Well, it was fun while it lasted.
Rob Valentino’s new manager bump/form/luck finally ran out of steam on Wednesday, as his Atlanta United side (6-9-6) fell to the New England Revolution 2-1 at Gillette Stadium to snap the unbeaten start to his interim tenure in its fifth match.
That road trip carries on late tonight as the Five Stripes go west to Sandy, Utah to take on a second in the West Real Salt Lake (11-3-7), whose three losses are equal to the likes of Inter Miami and the Columbus Crew. Led by current Golden Boot race leader Chicho Arango with 16 goals, RSL have remained near the top of their conference through the first half of the season, averaging over two goals per match and took care of Houston on Wednesday by a 3-2 score. If you aren’t closely following the rest of the league, it may come a little surprising to see Real Salt Lake alongside the likes of LAFC out West. Atlanta hasn’t seen RSL on the pitch since 2022, and hasn’t even made the trip out to Utah since the olden days of 2019. This match will close out a three game home stretch for Salt Lake, who actually lost the first one to a Puig-less LA Galaxy.
That’s somewhat slightly reassuring, as Atlanta will be DP-less for tonight’s matchup. Y’all know by now about GG (officially gone) and Almada (unofficially gone), but throw Stian Gregersen into the availability report as well, suspended for yellow card accumulation after picking one up in Foxborough. Thankfully, Saba Lobjanidze has been back stateside long enough to be able to feature more prominently, which will be a big boost to an Atlanta attack that had Daniel Rios and not much else on Wednesday.
Kickoff in Utah is set for a late 9:40 PM ET start, so be sure to plan your day and evening accordingly if you feel so inclined. Streaming is still available as usual on Apple TV with MLS Season Pass, while 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 Atlanta United try not to hand Chicho the Golden Boot already.
Atlanta United’s Lineup:
Real Salt Lake’s Lineup:
How to Watch:
Venue: America First Field, Sandy, Utah
Kickoff Time: Saturday, July 6th; 9:40 PM ET
Available TV/Streaming: Apple TV (with MLS Season Pass Subscription)
Available Radio: 92.9 The Game, La Mejor 1600/1460/1130 AM
This thread will be your match thread. We don’t have many rules here. We just ask that you don’t insult each other personally and treat each other with respect. Debates can get heated and that’s fine, but name-calling and petty insults will get you banned. If you see a comment that you feel is out of line, please report it and it will be dealt with.
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Hopefully that’s the last we see of Hernandez in a back three line.
Or, preferably, the last we see of him playing defense at all.
From what I could tell he wasn’t even the worse of the 3 CB’s tonight…
Guz should have stopped that one
Three at the back and can’t cover anyone.
I want so badly for Valentino to work out, but this game isn’t a great example. They scored twice on set pieces and we couldn’t adjust at halftime to whatever they did
Remember when we used to put up these numbers. Pepperidge farms does.
You mean when we were able to have a larger salary cap than anyone else in mls because of the new team bonuses?
Another completely uncontested goal off a free kick – I am going to bed
Great. So now we are back at our one note Lennon overhitting crosses offense.
That was a good one. There
Good night, all. No wonder Garth wants to address the fans, b/c this season is over.
Wdym address the fans?
Seriously. Saba for Fortune. If we are going to give up, at least put Brennan in.
There’s no need to run Saba in the ground, it makes sense to punt this one. I agree though about Brennan
That was so obvious – Lennon was trying to guard two guys by himself
Yea I guess Cobb messed that up?
Okay now we need to be smart. Sub out our starters so they’re ready for Tuesday. Idk why Luke Brennan doesn’t play anyways
Our midfielders have disappeared again
The two minutes prior were shaky , dumb giveaways , free kick turnover … if you could. Call a timeout in soccer that’s when we would have used one
Can anyone tell what’s different this half? Is it just the talent level difference showing more and more the longer the game goes?
They switched on, we switched off… we keep giving away possession with stupid passes and they are making us pay for it. At best, we tie. At current rate, this is a clear incoming L.
Take away 2 DPs, an interim coach (although he is doing as best he can), and a team in constant transition (international games, formation changes, injuries, trying to heal from Pineda’s coaching mentality), and it’s most clear this season is over.
Yea but this style of playing has been our entire existence except for the first 2 years
Idk what it is, I continue to have a theory that we try to outsmart our roster building by having talented guys but not ones that can succeed as consistently in MLS. We almost never have the fastest guy on the field which is argue is super important in a league where most scoring comes from capitalizing on the other team’s mistakes
Yea that was coming
Class way to play a half. Especially after the initial blunder
If only it didn’t take us being behind to play like that. Will never know though
If I can forget the first 50 seconds I am really happy with how we are playing
I love the fight that this team has
Terrible first minute, everything else brilliant!
Stupid delayed Apple stream. Also, I feel bad giving Rios so much shit when he technically has two assists and 1 goal in the past three games.
We’ve pretty much dominated since the goal.
Nice team goal there
Saba !
Incredible business. Terrible team.
“The crown jewel of homegrown” as he dribbles right into the dude who dispossesses him
Freakin A. I don’t super blame Rios, but if he had crossed that back to penalty, Slizs was right there.
Game plan seems great, we just don’t have people who can shoot
Damn if we aren’t actually looking offensively potent the last ten minutes … just can’t get it to the net
Rios , son , we need to talk
We could be up 2-1.
How does he miss that one
Why start Hernandez instead of Morales as one of the back 3? Morales has looked good there.
Hernandez more flexible. He gave the assist last game and decent shot already.
We need all the attacking help we can get
Good points, but I’d have started Morales and looked for a result. Hernandez is a liability on defense.
Nice attempt Rios, showing some life
I don’t even know who to blame in that. Wiley was outside the most outside guy, not a single midfielder tracked back, and there were two guys wide open in the box. One center back was applying pressure on Wiley’s guy, idk where the other two were
Maybe we should sell out for the USOC.
Not with the lineup we have today, they’re playing on short rest, Tuesday will be B squad
We don’t have anything above a b squad at this point
Well that didn’t take long.
Yea I don’t know where our defense was
Is not rotating the squad a good idea? We just played Wednesday and our midfield is slow even when rested
FFS
Terrible. Incredibly terrible.
Well, now we can’t even evaluate our coaches’ original game plan because they scored so quickly
We have a +12 goal differential with Toronto and somehow lose the tiebreaker.
Toronto has more wins. Wins is the first tie breaker. This is one of MLS’ great truths – You can’t draw your way into success.
I’m told that roster availability is meaningless. Just punt it long and we’ll be fine!
My prediction
Atlanta United 7
Real Salt Lake -3
(Only if Ditka is playing the 10)
Full size Ditka or miniature?
I see no reason to actually stay up and watch this game… My bet is 4 or 5 nil
ah…the good old punt game…let’s make sure all the key player come out of this match without any injuries, so they are all fresh for the actually important match on Tuesday
But is Tuesday important? Please note that management MADE NO ATTEMPT AT ALL to play it in MBS. There are no events scheduled that would have prevented it from being played there. And the last Copa America match in MBS was over a week ago, so if management claims they somehow need more than 1 week to put the artificial turf back in, I call bs on that.
By the way, if Atlanta wins on Tuesday, they will go on the road to play the winner of Sporting KC/Dallas. The host of the final is unknown at present. Can you imagine Atlanta making it to the final and playing it in Kennesaw? It could happen. I seriously question whether an org that has deliberately adopted such a fan unfriendly approach by refusing to play USOC matches in MBS really deserves to go further in the tournament.
Know when the last USOC match Atlanta United has been in was actually played in MBS? That would be Aug. 27, 2019 when Atlanta defeated Minnesota in the championship and set a USOC championship attendance record that still stands at 35,709. Yet management continues to believe that nobody wants to come to USOC matches in MBS.
I generally don’t go to Benz games because I find it a garish, impersonal and kind of obnoxious….really not a good soccer stadium…always happy to attend games at Kennesaw or some of the mls soccer specific stadia. Obviously not everyone shares that view but know plenty who do.
USOC games should not be played at the Benz when we have another option and that does not in any way correlate to whether or not the players want to win.
https://www.primerica.com/public/convention/
Looks like there is something else going on.
The USOC final was, ya know, the final, and on a Saturday; this coming game is a quarterfinal, on a Tuesday, and against a USL team. Unless we sell out KSU and have a wait list to double that the team would probably lose money trying to have them play at MBS.
This again? Really?
There will be like 2,400 people there. It’s they were at MBS it would be a few more and cost 15 times more for the team. Man, good things you don’t run s business.