Atlanta United’s U.S. Open Cup run will continue into the quarterfinals. After playing the Charleston Battery to a goalless draw, Atlanta won the subsequent penalty shootout 5-4 thanks to some heroics from goalkeeper Josh Cohen.
After a mostly uneventful 90 minutes that saw both keepers deal with only a handful of chances from both sides, Charleston arguably enjoyed the better of the play in extra time but found themselves unable to get one past Cohen.
Ultimately, the match went to penalties, with Brooks Lennon’s first attempt being saved and Charleston subsequently making all of theirs until the fifth round, when Cohen stopped Diego Gutierrez to push it to sudden death.
Then, after Stian Gregersen converted, Cohen ended it on a leaping save of Aaron Molloy to see Atlanta through to the quarterfinal.
Atlanta United will hope that they can carry on the highs of Tuesday’s victory to a home match against LAFC on Saturday. Meanwhile, rate the players and leave your comments below (click here if you’re having trouble viewing on mobile).
Remaining LHOC games to be streamed for ftr on Apple/MLS Season Pass.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5515925/2024/05/23/us-open-cup-mls-season-pass-apple-tv/?source=user_shared_article
Thanks, but please instead use USOC to refer to it. I had to do a double take on your LHOC to know what you meant. NOBODY uses that acronym.
These GG tranfer rumors are starting to feel legitimate. My guess is he is using it for leverage in his contract extension negotiations or he is sick of these tepid results.
FO selling GG would be an acknowledgement that we are not the contenders we were supposed to be and that this season has been a failure.
He is most definitely using it as leverage for a new contract. And if Cruz Azul is offering more money than Atlanta, why wouldn’t he want to go there.
College soccer games are better matches to watch than this one. Really very low (awful) level of soccer but we won thanks to Cohen; which BTW, should be starting.
Dang, quarterfinals aren’t until July 9-10.. That’s a hell of a long wait.
Maybe we’ll have our sh!t together by then
Wouldn’t count on it, but hope is a good thing.
Thiare was working hard and getting himself in good positions. He had 2 free headers in the 6-yard box and a 1:1 with the Charleston keeper. I really like his movement and work rate. He should have scored at least one of those opportunities, but I blame it on rust and lack of confidence (a problem for the whole team right now). He will probably start on Saturday, so let’s hope he puts one in early so we can start to shake off some of this doom and gloom that has been building around the team.
I like him better than Rios. Would be interesting to see GG and Thiare together in 4-4-2 or 3-5-2
If we can get everyone healthy, I would like to see this 4-4-2 lineup:
JC
BL SG DW CW
SL BS TA XS
GG JT
Old school, I know, but it can be played with some interesting twists given the speed on the wings. Bring Muyamba and McCarty off the bench to lock it down late. If GG and Thiare can work together, this lineup can score, which has been our main problem of late.
I don’t think Almada plays enough defense for that to work
I think we should be putting more emphasis on the Open Cup. It may be the only winnable trophy for us this year.
Hard to rate Pineda for this one without fully understanding who masterminded the roster.
I understanding wanting to rotate to some younger guys, but we seemed to take that a bit too far. I just cant understand why the club entered this competition if we arent going to take it slightly more seriously.
Mosquera had to go 120 minutes and we didnt have a first team winger to bring off the bench.
Were those 35 minutes for Alan Carleton really that useful for evaluating his potential? So much so that we couldnt have had Wiley just in case?
The league mandated who played in this tournament. The team didn’t decide.
The league mandated which teams entered, but I don’t really believe they are giving directives on the individual rosters.
That’s what I meant. I was wondering why all the downbotes. Obviously the league doesn’t mandate who played or Messi would play every match.
The league chose which teams would play on the tournament. Most are not.
Who would mastermind the roster other than the coach?
Can you elaborate on what you mean by not taking it seriously due to the roster? We’re approaching this tournament the same way most every big club approaches their national cup, by using depth pieces against teams from lower leagues.
There is no different approach here than what an EPL team does in the FA Cup, etc.
Given we played a USL team and it was sandwiched in between two important MLS games, I love that we trotted out the depth pieces, I think it is the right move and exactly how we should behave. I don’t view that as not taking it seriously, but rather, trusting your depth to beat an inferior team. GP also brought on some starters in the game, which demonstrates the desire to win.
Again, I think it just went too far.
To me, you sprinkle in 2-3 starters who otherwise rarely to never see the field. And you also layer in players who dont play as much off the bench.
So to have Cohen, Abram, Morales, Hernandez, McCarty, Firmino, Brennan, Mosquera, and Thiare to start makes sense.
Putting Gordon and Edwards into the starting lineup was a bit much for me. Edwards I get because we are extremely thin at reserve fullbacks.
Gordon was a head-scratcher to me. I feel like Fortune could still benefit from a start there.
The real abomination was the bench. I thought it was crazy we didnt have a first division offensive minded sub other than Rios.
I thought we should have seen Wiley, one of Saba/Silva, and Fortune.
Specifics aside, it just doesnt make sense because we chose to enter this tournament. If all teams were participating and we just werent prioritizing it that high, that would be one thing. But we chose to do this. So to have not even had slightly more firepower off the bench with an already weak starting lineup just doesnt make sense to me.
And Im well versed in FA/Carabao cup squad rotation.
I haven’t seen anything suggesting we chose to play. Curious if you read that somewhere or why you think that? Everything I read suggested that MLS chose the teams to enter.
I agree. Pineda dodged a bullet with that roster and lineup, but that was clearly the mark of a man who did not fear for his job if he lost. I don’t know that I would go so far as to say like some that maybe he was trying to lose, but it seems like he was cool with whatever outcome he got. The odds are good that in the next round, Atlanta will have to play an MLS team and approaching that match like last night is just going to lead to a loss.
MLS doesn’t want to take this tournament seriously. Not saying there’s any kind of league directive behind the scenes to the teams participating about who they should put on the pitch, but MLS made it clear they as a league no longer care about this tournament.
Th good news about Mosquera playing 120 is that he likely won’t see the pitch against LA.
I understand this. But with this in mind, Im intrigued by other comments indicating MLS chose Atl Utd to play. I would think MLS would have chosen exclusively smaller market clubs. Unless we put our hand up to say “pick us because we wont take it serious either,” knowing we might still get lucky and win the whole thing.
I see. Really appreciate this clarification as others have suggested this as well.
I still wish we would have seen a little more ambition with the squad, but I was certainly wrong to assume the club was trying to simultaneously choose to enter the tournament and not take it seriously.
This isn’t Pineda only….but I don’t understand professional soccer rotation patterns. They play the same XI guys…until one breaks. Then they put in the next one.
Except that Xavi Alonso character. Who rotates his players constantly…and seems to have done OK. (They had 18 players hit the field for 60% of the games).
More impressively, Leverkusen had 15 players play at least 45% of the minutes. That’s incredible rotation.
Atlanta United had 9 players play 45% of the minutes last season. Including Purata, Abram and Rossetto.
We could actually hit a good number this year, if Pineda rotates properly:
GG – Saba – Xande – Thiare – Almada
Muyumba – Slisz – Dax
Gregersen – Cobb – Morales – Williams
Wiley – Lennon
Cohen
That’s 15….maybe you need another fullback, but you can rotate out of that team.
Great result! We live to fight another day! And we saved the A team for Saturday. The quest for the MLS Cup and US Open Cup are still very much alive! And let us not forget the Leagues Cup! Supporter’s Shield may be a bridge too far at this point, but three trophies is nothing to sniff at.
I’m forgetting the Leagues Cup because I’m still mentally protesting that it exists.
At least in Tata’s years when we basically threw away Open Cup, we were good in regular MLS. Now we are boring in Open Cup and terrible in MLS.