn’t get home until midnight lol. But yeah, we’ll be doing the post-match Twitter Spaces like we have for the past couple of years, just on ScarvesNSpikes twitter like Henry said
Good attendance and energy, and promising home opener. Midfield is really improved. Defense seems more organized.
That stadium was WILD. Really good all-round performances. Slisz silently had an impact in midfield with his movement and clever passing. Williams and Gregersen were phenomenal and really shut up some of the doubters from before the season. Bring on OFYO.
I am worried about Gregersen getting burned by quick, agile players. But he does seem very good.
Gregerson is very fast when he gets up a head of stem. I would like to see him in a foot race with Miles. I think Miles would be quicker off the mark but Gregerson would catch him once he gets those long legs moving.
Midfield looked strong. Slisz was running non-stop even near the full-time whistle. Feel like he could have a lot of really solid, under the radar games this year. The pressure he was putting on shots from distance was enough to throw the shot off or even deflect the ball to turn it into nothing. Gil was nearly a non-factor until the well taken goal, which was pressured well.
This team looks talented and strong enough to make some real noise. Injuries, availability, and transfers will ultimately decide how far they can go. But the components are there to win some hardware.
They sounded like they played very well. Giorgos is on his way to that golden boot.
Off to a strong start. Now he needs another hatty against OFYO
The good news. I’ve watched all of Orlando’s games, they don’t look as solid as last year. The important point to me is if we can show consistency and improvement. Those are the signs of good coaching…
Boom with the perfect hat trick — one with his right foot (pk), one with his left foot (volley off his chest) and one with his head!
Only thing missing was the Hand of God.