Thiago Almada is Atlanta United’s designated penalty taker. Giorgos Giakoumakis had never taken a penalty in his Atlanta United career.
So it figured that when Atlanta were awarded a kick from the spot in the 2nd half of its 4-1 win over the New England Revolution — part of an unusual sequence that saw a Saba Lobjanidze goal taken off the board — that Almada would step up to the 12-yard mark as he did late in the 1st half and attempt to convert once more to double Atlanta’s advantage.
Not this time. It was Giakoumakis who delivered, his right-footed strike sending Revs goalkeeper Henrich Ravas the wrong way and staking his team to a 2-0 55th-minute lead.
“It was honestly a decision between players which I’m OK [with] because [I’ve been a] player and I know what happens on the field and the boost of confidence [it brings],” Gonzalo Pineda said after the match. “That boosted the confidence of GG so I’m happy. [I’m] very happy also for Thiago’s humility to allow GG to score the goal so that’s all fine with me.”
“He (Almada) knew that I need a goal to open my account for the season and he offered himself, so … I took it, and that’s something that just came naturally,” Giakoumakis said.
Of course, that Giakoumakis first led to another Giakoumakis first: his first MLS hat trick and the 10th in Atlanta United history, joining Josef Martinez, Miguel Almiron, Ronaldo Cisneros, and Juanjo Purata on the list of Atlanta players with three-goal matches. It also gave him 20 goals in fewer than 2,000 regular-season minutes, just the fifth player in league history to achieve that milestone.
And with the Greek international off the mark (and reportedly beginning talks toward a contract extension beyond 2026) it’s hopefully the first of many in 2024, especially with Orlando City coming to Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Sunday.
“As I said many times last year, we’ll have to face every game in a different way, but the good thing is that our confidence is really high now after this result,” Giakoumakis said.
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Cisneros and Purata on such a short list. Crazy!
I honestly don’t remember Cisneros at all, which is weird because it was just 2 years ago and I remember Purata’s hat trick that year. Was Cisneros on loan here and then he got called back? When looking up Cisneros, here’s a weird fact I found. Out of his 7 goals he scored for Atlanta in 2022, 6 were at home. I also noticed he had a brace in another match, so he got 5 of his 7 goals in only 2 matches, which might be part of why he just wasn’t memorable for me at all. He played in 28 matches in Atlanta and only scored in 4 of them, so in 24 matches he had no goals.
A true travesty how many games/minutes Cisneros got while Josef was available. Probably the biggest reason I’ve had a hard time buying into Pineda’s tenure.
Yeah that was just downright wrong. Cisneros had bricks for feet, but was the type of striker Pineda wants: Big, tall, athletic, and pressing. Josef was everything but those, and way better at everything else than Cisneros, but didn’t fit Pineda’s system.
I liked the unselfishness of Almada letting Giorgos take it.