Get ready to learn Daniel Rios, buddy.
An injury depleted Atlanta United (3-2-1) hosts an undefeated Philadelphia Union (3-0-3) in yet another Sunday spotlight match in Mercedes-Benz Stadium this afternoon. With the latest injury report, Atlanta is out four starting players, including Giorgos Giakoumakis and Jamal Thiare, the numbers one and two in the striker position. Other names that won’t feature this afternoon include Xande Silva, and both starting center backs to begin the year, Stian Gregersen and Derrick Williams. New signing Daniel Rios, recently recovered from an injury, is the next man up to make his debut up top for the Five Stripes.
Meanwhile, Philadelphia are running on a three match win streak, including a 2-1 win away at Nashville last week. Atlanta still boasts an unbeaten home record so far, but this afternoon’s match will be the toughest test of that so far. A backup center back pairing of Noah Cobb and Luis Abram will be in for a busy evening against Julian Carranza and Daniel Gazdag, each with four goals this year.
Kickoff from the Benz is advertised for 2:30 PM ET, with actual kickoff approximately 15 minutes later, thanks to being broadcast on national TV through FOX and FOX Deportes. As always, the match is also streaming on Apple TV, and will be free to watch with an Apple ID Radio coverage is provided in English on STAR 94.1 and on Sirius XM FC Channel 157, and in Spanish on La Mejor.
Before kickoff rolls around this afternoon, be sure to check out our match preview and predictions for any match information you could want, then jump back over and join us in our match thread below to discuss all the action from MBS.
Atlanta United’s Lineup:
Philadelphia Union’s Lineup:
How to Watch:
Venue: Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta, Georgia
Kickoff Time: Sunday, April 14th; 2:30 PM ET
Available TV/Streaming: FOX, FOX Deportes, Free on Apple TV (with Apple ID)
Available Radio: STAR 94.1, La Mejor 1600/1460/1130 AM, Sirius XM FC 157
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I’m having a hard time coming up with anything to complaint about.
However, extremely frustrated that we have now dropped 4 points largely due to mistakes from players that wouldn’t otherwise be involved if not for a long injury list.
one of those tie-loss, so definitely not a good feeling even after playing short handed
Here’s a freeze frame of the throw-in
Oh man that annoys me so much. I was just talking about it with some people yesterday about how we see so many foul throws not called in the pros. Like, what is the point of enforcing the rules as a child and not enforcing them in the pros? What is the point of even having the rules if you won’t enforce them? Shocking. Just shocking.
The heel appears to be on the line, making it a perfectly valid throw in.
Is that really the rule?
Yes. Both feet have to be either behind or in contact with the line, and both have to be on the ground. The throw has to be two handed. Philly plays very close to that infraction on long throws all the time and knows 99% of the actual illegal throws will never be called.
That said, third goal wasn’t offside to my eye so it evened out for the draw.
I actually just saw another freeze frame that is a few frames ahead of this and you can clearly see green space between his foot and the line. So this really was a foul throws and it shouldn’t have been allowed to stay a goal. So frustrating.
Please share!
https://twitter.com/ellabel006/status/1779611919021674557/photo/1
I certainly wouldnt describe that as “clearly seeing green space between the heel and the line”, unfortunately.
Maybe not but I think it is enough to be able to make the conclusion that it was a foul throws. Maybe his foot was hanging over the line but I certainly think there is no physical contact.
Like I swear Philly is a dirty, soft, diving, time wasting, defensively strong offensively free flowing, crappy team all at the same time. I will NEVER EVER understand.
Bailed out on that counter.
I have a lifetime of words for Philly man. Just such a such a crappy team with no morals.
Pretty sure the throw in that led to the second union goal was illegal.
Exactly, and how var doesn’t see that blows my mind, anyone watching saw it
Good eye! The second throw from the same spot was also.
No excuse for that first goal they gave up but are you allowed to step on the field on a throw in
Yes. As long as “part of each foot is on the touchline or the area outside the touchline.”
With the heel of the one foot barely in the touchline, it was perfectly legal.
Yeah I looked up the wording of the rule, still shady considering everyone is taught to stay behind the line when throwing in, but it really should be both feet behind the touchline
I interpret that language that your foot can either be on the line or behind. Not over. If part of your foot touches the line, still legal. It does not mean it’s OK to be partly on the line partly over.
Yeah it’s definitely a very gray area with that wording but they’re professionals so I feel they shouldn’t be allowed to have any of their foot over the line either. With some of these narrow sidelines being able to partially step over the line or not is the difference between a long distance throw and a regular throw.
players do it all the time, and the refs never call it
Oh thank god for offside
Welp… loss for words. Except – I hate Philly.
Hope. Hope is what kills.
Lmao at Brad’s old man looking celebration on that save. Can’t tell if he intentionally missed kicking the post or not.
Anyone know why Pineda was carded?
For his choice of tie.
Holy smokes… I just finished with Army Reserve duty, turned on the game, and OMG! I wasn’t expecting this, but man, what an awesome surprise!!!
This is the Union for a reason. This game is by no means over. But Wiley… Just wow
Curse you for speaking that into existence 😉
I’m so sorry. I’m literally crying right now. This game was the 2021 game all over again.
It’s all tongue in cheek, mate. We all know how Philly is… I was holding my breath. I felt at least one goal was coming. We always seem to switch off after a lead, and it bites us frequently. Pineda really needs to address this with the team.
All in all – I am happy with a point with so many players out injured!
Let’s go Wiley! What a strike!
Damn, I usually get angry at beyond the 18 shots, but that was ridiculous precision. Team playing with some confidence.
Wiley makes it 2!!!
What a shot!!!
Well, I’m glad that my fear that Rios might be another Cubo is unfounded. Cubo would never have done that for us.
Lads, is it just me or the supporters section is louder than usual?
And What an assist from alamada.
So how does atl have capable backup strikers all of a sudden?
Probably due to more good work by the analytics department to find him.
Rios!
I’m ready for some Mosquera.
Shocking that Philly of all teams made it out of the locker room early
The video production has been awful.
I really need someone to explain to me why for 7 years now we have over-complicated corner kicks to no avail. We make such a waste of them with all the short, trick play non-sense
Glad the ref isn’t putting up with BS. He’s been calling a pretty good game so far.
Been happy with our play so far. Seems like Philly are willing to let us have some space. Now just hoping both Cobb and Abram can hold it down.
Now that we have the real refs back, is the new rule in place on having to leave the field for 2 minutes if you have an “injury?” I haven’t seen that yet.
I heard it was being postponed, not sure until when.
I thought it was postponed until after the ref strike
Last night during a non-Atlanta MLS match, the announcers said that the new “injury” rule will start NEXT weekend. So look for Philly to milk it for everything they have in the 2nd half if they get a lead. Then again, they’ve clearly been taught as a team to waste time like that, so they may have all kinds of problems adjusting to the new rule once it occurs and it may cost them.
It really is damn near impossible for a backup player to break into the starting lineup once Pineda has taken a view.
I’m more than a little frustrated at how early into the season we have a serious injury crisis. It really does seem like we can’t ever keep our players healthy
“Injury crisis” is a bit much. Gregersen is out for like a month. It happens. Tank may be back any match now. I thought he might dress for this one. The other injuries aren’t long term either. So far this is not like 2022 when every time a guy got hurt, it was 2 months minimum and often out for the season.
Sike… https://x.com/mbstadium/status/1779558549078561267?s=46&t=Q94OhA1yLJgjRuFOC84QDQ
Hahaha, I guess temperature in the 80s is too hot?
Does anyone else dislike Philly more than Orlando?
Me
YES!!!!
I hate them the most of any team in MLS. NYRB is number 2. New England is number 3. I don’t hate any other MLS team.
Philly represents everything that is bad about MLS. Their cheap ass owner won’t spend money, so he also doesn’t want anybody else to spend money. You want to know why MLS doesn’t have a 4th DP? Philly’s owner and others bitterly oppose it. They could just let other teams do it and just not do it themselves, but then the teams that did it would gain an advantage. A whole lot of MLS teams are more interested in stopping other teams from doing positive things that cost money than in trying to make their own teams better. Philly may never win MLS Cup (see NYRB for the EXACT same reason) because frankly their owner would rather never win it than to have to spend more to do so. Also, really beyond tired of Jim Curtin’s “ultimate bro coach” schtick but hey, if he was the manager here, I’d look the other way. Their stadium sucks too, but it could be worse. It could be Dallas’ stadium. One poster last year on the old Dirty South Soccer blog called Philly “The most MLS team everY and I wish I could give credit to who said it because it’s right. They are built to compete only in MLS, which is why they get their asses handed to them in CCC. They’ve taken time wasting to a while other level in MLS and once they get a lead in the 2nd half, if you were to play a drinking game where you took a drink every time a Union player needed medical help, you might be in danger of alcohol poisoning.
By the way, The Athletic did an article on the MLS Competition Committee maybe a month or so ago. It has 3 teams that are super cheap, 3 teams that want to spend money, and 3 that are kind of sort of in the middle. Philly, NE and NYRB aren’t on the committee, most likely because none of them really will ever agree to anything that costs more money to do, so for the 3 don’t want to spend teams, they had to get teams like Dallas who mostly won’t spend but sometimes will. If fans want to complain about “Why won’t MLS do X?”, you can probably look to Philly for a reason why.
Yes sir. I feel like the fact that we have dominated Orlando kind of makes me almost feel bad for them at times. At least pre-pandemic.