Atlanta United traveled up to the random city in the northeast that is Foxborough to play the New England Revolution, and of course they’d play the team named after patriotism on Independence Day eve. The Five Stripes and the Revs were both missing their two key playmakers, Thiago Almada and Carles Gil, and the match rapidly turned into a back-and-forth slog. There was an initial flurry by Atlanta before an incredibly frustrating goal by New England, and the Five Stripes ultimately came up a goal short in a 2-1 loss. Here are your final whistle thoughts!
Xande Silva
The left winger played much further inside tonight and was able to be more involved in the overall pace of the game. He was the first Atlanta United player to threaten, with a powerful shot that took a deflection for a corner within the first 3 minutes. He continued to find space and lead the attack, though, and was incredibly unfortunate to not find the score sheet in the first half. Despite the terrible game state, he seemed to be playing with confidence and doing everything possible to keep the attack involved. Unfortunately, it was an uphill battle.
The defense?
It’s tough to say what happened exactly, but Atlanta’s back three simply weren’t great tonight. Every one of them made mistakes, and costly ones. Derrick Williams was beat on the first goal and Stian Gregersen on the second, with a yellow card to boot. The Norwegian will now have to miss the next match against a stout Real Salt Lake, and this road trip quickly took a turn for the worse.
It was as if Atlanta seemed hesitant to step up to challenge New England players, at times, and they gave the Revs way more space than they deserved. Perhaps it was a tad less aggression, but it was definitely much sloppier overall – and that’s against an objectively bad New England team without their primary playmaker in Carles Gil. It wasn’t all their defending, either. Many of their passes were lacking and there was a sense of disorganization.
Here’s hoping Rob can get preach the “Be a goldfish” mentality and get the defenders right before the weekend.
Clinical
It’s to be expected when the team’s DP striker and DP playmaker are both gone, but the final product just left a lot to be desired. Atlanta took shots, absolutely, and Ivacic of course had a phenomenal game against the Five Stripes (what keeper doesn’t), but this game ultimately came down to a lack of sharpness on both sides of the ball. Atlanta had a string of sustained pressure in the second half where it felt like a goal was coming, but the shots were either over the bar or fairly simple saves. Ronald Hernandez’s floating ball over to Daniel Rios late was the main exception.
I hate to say it, but it feels like this was simply a missed opportunity. The combination of a disorganized defense and a lackluster final product against one of the worst teams in MLS – regardless of the fact it was an away match – combined into a frustrating night of soccer. Now the expectation is a win out in Utah to try and keep some sense of momentum alive, and Utah are a better team than either of the two we saw in New England tonight.
Rob has pulled some strings the past couple of weeks, but it’s clear this team has plenty of demons they need to exorcise. Let us know what y’all thought of the game below!
MY TAKE – the mids are to slow and do not really engage in the defense, they jog back, never hustle, never pressure so the defense is alway under pressure. Lennon, Wiley, Muyumba, Fortune, McCarty, and Slizs do not attack the opponents therefore the ball moves into our defensive third. The coach needs to be give them what he is expecting. Sad to say, we are going no where with these mid to low talent players.
Oy vey. If we give up 2, we have almost no chance.
Anyone else slightly annoyed that the Almada deal isn’t done ? It is doubly frustrating to know he still is on the team and technically available but obviously not available for possible risk of injury and deal squashing. I know we can’t bring in a possible replacement until the transfer window but just end it already.
I still find it odd you can trade away someone outside the transfer windows but can’t bring in anyone else.
I stopped watching after NE scored. Just didn’t see any reason to watch a rudderless ship sailing into the Niagara falls
I dont think it’s a rudderless ship, it’s a ship with only souls on the way to get an engine at the next port. We’re going the right way right now, but we need some work done this window to get up to speed.
I see more of a third option where the front office is simply steering the ship to a different destination than where the fans want to go.
I dont feel we are going the right way at all, at least in terms of the team getting stronger.
We lost GG, have basically lost Almada, and may also lose Wiley. So what do we have left?
Guzan is on his last leg. Stian is like the defensive version of GG so far. Excellent when available, emphasis on when available. Derrick Williams has had a nice Parky like influence. Flanked by Lennon and Wiley, not much complaints there.
Our midfield is extremely pedestrian between Muyumba, Fortune, McCarty, and Slizs. These are all players who could be capable. But Saba is like a Ferrari that you take offroading, and Silva is like a Rivian truck that you take to a drag race (lots of quirks and features for all you Doug Demuro fans but at the end of the day just doesnt seem like the right vehicle for the right time).
Our forwards are good depth pieces turned starters.
Tldr we certainly have some building blocks, but I am quite discouraged because I do not see this as a quick turnaround. Pretty sure we are a lower half of the league payroll now.
Valentino has done an admirable job so far, but starting that game with 3 midfielders trying to play the same 2 positions was a not the right move. Fortune was supposed to be playing in the advanced 10 role, but looked so lost they pushed Muyumba up midway through the half. Once Fortune dropped back, he looked comfortable.
yea, he tried to get too creative…he would have probably been better off starting Firmino. he also used the subs too late. I can understand using subs late if we were up late, but you don’t make subs at the 90th min when you are down 2…
Muyumba told us when he arrived last year that he could play in an advanced role and had done so before. I really don’t know why Pineda and Valentino see Fortune as some kind of offensive whiz kid when that’s not the kind of player he is. I would think it just makes sense to have Muyumba advanced and Fortune dropping back, but maybe Fortune is some kind of miracle worker in practice and it keeps making the coaches think he’s got more offense to his game than we see if the actual matches. If I was the manager, I’d have starred Firmino instead of Fortune, but it’s fair to point out that Firmino hasn’t really made the most of his opportunities this season.
I’d like to see Muyumba as the 10, Slisz as the 8, and Fortune as the 6.
Well, it’s worth trying anything at this point
For a while there, Fortune was the only one willing to shoot the damn ball.
I bet it’s Fortune plays for the TnT national side while Muyumba didn’t get called up for France….some silly nonsense like that.
Am I the only one that thinks Silva makes Almada-like-touches, but doesn’t have the quality to match?
Also, I audibly laughed when Hernandez came in and made seemingly the first left footed cross in from the right and scored. Lennon conditioned them to only look for the right foot
Am I the only one that seems to miss every sub on the Apple TV broadcast? I mean I watch the game and suddenly I am like … when did that guy sub on ?
Some announcers are better at notifying viewers of subs. Do you have the MLS app on your phone? While it trails live action by a minute or two, you can check under Schedule and look at the individual match info to see if a sub happened. I have to admit that it’s something I do a lot, so you’re on to something with your comment.
You mean “Lennon conditioned them to only look for the [very late and over hit] right foot”
Anyone want to see what we are missing with crosses from the right? Go check out Gressel’s early and low cross in front of the attacker for Miami last night. Perfect ball that 95% of the time is scored because of placement and timing. How many times does Lennon put his foot on the ball to stop the transition so that he can try that damn feint that rarely provides him adequate space. All just to serve in an over hit cross against a set defense?
So everyone else around us in the standings lost (except for New England ) so we stay in the same place. The battle for the play in rolls on !! Just like the Hawks …. And the Falcons
Maybe proximity to downtown Atlanta induces mediocrity
I now get why people aren’t fans of playing a False 9.