Brad Guzan stood in front of his locker, a sense of frustration reflecting in his responses and in his post-game demeanor.
Saba Lobjanidze’s voice was quiet and despondent, the events of the match he’d just played in no doubt playing back in his mind and undoubtedly poised to do so for the rest of the evening.
Unlike its 2-2 draw against the Philadelphia Union 6 days ago, there were no points for Atlanta United to add to its tally. On this night, a 2-1 loss to FC Cincinnati, it came up empty.
But like its draw against the Union, Atlanta were in a winning position — this time through a wondergoal from Thiago Almada. Until it wasn’t, thanks to a short corner gone wrong and yet another defensive letdown.
One point in its last two home matches. Losing away from Mercedes-Benz Stadium stings. Losing in front of your own fans? Even more so.
“It’s not good. We gotta figure it out,” Guzan said curtly in the locker room. “Dropping points, not good enough.”
Those first three words were echoed by Lobjanidze moments prior.
“I think we played a good game, but we [gave up] two stupid goals,” he said. “Already two games, we score the first goal, and after, we [give up] two goals. It’s not good.”
Atlanta are now 3-2-3 through its first 8 matches of the season with 11 points. There’s the obvious caveat that Giorgos Giakoumakis, a Golden Boot hopeful, didn’t start the match, along with Xande Silva, but subbed on later. Stian Gregersen, its big signing at center back, has been injured over the past few weeks, along with Derrick Williams. Gonzalo Pineda was forced into inserting an excellent Noah Cobb at halftime for Ronald Hernandez after the 18-year-old complained of migraines keeping him from seeing properly.
That’s not to mention an on-the-doorstep chance that former Atlanta keeper Alec Kann robbed Lobjanidze of in the 1st half, or a scramble in the box that saw Atlanta come away empty handed. But it’s an alarming inability to close matches out that held the team back in 2023 and has crept up against in 2024.
“Listen, it’s down to moments. We need guys to be able to take responsibility and be better in these moments, simple as,” Guzan said.
Exhibit A: Cincinnati’s 2nd goal and the eventual match-winner, scored by Lucho Acosta.
“You get guys running free in the box, being able to take a ball down at the penalty spot, take a touch, look at the goalkepper from 7, 8 yards, you’re gonna get punished,” Guzan added. “I just watched it back. We don’t get pressure to the ball out wide. We don’t track runners in the middle of the box, ball’s in the back of the net.”
That puts even more pressure on Atlanta as it heads to Chicago to face a Fire team that was demolished 4-0 at home by Real Salt Lake on Saturday. For a team that’s won just 5 times away from home in the last 2 seasons, two winless results at Mercedes-Benz Stadium coupled with another road loss will be a bitter pill to swallow.
“We have to forget this night and just focus on Chicago,” Lobjanidze said. “We played so good against Chicago at home, so we have to play the same game and even more, and we have to get three points 100 percent.”
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IMO, Almada is the problem. Moving him to Europe or elsewhere would be addition by subtraction. No question he is talented. But his talent is only exceeded by his selfishness and lack of connection with the team. The entire world knows he’s going to shoot whenever possible, and from far away. A few will go in and he’ll be lauded, but most won’t, and most kill the flow of play. And why was he taking corners? None were effective, one led to a goal against. Lennon took one corner and hit the forehead of a player that could have gone in. I favor sports psychology over stats, and I can see clearly the team is frustrated by Almada and he does little to make the overall team effective.
Hmm, that’s an interesting take. I could look at the numbers and pull some stats but it feels like we have really struggled when he has been out to generate anything in attack based on my memory. If you are saying we get a better for the system or more effective DP in his place that’s another thing all together. To say getting rid of him would be addition by subtraction doesn’t seem to mesh with what I have seen.
A team will not exceed the capacity of its coaching staff. The front office can continue its annual player shuffle, but until a coach [with a coaching resume] is hired, we will remain mediocre. Let’s not lose sight of the fact that Pineda is an experiment – prior experience 13 years as an assistant. Why did no other team pick him up?
now averaging 1.38 ppm…probably just about the right pace to miss the playoffs. even scraping into the playoffs should cost pineda his job, but after 3 years of otj training at the club’s expense, i’m not sure what it will take to get him fired.
my other concern is the direction the club takes if/when they do actually move on from pineda. this is still a premier job in soccer…including internationally. we need to swing big next time, not hope that a first-timer can eventually grow into the job.
I think he may keep his job if we we win MLS BUT THAT IS HIS ONLY OPTION
please whisper that into garth’s ear…
“You get guys running free in the box, being able to take a ball down at the penalty spot, take a touch, look at the goalkepper from 7, 8 yards, you’re gonna get punished,” Guzan added. “I just watched it back. We don’t get pressure to the ball out wide. We don’t track runners in the middle of the box, ball’s in the back of the net.”
Same verse no different than the first…a few days old and still stinks the worst. We’ve heard these comments for the past 2 seasons. Gotten old…something needs to change. Don’t the same thing and expecting different results is insanity.
Time for a change……
I think a lot of people here have given Pineda the benefit of the doubt and have been very lenient regarding his coaching but I think it’s time to start looking at other options. I hate to say it since it will involve another “start from scratch”. Can anybody tell me what are the positive elements Pineda has brought to the team?
His two strongest traits imo are
-Integrating youth players into the squad and developing them (related: getting low-expectation players to overperform)
-Keeping the lockerroom unified
agree with both of those points but you just described valentino as well. a caretaker, not a first-rate manager. at least not yet. (no disrespect for valentino intended there, btw).
on your second point though, post-game interviews like the ones sydney quotes in the article above leave me wondering how long that locker room remains unified. losing always sucks. habitual losing causes minds to blow and wills to break.
tata (arguably) sucked at youth development, but understood what this club needed to produce results. he also was (finally) willing to adapt a bit to ensure success. tata also seems to have evolved in his willingness to use / develop younger players. miami is a really interesting blend of experience and youth, and he has them playing to their tactical strengths. yes…it helps to have messi, but you still have to figure out how to win. and tata is doing that with plenty of youth on the field as well.
I think Tata is doing a great job with young players in Miami. Even without Messi, they play an attractive and aggressive way of playing soccer. And play out the back quickly catching the opponent out of position often.
Any average coach could give us that but not at the expense of having a winning program
I honestly don’t see what positive traits he’s brought to AU
Hey, everyone, I seem to see some of the same mistakes since last yr. We bought in some nice D men and they’re hurt now, however I feel coaching is the achilles heel of this team, eg: since Boca has built this team our coach can only use what is available to him, with that said when Noah couldn’t go for the 2nd half, GP’s #1 priority is to shore up the D so no CB’s avail, he went with Hernandez <not even a good RB> but nothing else better on the bench. I would have pulled Lennon and put E.Morales at RB,he’s a natural RB played great in pre-season. I would have pulled Slisz and put in Dax McCarty with Muyumba, the other changes were fine GG brings life <but pouts and complains ala Araujo, really immature, Wolfie for Saba <he couldnt find the net > Lastly I may have made a formation change to a 4-3-3, it seems to me the GP just hasn’t grown into his position and our franchise is suffering for it, last week and yesterday are humiliating. Dropping points like this and unable to win on the road along with losing Almada for Olympics/Copa America <although that corner has to be in my 50 yrs watching futbol the utmost worst one ever>. So I’ve been a GP backer but I believe we would be better served with GP til summer transfer window, if nothing has improved, then we go Rob V and have GL start the search for a bonafide pro futbol coach. #pineadaout
Gotta get Steig and Williams back. The defensive difference with those 2 guys in the middle is night and day from our backups.
To be fair, we were fine with Abram/Cobb. It’s when Hernandez as a CB came on that we fell apart.
I feel like our defense with our 3/4th CBs has been shockingly good and unfortunately completely overshadowed by 3 glaring miscues in 3 games from midfield players.
Edit: in our last 3 games, we gave up one at NYC due to Wolff’s giveaway. Against Philly there was the Mosquera error and a fortunate second ball off a corner. Last night it was the corner kick disaster and a ball over the top against our 5th string CB.
Defn
agreed. i still shake my head whenever i see his name on a game-day roster. he’s below average as a full back and worse as a cb. i actually thought abram had one his best games for us. and cobb will make mistakes because he’s 18, but he’s been solid imo.
What a horror show. This felt like ATL UTD from last season in the worst possible way. Credit to Cincy, they absolutely deserved the win, but wow. An errant corner leading to a goal is inexcusable at this level, and the second goal was unbelievably bad defending. Cincy put on a good defensive performance, there was so little bite in our attack. What is it with teams from the midwest anyway? From Ohio where no one cares about soccer, Atlanta shouldn’t be losing over and over to teams from Cleveland and Cincinnati. Something’s gotta give and it really does come back to Pineda to right the ship, and soon.
Ahem… I spent part of my childhood in southern Ohio. Saying that Columbus is “from Cleveland” is kind of like saying Atlanta United is “from Valdosta”. I can tell you that southern Ohio and northern Ohio are completely different universes.
Personally, I’m completely amazed that Cincinnati has gone from “We’re not spending money. MLS is exactly the same as USL! Ha ha ha ha ha! ” to having one of the best teams in the league. And I can offer no explanation at all as to how Columbus became the only team in the past 20 years threatened with relocation that had people step up to save it. The Seattle Supersonics, Atlanta Thrashers and now the Arizona Coyotes all lost their teams because nobody could be found to buy them, yet somehow a town in the lower sized range of metro areas in the league simply can’t lose their team and multiple buyers emerge.
Tiago giveth, Tiago taketh away.
”Silly” mistakes. “Losing” concentration. Not staying “locked-in”. Common refrains we continue to hear disappointing results after disappointing result.
Hmm… isn’t a coach supposed to fix those mistakes that have become a pattern for 3 years, even with different players?
As Brad himself said “ We don’t get pressure to the ball out wide.” Been that way for three years under Pineda. Outside backs tuck in way too tight, and too far off their marks to meaningfully pressure. We give the opposing team all the time they need to pick us apart. This is the easiest problem in the world to fix. The fact that Pineda hasn’t done so suggests he wants them playing that way. Not good. This roster has been greatly upgraded since Pineda took over, but the end results look pretty much the same. They need to find someone better.
Nothing can fix the fact we get Outcoached 95% of the time. Cinci totally Outcoached us. They came out and pressed us, had 5 midfielders and their fullbacks pressured our wingers as soon as we got the ball. Their two center backs are very good and it showed; they are a well coached team.
I feel like I saw this last year, but wrote it off as the FBs covering for the poor defending, we got out of the midfield. Obviously, you’d want to cut off central runners, especially on the ball, first. But now it seems like they are still coming far inside, even with there’s a CB cutting off the play. I noticed a couple plays where Brooks was basically in the slot where the CB was where Cobb or Abram had the central runner cut off, and a wide runner left open. I am not picking on Brooks, because I’ve seen Wiley do this too. Then they are kind of “late” getting wide, but it’s unclear if they are being told to backup that CB in the middle or they are just getting sucked in and are undisciplined. I’m thinking it’s what they are told to do now.
I’m also frustrated with the commitment to playing out of the back without any real care for what the opposition is doing. Despite an improved midfield, CBs with better on-ball ability and offense-first FBs, we still have a hard time playing out of the back against teams with a good high press. Yet, we have no alternate plan. Just struggle and turn it over until we can find a gap. It’s a lower percentage pass, but sometimes just hoof it and let the wingers go get is a valid strategy. We also have a giant-ass striker that wins balls (and quality backups that can run them down, too).
Something has to change. We cannot replace the players.
Very good dilemma but easy to fix. We need a very good coach, not just an OK coach
We all feel the same sentiment as the players. This loss was bad.