It was goals galore in Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Friday as the inaugural Leagues Cup 2024 match between Atlanta United and D.C. United ended in a thrilling 3-3 draw with the visitors winning the ensuing penalty shootout.
Interim Head Coach Rob Valentino made just two changes to the starting XI that came back to defeat Columbus Crew 2-1 on Saturday. Josh Cohen was stationed between the posts and Daniel Rios led the line at striker. In captain Brad Guzan’s absence, fullback Ronald Hernandez was given the armband.
It was a rough start for Atlanta United when Christian Benteke opened the scoring four minutes into the match after a huge blunder from Josh Cohen when he tried to clear the ball. The goal was originally called back for offside, but was later overturned by VAR.
The Five Stripes responded in the 20th minute when a Brooks Lennon cross found Daniel Rios in the box who placed his header perfectly to level the match at 1-1. The goal was the Mexican striker’s 8th of the season across all competitions.
But the visitors reestablished their dominance quickly with two goals from Jared Stroud in the 25th and 32th minutes. The first came from an Atlanta United corner kick gone wrong that resulted in Lennon trying to head the ball back to Cohen, but falling very short. Stroud picked up the ball and calmly finished a one-on-one against the Five Stripes’ keeper. The second was an absolute thundering strike from way out that would have been difficult for even the best goalkeepers. In a matter of minutes, Atlanta United saw itself in a deeper hole than it was originally in with a 3-1 deficit.
Atlanta’s Georgian winger, Saba Lobjanidze, pulled one back before the half with a curling shot that completely fooled Alex Bono. His goal in the 38th minute was his 7th across all competitions this season.
Rios was brought down inside the box and, after a lengthy VAR check, was awarded a penalty kick. Interestingly enough, it was midfielder Bartosz Slisz who stepped up to take the spot kick in the 65th minute. The Polish international sent his effort down the middle where it was saved by Bono.
The club’s newest player, Pedro Amador, subbed on to make his debut in the 76th minute. The Portuguese left back was signed to fill the hole left by Caleb Wiley’s departure to Chelsea.
Atlanta United got another chance to score a penalty in the 80th minute when Jamal Thiare was fouled inside the box. This time, Rios grabbed the ball, placed it on the spot and fired it confidently into the bottom corner to level the game again in the closing stages.
Despite energetic attacking from both sides, the deadlock could not be broken and the match proceeded to a penalty shootout. Cohen saved D.C’s first spot kick, but was unable to keep any others out. McCarty, Firmino, Lobjanidze, Thiare and Williams each scored their penalties while Lennon and Slisz both had theirs saved. In the end, D.C. United took home the additional point after winning the shootout 6-5.
The Five Stripes now have over a week before facing Santos Laguna in Mercedes-Benz Stadium for their second and final Leagues Cup group stage match.
What did you think of the match? Let us know in the comments and fill out your player ratings below.
Was it just me? Terrible goalkeeping. This was his second chance to impress but I just don’t see it. He doesn’t seem to have any shot stopping or foot play quality…
He doesn’t and the head scratcher is that we fought and paid well for him, we let go of a bunch of young keepers and by passed South America entirely for one.
Cohen isn’t being paid that highly. $265,000 per season. You can easily find goalkeepers who make more on pretty much every team in the league. The head scratcher to me was that this is all he is getting after all the crap his agent did to get Atlanta’s Discovery Rights terminated (Which did not get terminated.). I’d have expected him to be in the neighborhood of $500,000 a year for all the hubbub that happened.
Also, could we move on from Lennon and Hernandez?
Hernandez, we should. But for Lennon, someone just needs to help him understand that not every ball down to the corner needs to be a hopeful loft into the fray. Saba was the easy cutback somewhere in the last 10ish minutes and instead of playing it 5 yards on the ground to his feet for a pass into the net, he hail Mary’d it into a group of like 6 players.
Lennon is an albatross around the ne k of this team. He’s been here since 2020, when the slide began. He makes $150k more per year than Hernandez, yet sends a majority of his crosses over the heads of potential scorers. He has played long enough that no one should have to teach him anything. Time to cut bait.
He had a nice cross for an assist last night and a blunder ! I like him but I think it’s time we find a replacement
Lennon is still valuable for the most part. Hernandez didn’t have that bad of a game. Slisz and Muyumba, however, have been duds lately.
Slisz was becoming a beast 2 weeks ago I’m think we got a “6” for a while now then these last 2 games ahhh n those PKs jeez
I did not watch this game, but I dont understand the rationale behind blaming Hernandez and Lennon for poor results.
The only reason Hernandez sees the field is because we sold Wiley, exacerbating depth issues that were already present before his departure. Yeah we brought this other guy in, but apparently he is either worse than Hernandez or not ready.
Regarding Lennon, he’s shown what he can do to feed higher quality players in the final third. Would Gressel have had as many assists if he was crossing to Kenwyne Jones 75% of the time?
I get the frustration, but only to a point.
They would be replaced… Take a chance because what we are receiving is at best average MLS play but often worse. You can find that level of talent with out going far.
Pedro Amador strongly projects to be an old school defense first little to no offense fullback and no more. He probably didn’t play much mostly because of that. His full scouting report on FBREF.com suggests some far above average passing and crossing ability, but somehow this never translated into assists for him in the Primeira Liga. He may end up being Lennon like in that a bunch of his crosses do go into the penalty area, but a bunch of them are also not in optimal locations. I’m not really expecting much and I’m not convinced that Atlanta United is really built to have an old school LB playing and not have it impact the offense in a negative way. I see him more as a really cheap stop gap that the front office prays will undergo a miraculous Mosquera like transformation, but even Mosquera isn’t the same this year as last. Maybe if the Primiera Liga counted secondary assists he’d have much better numbers, but I don’t know how to find that out. I would just suggest tempering expectations and not expecting him to be another Wiley but maybe a better version of Hernandez. His defense appears to be quite good though, but MLS seems to really be moving away from old school offensively limited FBs, so he’s a bit of an anachronism in his play.
I think there are Lennon haters and lovers. Personally, I think he is slightly above average, basically an Ok player but doesn’t have the ability to be more. He will never be at the level of…say, Dorsey (Houston) and I think their salaries are comparable? Or maybe Lennon makes more, I think.
I’m not sure what was thrilling about that game…
I want out of this abusive relationship.