Coming off back to back losses, Atlanta United certainly needed to win this Open Cup match vs Indy Eleven up at Fifth Third Stadium in Kennesaw. The transfer season has already been running rampant for the Five Stripes as Thiago Almada’s move to Botafogo was finalized and Carlos Bocanegra stated that Caleb Wiley’s transfer out of the club is essentially “imminent”, so a win tonight would’ve been huge. Add on the fact that the Open Cup is by far Atlanta’s easiest path to a trophy this year, and it was no surprise Rob Valentino rolled out a strong lineup on a breezy, wet evening in Kennesaw…
It simply wasn’t meant to be. Here are your final whistle thoughts!
Morale
It’s hard to judge morale as anyone on the outside of the locker room. Even media, when we enter the locker room after home matches, don’t get the true details and inner workings of just how the player’s feel about the overarching state of the club.
That being said, the play in the first half tonight just felt demoralized. I’ve mentioned it a million times between here, the podcast, and social media, but this match represented the direct path to silverware and Concacaf Champion’s Cup. It meant more, or at least it should’ve. The team just didn’t come out playing as if they wanted to take the game to Indy Eleven. Sure, they held decent spells of possession, especially early on, but they didn’t really have many clear-cut chances and there weren’t many incisive passes to derail the defense. Saba Lobjanidze and Stian Gregersen were the two players who stood out for the right reasons, but the team simply looked and felt off.
Own goal is having a banner year across the world
I don’t know how many goals by the notorious “own goal” we’ve seen through the Euros, Copa America, and across worldwide soccer, but he just struck again. It was the nail in the coffin for Atlanta United in the final ten minutes of the game as they were finally beginning to settle in and look goal dangerous. The game just wasn’t meant to be; when Indy Eleven looked like they were about to break, they struck pure gold and went up 2-0 off a fluke. Nick Firmino did well to make it 2-1 near the death, but that own goal was just…crushing.
Goodbye, Caleb Wiley
With this being the curtain call on Caleb Wiley’s time at Atlanta United, it was a beautiful thing to see and hear the fans sing his name and cheer the loudest for him when he entered the pitch and when he was subbed off.
Regardless of the way the club is playing right now, it’s a proud moment to see one of your own make the big jump over the pond. Congrats Caleb, well deserved!
Let us know what you thought of the match down below!
This club is an embarrassment. Lucky with Tata, Almiron, Parkhurst etc. Been a complete clown-show since 2019. The whole front office needs to go. The fact we can’t hold on to a DP and good players leave is a clear indication that the club is rotten at the core.
It was clear Pineda was bad at least 12 months ago but rather than act we wasted another season.
Playing with a goalkeeper that should have retired 3 years ago 2nd worst record in MLS in 2023. No winning mentality.
Garth, see zero impact since you joined and what is the director of excellence currently doing?
Clean slate start again. Jesse Marsch anyone?
well, we have 50 mil which is more than an expansion team would have Plus potentially 3 DP slots. Maybe also change the name from Union to Alliance? Rebels? Buckheads? Any one? AND change the field to grass AND open the damn roof more often AND reduce ticket prices AND allow kids under 10 free
Yes but don’t trust the current management to spend it wisely. Boca is a loser.
Other than Saba and Siva (who sadly is turning into Araújo 2.0) and Brennan, this team has no one with the fortitude to take the ball and drive at the opposing defense. No one, now that Thiago is gone, who can/will make the decisive line breaking pass on the rare occasion that another player makes a vertical run in behind the defensive line (though I’m hoping to see more of it from Slisz)… They must see those rare runs but instead of putting a ball through for the runner to run onto, it is the inevitable passing around the horn or back pass.
Too many touches and no creative movement in front.
Still excited to see what the FO can do with $50ish Mil in the window but will probably be slapped with reality shortly after.
Ah, life as an Atlanta sports fan.
They should distribute that cash among founding members!
Stian and Saba hustled and looked like they cared. Caleb was alright. Brennan looked good. The rest of the team didn’t look even USL level.
At this point, my disgust is equally divided between Atlanta United organization and the USSF. To salvage my sanity, I may simply throw in the towel on any idea of enjoying professional soccer in this city or this country.
Fell asleep during the match. I used to look forward to Atlanta United matches. Now they feel like a chore.
It’s like watching England at the Euroes… Except I have an actual connection and passion for the team.
I switched over to the COPA at half. My wife asked, are you going to switch back to the AU match? No, because I knew we were going to lose. There was no doubt in my mind after that 1st half.
Canada looked pretty good for the first 20 minutes and should’ve scored, unfortunately the lack of quality attackers showed. Argentina was just too much. I like how they defend and their great quality on the ball was nice to see
I didn’t watch, but I feel like even with backups playing we should hear a team in the level below us. Especially since we had some starters. Anyone on our roster should be better than what they have no? Or is the difference between mls and USL not that large? I’d assume it’d be something like sec vs fbs school (or ksu)
For me, the difference between one of the lower sides in MLS (us) vs one of the best sides in USL (Indy Eleven) is not as huge as some may think, and with our current run of form, it certainly isn’t a cupset.
However, we should still be beating USL sides because week in week out, we are playing higher levels of competition with them playing lower levels.
Apathy firmly set in. This season is now DONE.
The excuses will run rampant shortly. I’ll save us the time.
1) “We don’t have Almada”
– if you need a world cup winner to beat a USL team, boy do you have bigger problems
2) “we only have 1 DP”
– and to be honest, he wasn’t all that impressive. Let’s not forget that Saba is basically a DP… He was signed as one initially. He’s a big time player. Outside of that, we had mostly first teamers on the field, and I can’t emphasize this enough, up against a USL team that has never beaten an MLS team. And they were away.
3) “we don’t have a coach”
– you’re damn right about that. But we sure did hear a lot after RV won a couple games that he was the answer to all our problems because he gets more out of his players. If that’s the best we have to offer for mentality against DC and (again) a USL team… Oh my.
4) “it was just unlucky that we lost because of an own goal”
– no, no… We lost because of goal #1 where we just watched as 2 attackers simply outsmarted and outpaced 4 defenders and a keeper. Absolutely wild.
5) “it was unlucky that we didn’t score more because we had the favorable stats on shots and xG”
– this is just as tired of an excuse as “we had possession.” We consistently have a decent number of shots and xG. Have we considered focusing on finishing in training?
All around, just a big disappointment ahead of what we can only hope is an impactful transfer window. It’s amazing how we seem to struggle to improve no matter what we do to adjust.
And yes, I meant New England, not DC. I’m so annoyed by everything with this team right now that I can’t even remember the correct shitty team we lost to.
In a way, this loss is good so we stop thinking we can win a trophy and continue to think our roster is good. Guys, we are in deep caca. We have to think like an expansion team and totally rebuild. Honestly, I think I would keep only about 2 players, use another 3 or 4 as bench depth and get ALL new players and coach
I feel for guys like Saba, Slizs, and Stian who were probably told that they would be the missing pieces to help the team return to greatness.
Indy Eleven was better than we were. Full stop.
This club and team is a joke. The lineup and subs showed we clearly didn’t care about the best path to a trophy this year. The fact we are acting like we can pull a Seattle and make an MLS run is wishful thinking.
Everyone should be ashamed and be forced to apologize to all the supporters who made the trip and paid money to watch that disappointment.
There weren’t that many supporters there, apparently. In the previous USOC match we hosted in Kennesaw, they reported attendance during the match. No report as of yet. Probably because they don’t want to release the numbers.
Team management made no attempt to host the match in MBS where maybe 20,000 or more fans would have come. I’m not surprised at the outcome. By the way, the last USOC match played in MBS had 35,709 fans attend. But yeah, let’s go with the idea that nobody wants to go to USOC in MBS. Sure You know best, Blank, Garth and Boca. I said days ago that I really didn’t think the org was making USOC a priority. What we saw tonight proved it.
Know how many USOC matches have been hosted in MBS in our history? TWO. And the 35,709 I mentioned is actually our lowest attendance of the two. But yeah, no need to ever play USOC matches in MBS again. The org sends a message to the fans that they don’t care about USOC and the players and manager pick up on it. The outcome is inevitable. A team that actually did care about it won.
This again? Christ…
You again. Like stated previously, they could not hold the game at MBS due to another commitment.
https://www.primerica.com/public/convention/
It doesn’t matter. This team, especially in the state it’s in, would not draw 10,000 people for this match. It would be idiocy to host this match at the Benz unless specifically required. This is why MLS wanted out. For better or worse, few care about this Cup until maybe (maybe) the finals.
Opening that stadium for a match is no small feat. Think about how many people you need there for concessions, security, cleaning, customer service. Would you want to bartend for 100 people? I’ve been to MLS games at MBS where concessions people had to be contemplating writing as they were getting just north of zero tips.
And this team sucks. I started to buy tickets for yesterday’s match and then thought to myself “they will put out the C team (because full strength is B team right now) and either lose or have the most uninspiring victory imaginable.” They had the most uninspiring losses imaginable.
This team is off the rails. I’m finally ready to burn it all down.
I agree. I attended the USOC games pre-COVID, and the KSU stadium was generally pretty full to completely packed. The entire stand on the opposite side of the field from the camera was empty last night. Sad.
i’ve been to plenty of matches at 5/3…us open and the 2’s…and have seen some good crowds there when the team is worth watching. no way i would have trekked down to mbs to see this match last night…so the location made no difference, at least for this fan.
It’s official: We suck