Mercedes-Benz Stadium got its first taste of defeat in 2024 after Atlanta United fell to FC Cincinnati 2-1 on Saturday.
The defeat drops the Five Stripes to 7th in the East pending some later results. Its record goes to 3-3-2 this season.
Edwin Mosquera for Tyler Wolff was the only change from the lineup that drew the Philadelphia Union last week. Giorgos Giakoumakis and Xande Silva returned to the matchday squad after missing the last two games due to injuries and both were available off the bench.
It was a very fast-paced back-and-forth game in the first half with both teams creating plenty of scoring chances. Although The Five Stripes started out playing against the ball, they were winning the possession battle at halftime 55.7% to Cincy’s 44.3%.
Furthermore, despite the visitors doubling them in shots (12-6), it was Atlanta United that created a higher xG of 1.3 to Cincinnati’s 1. This was due to many of Cincinnati’s shots being long-range shots that had a lower goal threat. A big boost to Atlanta’s xG had to be the point-blank shot by Saba Lobjanidze that was cleared in nick of time.
Thiago Almada finally broke the deadlock with a sensational strike from distance that curled into the bottom corner to give Atlanta a 1-0 lead after 59 minutes. That was the Argentine’s second goal of the season.
The Five Stripes were unable to hang onto the lead for long and practically gifted the Orange and Blue the equalizer after a set piece gone awry. Atlanta United got caught out and Luca Orellano was able to easily finish alone against Brad Guzan. The match was tied at 1-1 after 62 minutes.
Things went from bad to worse as Cincinnati’s momentum allowed them to take a 2-1 lead. DeAndre Yedlin played a great ball in for Lucho Acosta who somehow was able to receive all alone and calmly slot it past Guzan. Former Atlanta United player Miles Robinson was credited with a secondary assist on the goal.
The returns of Giakoumakis and Silva were not enough to get anything else and the final whistle sounded to announce the end of the match and Atlanta’s unbeaten home record.
Once again, the Five Stripes were the victims of their own actions going from a winning position to a losing one in pretty avoidable fashion.
Atlanta United will now go to Soldier Field seeking its first road win of the season against the Chicago Fire on Saturday.
What did you think of the match? Let us know in the comments and fill out your player ratings below.
[…] Atlanta United suffer first home defeat of season against FC Cincinnati […]
Obviously, when patterns keep repeating, there is something wrong. Regardless of what happens for the rest of the season, Pineda has demonstrated he can’t be the coach we need. Things will get worse when we lose players for national call ups and/or injuries. Don’t understand why Muyumba and Saba were pulled. We’ll be very lucky if we finish above 7th. We seem to a lot of little things bad. Things a good coach should fix.
It’s definitely interesting that we’re aspiring to be a top team, are backing that aspiration up with spending big on players, but then seemingly accepting being a training ground for a young coach. You would think that a club that spends big on players and talks about wanting to win would also spend big on a coach.
This tells me that we must not be able to get a coach that fits the bill of what we all want.
Sorry, but have about had it with Pineda’s excuses. Is Garth happy with this team? These results?
I said this last week, but, why, for 7 years have we done stupid shit with corner kicks.
Subs were awful. McCarthy should have been the sub for the midfield.
I’ve been patient, but I’m gonna call a spade a spade. Pineda is not a good coach and needs to go!
Besides that, it’s tough luck to be down to your 5th center back. We at least tie otherwise. Noah Cobb is looking great!
Which begs question… Why pull Cobb after he was almost solely responsible for the clean sheet at half time?
Migraine at halftime. Bigger question is why not Morales instead of Hernandez….CB instead of FB.
Pineda probably doesn’t trust Moraels yet, but why does he trust Hernandez as a CB?
Yeah, I had missed the migraine thing. So I get it.
It’s been a simple pattern: Hernandez in, we give up a goal. Also don’t know why he keeps playing Fortune or Firmino and not Dax Mcarty
I think we lost this game because mosquero started. Why did he start? I was in Wiley hard in the thread but he honestly was probably exhausted from covering for mosquero all game.