Vengeance was found Wednesday night for Atlanta United (5-8-5, 9th in the East) as they returned the favor to D.C. United, beating the Black and Red side in their own home thanks to a trademark Thiago Almada golazo, claiming all three points with a 1-0 scoreline.
Now, the Five Stripes turn their attention to their second road trip of the double game week, a cross-conference date with St. Louis CITY SC, (3-6-9, 12th in the West) the first ever meeting between the two clubs.
Full attention will certainly be necessary for an Atlanta side potentially missing seven players between injury, international duty, or suspension, including the aforementioned Almada due to yellow card accumulation. The lone DP left for Atlanta United is Stian Gregersen, who is on the availability report as questionable as he recovers from a hamstring injury. Yesterday’s addition of Atlanta United 2 captain Matt Edwards, who has already featured for the first team a couple times of Short-Term Agreements, should help bolster that depth tonight.
St. Louis enters on a seven match winless run of their own, most recently falling at home 3-0 to the Colorado Rapids in a defensive disasterclass that gave up 3.4 xG to the visiting side. If there’s any room for optimism, it’s in defensive lapses and whether Atlanta will have the capability to capitalize on them.
Kickoff from CITYPARK is a bit later than usual for us Eastern time zone folks with an 8:40 PM ET start, with streaming available on Apple TV through MLS Season Pass. Radio coverage is provided in English on 92.9 The Game and in Spanish on La Mejor.
Before then, head down to the match thread in the comments below to discuss the pre, during, and post-match action as the Five Stripes look for a second consecutive victory on the road.
Atlanta United’s Lineup:
St. Louis CITY SC’s Lineup:
How to Watch:
Venue: CITYPARK, St. Louis, Missouri
Kickoff Time: Saturday, June 22nd; 8:40 PM ET
Available TV/Streaming: MLS Season Pass Apple TV (subscription required)
Available Radio: 92.9 The Game, La Mejor 1600/1460/1130 AM
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+1 , hard fought
Good effort by Brennon
Ref dude call the game, they’re all dying
It’s like in Fifa when you turn the injury prone setting up to 100 lol
Is firmino slow? He just came in and got smoked there
God Firmino is so slow.
It was like one of those dreams were you are trying to run, but you just can’t. That may have been the most unathletic sprint to the ball I’ve ever seen on a pitch. It was bizarre. He looked like he was pulling up for a hammy or something.
I know the injury isn’t his fault but him going down as the pass was waiting on him in a threatening position is just kinda icing on the cake of the game he had. Hope he’s okay though
Aw come on Luke
Wow, the fourth official was right there and they still award the throw wrong.
This announcer has been all sorts of wrong on these calls.
Wait he hits the ball first, why would that be a foul? How else is he supposed to get the ball
HERE COMES THE LUKE!!!!
I can feel a winner coming for us.
Going to curse us.
I can feel a winner coming for St. Louis???
It would be more typical for us.
🙁
Also there number 16 looks like he’s about 12. They grow up fast I guess
*number 46
Would have loved Lennon to shoot it there,
Good positioning by Rios there
Had to shoot that. Point blank. Too unselfish too many times.
Silva has been invisible. Same with Muyumba.
I wouldn’t say invisible (at least for Silva.) He had that good shot in the first half that tested Burki as well as that good turn that set up Rios in the box.
I was more thinking second half, and I thought Fortune was the setup for some reason.
So are we still playing a 3-4-3?
Nice defense by Wiley there, made himself big
This reminds me of the cube
lol at the crowd singing tequila
I literally screamed oh my god at another wasted counter opportunity with someone just kicking the ball right into a director.
It was rios
Oh I know. I just didn’t want to single him out for this one since I think it has been done by Rios, Thiare, Silva, and Wiley.
Oh, whoops
No whoops needed. It is not clear from my first comment that I knew who it was.
He is so bad oh my god
An easy through ball and we’re winning, instead it’s straight to the defenders feet.
I’m scared that Gonzo spread the virus of “not making obvious subs sooner” to Rob.
I guess Thiare had to go out for some reason and we really just don’t have anyone else in his position
Ríos was almost on my shit lost forever lol. Good job staying composed on the followup to the worse penalty I’ve ever see.
You look brilliant when you score those hop penalties, and like a idiot when you miss.
Stian sorta makes up, and terrible personality from Rios.
I meant penalty. But I’m gonna leave it cause Rios also always looks angry.
He kicks his foot through the ball, why wouldn’t that be a penalty?
Oh please no can someone else try thisbpenalty?
Let’s have confidence
He really toed the line there
Oh wow what a terrible pen. The guy thought he was Josef Martinez :/
Told you lol
Can we get Brennen please???
I’k like to see a game with Lennon having a couple strong targets in the box. He serves some nice balls, but there’s just no one to go up and get a head on them. GG feasted on a few Lennon crosses, but that’s about it for ATL.
There you go
Please get rios off the field
That was a good shot though
So now we have no strikers down one?
Holy hell that was a rocket from fortune
Oh wow
I’m not wowing the shot I’m wowing the fact that Lennon changed his cleats for the first time in years I think.
Holy crap Stian is terrible right now. But Valentino hasn’t gotten this team to have any consistent offense last game or this one.
True and a great manager has to learn how to make it work. But we do not have a worthy striker on the team.
I don’t know. Rios has been a dead zone this game. Thiare seems like he could be serviceable if he got any service. But we have Silva just kicking balls into defenders to beat them, even though supposedly has some speed.
Yea thiare is fine as a backup. Rios should not be on the field
Yea I’m kinda concerned about lagerway betweeen him and etienene. I guess he did sign Silva, muymbua, and the dude from Georgia pretty cheaper and they’re at least average (maybe good with a good coach)
Well subbing on a DP is supposed to have an immediate impact. And he did that.
Dang these match threads are cruel.
Olympic player Wiley ran right into the dude. Wtf
I have no idea where an equalizer will come from
I still don’t get how we can be so terrible on the counter. Feels like we never practice it even though one of easiest ways to get goals in MLS.
I still don’t understand life as a sports fan…
Well our DP center back that just got subbed on royally screwed up
Sigh
Is he not the DP one? I honestly can’t remember
I think our wingbacks are horrible and that kinda kills us
I don’t necessarily disagree, but the counter I was commenting on was Thiare and Rios, and ended up Thiare kicking it right into a defender, while Rios most likely being offside.
It’s super cool how St. Louis incorporated their city into their logo, wish we had done that
Any specifics?
Specific ideas that is
Idk,
We’ve done it with our uniforms, city in the Forrest, Phoenix city. But that’s a good point. We don’t have a singular thing that could be a logo like the arch
The Benz maybe??? Yeah maybe not…
Or Chick-fil-a…
The hourglass shape Coke bottle
We need to sub in someone up top for Rios – he is just a dead zone. Put a winger up there. I like the 3 center back. Sub out Rios and put in Dax soon to keep the defensive midfield solid. We aren’t going to be lighting up the scoreboard but both teams have shown that the first one to score is likely gonna win
I fancy Luke Brennen.
Well that’s how to strangle 20,000 people’s emotions every which way in 5 seconds.
It feels Morales has been poor. Williams bailing him out. He is young though.
Yea he’s had a rough game. Game before last Wiley looked awful and then much better the second half. This can be another test for Valentino
Being subbed off for Stian. Tbh I completely agree…
Well, the sub was probably the right move but it certainly didn’t work. A yellow goal and a horrible turnover leading to a goal
The hand hold up was hilarious from the ref
Hooray ! I will take it . We have been boned multiple times this year
Muyumba and Fortune have both been sloppy
Muyumba can’t turn that ball over there. Just no reason to let that happen.
Bailed out. But still poor
I was excited about Muyumba after last year, but this year he really seems to have regressed. But there’s been a lot of midfield turnover and when Slisz gets back maybe he’ll settle in.
He warned Wiley twice to get back… why is he always screwing up?
I missed first 15. Anything interesting?
Super early but rios is killing our scoring opportunities
I think there may have been a reason he was available for us to acquire
He was offside anyways but why in the world would Rios shoot it they softly
Dammit Rios ! That was a pass to the keeper , not a shot
Guz … keeping us alive again
I know on the line up sheet it was showing a 5-3-2, but on the broadcast they were showing it as a 3-4-3, which I guess would make sense to have Silva being in a winger position versus a LM role
Is st Louis good?
Let’s go!!!
Playing both our strikers, cool
12 team in the West on 18 points vs 9th team in the East on 20 points. Hopefully this will be good.
I hope we plan to roll out a 3-5-2 again with thiarre and silva up top. I predict a very boring and ugly game given the lack of quality on both teams, but hopefully we come out on top
Yes on the 3-5-2 but actually Thiare and Rios up top. I didn’t expect both to start. Interesting.
Reasons St. Louis is struggling….
1) VERY low payroll. We’re seeing other teams bottom out on this after a few weird years of “Ha ha ha, bitches. We’re winning on the cheap on and you’re paying a fortune to lose!” I’m looking at YOU here, Orlando and Philadelphia. NYRB is running maybe their highest payroll ever, certainly the most in like a decade, and look who is in 3rd place in the East.
Note: With the sale of GG, Atlanta United currently has the 10th LOWEST payroll in MLS. We’ll see what happens, but if there are no big moves, I still want Garth to explain to us how spending less money = more winning because right now, it ain’t working that way.
2) Goal scoring has fallen off a cliff here. They sold Nicholas Gioacchini after the season and nobody has stepped up to replace his production. 3) You can’t draw your way to success in soccer and they are tied with Philadelphia (see #1 above) for the most draws in MLS.
Why are we trying to spend less money?
I wouldn’t call Almada’s goal a trademark “goal”. It was a very nice goal off of his trademark hero shot from outside the box that succeeds maybe once or twice a season. His yellow card was selfish and now keeps him out of the next game. I’m not a fan.
For what it’s worth, the announcers were saying it was Almada’s last game before he left for the Olympics anyway. If today will count as his suspension game, might actually be a good thing to clear out the accumulation suspension now so it won’t be an issue when he returns.
Wow. If it does burn off today, that’s actually a brilliant move. He did seem to immediately calm down and walk away when he got the card.
Almada is listed on the MLS website as suspended for today’s match.
https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/mls-disciplinary-summary
It would be pretty unusual to leave this early for the Olympics. The tournament starts on July 24th, Argentina don’t play until the 27th. Athletes are usually not checking into accommodations more than a week before. Teams usually do have training camps a month or two in advance (like US was early June) but a guy like Almada would be exempt typically. There would sometimes be light training scheduled in the week or two prior to the tournament, but not much more…in general the Olympics isn’t considered a big football tournament so doesn’t get the resources devoted to WC or even Copa America. So even leaving after this weekend would give him almost 5 full weeks off with only light training leading up to the tournament. That seems unlikely. Not saying impossible if he’d negotiated some down time but that would be significant downtime. More likely the Argentine Federation would want him in Europe by say sometime the week of the 8th and even with a full week off before then, that would mean he could still be playing for Atlanta the last week of June or even possibly first week of July. One can always check on some of the other MLS players called up for the Olympics…my guess is those guys are all playing this weekend and likely next weekend as well.
As a frame of reference, Saba played on June 2 and Georgia’s first game in the Euro’s was the 22nd. That’s less than 3 full weeks between matches for a tournament that would matter more to most players and the federations, plus he has a baby on the way so had probably scheduled some personal time as well before training. That’s a more typical timeline.
Doug just tweeted that Almada traveled with the team to St Louis anyway even though he’s suspended, so him leaving for the Olympics already must’ve been incorrect.