Right before the Leagues Cup break, Atlanta United got what must be their most important win of the season in a 2-1 victory over the Columbus Crew. Here are our postgame thoughts!
Lack of Composure In the Final Third
Early in the first half, Atlanta United had two huge chances to take the lead. The first saw Xande Silva beat a player down the touchline, dribble into midfield, and play a great ball through to Bartosz Slisz. Slisz, in a 1v1 vs. the goalkeeper, took one too many touches and mishit the ball, allowing Columbus to clear.
Minutes later, Saba Lobjanidze found himself clear through on goal after a well-controlled run saw him meet a Stian Gregersen through ball. Instead of taking a shot, Saba played a ball across goal to Jamal Thiare, who’s shot was easily saved by the Columbus goalkeeper Hagen, who had plenty of time to come out and make himself big.
Late in the second half, Atlanta United had some great build-up play, but still couldn’t finish their chances. Rios and Saba struggled to make the right decisions inside the box when passing, and Saba hit the left post after an unbelievable back-post cross from Lennon.
Even if it didn’t matter in the end, United need to finish the chances they create and not rely on individual moments of brilliance to beat teams like Columbus in the future.
Comparing Calmness in Possesion
After the first 15 minutes and for the majority of the game, Columbus controlled the match because of their signature calmness in possession under Wilfried Nancy, waiting to pass the ball until their opponent presses. It worked to perfection for most of the match, but Cucho Hernandez and others couldn’t finish the chances they made.
Meanwhile Atlanta, focused on playing long and countering, struggled staying calm on the ball and were rather frantic. When under intense pressure, players usually got too fancy on the ball and quickly gave it back to the Crew. For example, Muyumba trying skill to get out of pressure gave the ball right back to Columbus and directly led to their only goal. The countering gameplan mostly worked for United tonight, but their players have to make better decisions under pressure.
Make the most of your set pieces
After missing the chances the team deserved to score, and after being overrun by the Crew from the 15th to 60th minute, Stian Gregersen scored his first two goals in his Atlanta United career in heroic fashion. Off of two corners, Gregersen made great runs towards the 6-yard box and sent two unstoppable headers past Hagen to give Atlanta all 3 points. With the heroics, Gregersen scored the first 2 set piece goals for Atlanta United ALL SEASON, and the team is back in a playoff spot at 9th place in the Eastern Conference.
A Protest
Going into the match, there was a lot of fanfare about the silent protest put on by the The Gulch in response to the raising season ticket prices. At the beginning of the game, it was interesting, as fans in the stands were wondering about the silence and trying to start their own chants.
However, the supporters didn’t stay quiet forever. A small group of supporters at the bottom of their main section made themselves as loud as possible. After the goals, fans flipped the vacant drums, and after a “Don’t price us out” chant, the party begun. The Benz was rocking, and while it wasn’t meant to be originally, the late support from the fans helped carry the team over the line.
Let us know down below what you thought of the match!
Congratulations, Atlantistas! I am told Columbus is one of the best MLS teams (I read that they won your championship last year, or won the playoffs tournament.)
I watched some, plus highlights, and goals. It seems to me that both teams lacked a clear format, or philosophy. It seems that it is pretty much about making it into the final third, and seeing what happens. On the Atlanta side, this is somewhat expected, because your A players left, and there is no official coach. I really could not see a pattern with Columbus, they seem pretty bland (and yet, they sit on top of the standings in your division!). Well, points, points, points.
I am not sure I understand the system of recruiting, and hiring in MLS. Who is really in charge of choosing players? I read that Miami has a footballing director with a good reputation, who came from Seattle, or Portland. BUT, the Miami of last year as a collection of really, really bad players (who were all sent away). So, what do footballing directors do, if they can´t build good rosters? Do coaches get to choose? Letters for this mailbox, please.
On another note, this article says that Atlanta FC wants to raise season tickets???? How??? Don´t they need to give you a team, and give you results first?
Hey Marcelo, I think it’s time we consider you an Atlantista! 😃
Yeah, you’ve been around as long as pretty much everyone else here, or more. You don’t give off cheering loyal fan vibes, but you’ve continued to pay attention despite us being a poor slop of a team much longer than being the interesting new thing that originally caught your attention.
Columbus Crew have one of the most organized and clearly articulated philosophies of play under Wilfred Nancy of any team in the hemisphere, much less the league.
Looks like that under Rob we are 3-3-3 vs 4-7-4 under Pineda. That’s with GG and now Alameda gone. Not saying Rib should be permanently made coach but it shows the impact a coach can make.
The one counterpoint I’ll make to that is of those wins under Rob, one was individual brilliance by Almada, one by great trickiness by Thiare, and by some great moments from Saba/Gregersen twice. There’s some crazy luck that Valentino is getting that Pineda just couldn’t get.
You’re right but I do think that sometimes you make your own luck. Attitude and hustle sometimes puts you in position for those things to happen. Granted the “Steal of the Year” by Thiare will not likely be seen AU again for years but it takes guys looking for those opportunities to make it happen. One of the biggest impacts a coach can make is getting players to believe in themselves and each other. I don’t think Pineda has that ability or at least not now. I think Rob does. I don’t think Rob has the accumulation of coaching experience to go along with his ability to motivate players, so he’s not the right pick for us at this time. We need a coach who can do both as well a a front office that gets players that the coach needs for Atlanta to win with, not just players we can sell off to some other league.
Agree. We still haven’t seen a consistent performance from the entire team under Valentino yet. Though I think you could argue that last night was the closest. We had a lot of good chances yesterday that we just weren’t able to finish.
Also, I would say Pineda did get that luck. It just happened last year. That is why I was so hesitant us limping into the playoffs, because I knew it meant he would stay on
We really need a quality striker. Every time we get to the final 3rd I start hearing the Benny Hill tune…
This team is light years better when it has the defensive spine they used last window to acquire actually on the field. The squad simply requires the Gregerson/Williams pairing at the back to survive. They need them and Slisz to compete.
The surprise to me last night was Jay Fortune threading insightful and perfectly weighted passes through the Crew’s back lines, for attacking runs to go meet in danger areas. That was a breath of fresh air from previously watch Thiago Almada dribble the attack to death in his best Ezequiel Barco impersonation.
I don’t know enough about those LA sides to judge Williams’ contributions. With us this year he’s been best when Gregerson is beside him and playing the more active, athletic role, allowing Williams to be a more settled and calm secondary captain alongside Guzan, organizing the back line.
This falls apart when we have had to rely on younger (albeit talented) players like Cobb and Morales in Stian’s place.
I’ve been really impressed with Jay for the past few matches. I don’t know if he’s growing in confidence or if Rob’s getting something out of him that Pineda couldn’t, but I hope he keeps it up.
I think he’s just growing in confidence, and maybe getting some breathing room with Almada leaving, meaning there’s more CMs now on the field, particularly ones close to his capabilities, for him to play off of. Based on how often Pineda put him out there, I think he was showing this in practice and Pineda saw it. It was just a matter of getting it to show in games.
He’s been yanked around the pitch a lot, trying to find some firing solution that works in composite. We talk about CMs, but a 6 and an 8 have vastly different jobs. Fortune, to my eye, struggles in the defensive mid role (when they tried him out as a Slisz backup.) He creates defensive problems in front of goal in that spot.
He’s better but not great as an 8, but that’s Muyumba’s role and Muyumba isn’t helpful defensively either. Dax is a natural 6 at this point but has the legs of a 35 year old.
Fortune showed out last match as a 10-ish creator up top. That was, to me, completely unexpected but welcomed. If he can grow into that role at least until the new Russian gets here it eliminates the need to shift other players like Saba and Silva out of position themselves.
Brooks Lennon not getting nearly enough credit these days
I will give him 100% of the credit for his poor crosses
Brooks Lennon is the only player to start every game for Atlanta this year.
Genuine question, where are these drums that were flipped by random fans. Because as someone who was literally next to the drums, I can tell you they were not touched until the 90th minute when a “Don’t price us out” chant was started. Also, this was not organized by TL. Members of the Pit decided to do this
Sorry for the mistake, this was what I believed to have seen from my section. I also miswrote the TL thing. It will be fixed!
“the Terminus Legion”? Since since when did TL claim naming rights of The Gulch?
My mistake, I will edit the post!
So we lose 2-1 to Indy Eleven, but win 2-1 against Columbus. I don’t get it.
Not even close to the same squads on those pitches.
I agree with your comment about the underdog mentality, but I disagree that we have enough skilled players to win in this league. We have enough depth now that we can stay with better teams, but without some top-end talent (particularly folks who can finish), I think we would struggle to win very often.
I get it. We didn’t play 5 players against Indy who would have been in the starting XI against an MLS side and 4 of those 5 weren’t even dressed, so they couldn’t play in the match. Indy took it seriously. Rob V did not. I can’t speak to whether this was simply incompetence or a deliberate attempt to bail out of USOC by playing a crappy squad and hoping for a loss. I think it most likely was incompetence. It sure as hell didn’t look like a match where Atlanta United had any serious interest in trying to win with the idea that maybe winning USOC again and getting into CCC again would be a good thing. My expectations could not be lower for Leagues Cup where I predict Atlanta United will again go down in group play and be out. However, I think in Leagues Cup they actually won’t play a joke lineup like they did vs. Indy.
MLS tried to withdraw its tier 1 sides from us open play entirely. AU was one of the “well send a couple of teams if you drop the lawsuit” consolation clubs. I doubt they wanted to be there at all.
USOC is a joke. As SamH noted, MLS tried to get out of it but didn’t want the legal battle. The Indy game (7/9) was shoe-horned into a stretch where we had six MLS games in three weeks, and it was in the midst of some kind of shitty travel (at New England on 7/3, at Salt Lake on 7/6 and at Montreal on 7/13). Until MLS goes to a straight cap which I believe will allow for amassing more quality depth, USOC should just be a throw away (if we are even in it again the next few years).
As far as a birth in CCL, this team is not close to competing in that as it stands. I’d just as soon not have to deal with that to open next season as we look to get our club back on track. Try to get into the upper tier of MLS again before we are trying to hang with LMX giants.