Well, that sucked.
Atlanta United went up to Toronto and played a frantic game of football and ultimately left with a 2-0 loss. The game felt disjointed and sloppy as Atlanta tried to make something in the cold hinterlands of the north, and it simply wasn’t good enough to come away with a result. Check out the initial thoughts below.
Atlanta tried to play a pragmatic way
The Five Stripes were clearly more defensive oriented in this match, and it was definitely out of necessity. That’s not to say they didn’t look dangerous…occasionally. Saba’s shot in the early 10 minutes or so came from mistakes on Toronto’s behalf, which Atlanta United were ready to pounce on. Atlanta wasn’t as possession focused north of the border, but they still looked confident as they were quick to strike on the counter when the moment was presented. That disappeared for about 70 minutes, though, as Atlanta just couldn’t put together many significant attacking sequences until the second half.
Jamal Thiare – despite the many 1v1 duels he fought in the final third – had trouble getting on the ball in the first half. It wasn’t for lack of trying, he just really had to stretch his legs to get the attack going and got fouled multiple times while doing so. Ultimately it would only be the first few minutes of the first half where Atlanta United seemed somewhat dangerous in the final third. After Toronto’s first goal, it seemed very tough for the Five Stripes to get an attack going.
Frantic
The frantic nature of the match was to be expected. It sucks, but this group was never going to have the cohesiveness and buttery passes of the prime starting XI. That’s not a knock on this group, but this squad has never had any significant time together. Chemistry is a huge intangible, especially in this league full of incomprehensible away frustrations, and the group tonight just struggled to get it together.
While it still feels like a tough result, the group held decently for 90 minutes despite so many variables going against them. The attack was never really able to build momentum, and we all know how a game can play out once your clean sheet is gone.
It still sucks, though.
It’s fun being punished during an international break for spending money
This sort of speaks for itself but yeah, it’s irritating that a team that wants to invest in MLS, wants to invest in the league, and wants to invest in the future of American soccer gets shafted for actually paying money for players who actually have the talent to play for their active national team. Why MLS continues to insist on playing during the international break is beyond common sense. But hey, it is what it is and you have to figure out a way to win. Simple as that.
Other teams do.
But it’s a super fine line between paying money for starters and paying money for depth, and MLS roster rules and calendars punish those who decide to send their players off for national team duty. Either way, the good teams find a way to make something happen and Atlanta just couldn’t do it this time around.
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Dax McCarty looked done. Just a step slow on everything. Noah Cobb continues to be a quad-A player. Excellent at the lower levels, lacking in composure and final skills at the MLS level. Firmino was more or less invisible. Muyumba is an excellent target for a creative midfielder to work with, but isn’t the creator himself. No one on the wings had the pace to beat TFC defenders to the final ball (somewhat due to the deliveries that were over cooked or wanting.) the chances created went wanting for lack of power or precision on headers with Tank.
Let’s give Cobb some grace. He is 18 playing at a position that requires a lot of experience. He’s still got plenty of time to turn into a top talent at MLS level.
Agreed, he looked like Miles circa 2018/19 with better distribution.
we are going to be seeing a lot more of Cobb, Gregersen is out for at least 3-4 weeks after meniscus surgery.
I agree. I think the ceiling is still higher than last year. But still a hard ceiling. Just not yet sure where that is.
Legacy DSS commenters will know I hate the “must win game” mentality, but the next home game against Chicago is now a “must win game”, at least in terms of trying to secure a top 3 seed in the east.
Next month we have 2 difficult home games against Cincinnati and Philly, plus 2 medium difficulty road games (where we obviously still struggle).
Going into next month with 9 through 5 (1.8ppg) keeps us firmly in control of our destiny.
A loss or draw vs Chicago would mean we are having to play catchup pretty early on (and also start to indicate that we just havent really improved all that much).
Next 4, only one away so we need to max our home advantage. Let’s shoot for 9 points…
I think all our home games are must-win, since we can’t even score on the road.
Well, our sample size is a first game against the reigning champions on a field covered in snow hours before, where our main creative player hadn’t spent any time with the team; and a 5+6 team including missing our main goal scorer and our main creative player and our main defender, in the freezing cold.
Well, I think we’ve definitely continued to show improvement from last year, but my expectations are also higher.
I think we’ll have a much clearer picture by the end of April.
I had hope while it was 1-0. I thought maybe we could get lucky and get a tie. We looked very disjoined and chaotic. After they scored the second, all hope went away and thought we would give up another one. I really thought we would look more organized and disciplined though.
I watched some. Without your FIFA players, it´s a desert out there. In my humble opinion, Atlanta needs more talent. This group we saw in Toronto is seriously lacking, and the result is a consequence, nothing more than that. If Atlanta wants to compete for the marbles, you need more talent, and a coach.
I tried to watch the Miami game, but the downpour was such, that I assume the team that brought kayaks won. It is stupid to risk Suarez, Busquets, Alba, Taylor, in that weather when they have a really important continental competition to play just a few days ahead.
And, did you see Brazil x England? What a beautiful game! And our Seleção is all new, a lot of players had their debut (including the entire defense).
The difference is that the coach was also making his debut, and, finally we have a real coach. I loved the game, and only hope Neymar never comes back.
I know you know this, but MLS salary cap restrictions limit spending and hence talent. It is as simple as that. No team in MLS can withstand losing five-six international players and win on the road.
The more I think about it, I believe this is how MLS levels the playing field and makes the season more competitive for lower spending teams.
MLS playing through international windows shows how “bush league”this league really is.
I know. And that´s why teams should accept this, and go for a result, instead of make pretend that there is an actual team out there. There isn´t, and it can´t play.
I think this game also shows the true size of Atlanta´s second division hires, like Muyumba (is that the name?) Silva, and similar. Even Lada guy. The presence of talent makes little talent look talented.
I get what you are saying – change your style when you’re missing 5 starters rather than trying to play the same way you would if they were there. Bunker and try to get a draw.
I don’t necessarily disagree, but I understand the philosophy of always playing “your style” as well.
Nope. The kids who are thrown into starting won’t learn anything useful from a 1-0 loss while bunkering and not playing to the style expected of them in the future.
Hate the blue kit
Adidas hates Atlanta.
I meant Brazil’s blue
Oh, no, disagreee. That´s our classic uniform. The current gold-yellow was designed after a contest, and became very successful, but we won our first Cup, in 1958, wearing the blue jersey. What happened in recent years was that the canarinho (canary) yellow shirt was kidnapped by the followers of our crazy wing former president and future inmate Bolsonaro – the equivalent to your MAGA hordes. Consequentely, normal fans, like myself, refuse to wear the yellow shirt not to be associated with them. And we think Nike wants to try to replace that shirt with the blue one, so as to not scare a lot of buyers. Here, the blue uniform worm yesterday was a hit. But of course, there was the win. As that coach from Britain said, football is about a lot more than life or death.
Hmm… never thought of Brazil other than wearing yellow jerseys, blue shorts and white socks. My memory only goes as far back as England’s 1966 cup where Pele was terribly fouled in very game.
Hi. Yes, Portugal comited collective assassination attempts against Pelé. Brazil has played in blue quite often, it is our secondary uniform now. But, as I said, for political reasons, they might play in blue more often. As long as they play like they did at Wembley, fine by me.
Should just forfeit international window games. What is the point of playing when your best players (5) are away?
Many thousands of dollars in revenue is the point.
It’s a good opportunity for guys like Cobb and Firmino to get much-needed minutes.
Throwing them into games like this doesn’t set them up for success. I doubt Cobb’s progression was helped any by getting whooped 6-1 last year.
The way you get these guys integrated is by either lower pressure situations like subs and Open Cup, and then by surrounding them with talent that they play up to in a 8+3 or 7+4 situation. Not by having some teams losing half their starting lineup and others not losing any, then tossing in the 5+6 team with no backup in a game that matters in a situation they’re likely to lose.
Don’t see how this has anything to do with Pineda. His hand is forced to play the kids whether it’s good for them or not because the league scheduled games while half our team is gone. If anything it speaks to us trusting Pineda to teach the kids, because otherwise those kids wouldn’t be on the roster as next man up, and it’d be the likes of Zizzo, Kratz as your backups. They might’ve fared better, maybe, but it would also mean Cobb, Wiley, Fortune, etc wouldn’t be anywhere near breaking into the first team.
Fair enough. And to the last point, I was saying our young players weren’t set up for success in this match, in that I didn’t think there was any way they’d ever be setup for success- as in, they shouldn’t ever be expected to play in a 5+6 situation in a league match vs another team not in a similar situation. I can see an argument that maybe there could’ve been some things done to make a preparation level at say a 3/10 instead of a 1/10. I’m not going to make an argument one way or the other.
Our regular starters did not do well enough. Saba was poor except for a few (very few) moments; Muyumba’s passing was abysmal, Williams had several giveaways, and Brooks was ok but couldn’t lift his teammates beyond mediocrity. Brad Guzan was good again, he seems fully recovered from his injuries.