The return to Mercedes-Benz Stadium turned out to be painful for Atlanta United on Saturday as they lost 2-0 to Nashville SC. The last time the Five Stripes graced the beautiful stadium was in the uninspired loss to Santos Laguna in Leagues Cup, almost a full month and a half ago. Much has changed since then – Alexey Miranchuk joined the team, Carlos Bocanegra parted ways with the club, andJay Fortune lifted the team to a 1-0 win away vs Charlotte. Unfortunately, none of that made a difference tonight as Nashville simply showed as the better team. Here are the final whistle thoughts from the Benz!
Nashville’s first goal
It didn’t take long for Nashville to get on the board in the derby, as Alex Muyl was able to fire home a tight angled shot five minutes into the match. It came after a comedy of errors and lack of possession by Atlanta United, who looked to be simply chasing the ball around the pitch. Their first true spell of possession – and a good one it was – came about ten minutes into the match, when Xande Silva ripped a shot from 22 yards out.
Nashville’s goal, though, was simply frustrating to watch as an Atlanta fan. They did well to draw Atlanta into challenges and the Five Stripes looked lost and unable to win the ball. Moments prior, Brad Guzan had to make a spectacular save off a Nashville set piece just to keep things level, but it all went downhill in the moments after.
Atlanta did well to shake it off after the goal, but they lacked any clinical finishing to pull one back as the first half drug on. Nashville did well to force Atlanta out wide and attempt to keep Alexey Miranchuk out of the game.
Atlanta and crosses, a tale of sadness
It was bad. There isn’t much to expound upon here other than Atlanta simply didn’t do well covering Nashville’s wings. Their crosses were good, but Atlanta made them look way better. Atlanta got lucky as a second Nashville goal was called back for a close offside call, but one could argue they didn’t deserve that stroke of luck. Atlanta put in 12 – TWELVE – crosses in the first half and not one looked dangerous; Nashville put in 5 and every one had the Five Stripe defense scrambling.
The second half saw less of a reliance on crosses, though Edwin Mosquera had two decent ones early, and more of a desire to get the midfield unclogged. Miranchuk saw his better of the two halves when Atlanta played a bit more methodical attempting to break Nashville down. Unfortunately, even with Nashville’s recent defensive woes, there was no way they were going to give up a goal from the quality of crossing entering the box by Atlanta.
The roller coaster that is this team
It feels like forever since Atlanta United took a golden opportunity and made it their own. Whether Nashville was playing for pride to halt their massive losing streak or not, Atlanta had all the contributing factors to get a win tonight. Alexey Miranchuk on his debut, being at home in front of a decent crowd, the desire to make the Benz a fortress…I could go on. But I’ve said it on the podcast many times and it still rings true: Atlanta United has a weird habit of playing to the level of their opponent.
Sydney wrote about the Jekyll and Hyde persona in his opinion piece a few days ago. I honestly don’t remember the last time Atlanta United truly played a game where they dominated an opponent, even an inferior one. But they oddly traveled to Fort Lauderdale and dunked on Messi and friends, beat the reining champs Columbus here at home, won against Charlotte in their house, but then turn around and lose games like this Nashville one and a handful of others at the Benz. It’s truly unpredictable, and wildly maddening.
Let us know below what you thought of the match!
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definitely the poorest performance i’ve seen this year. sooo glad i drove down fighting stupid traffic, paid for parking and stayed til the whistle to see bad, rec level football.
from the beginning, there was clearly zero plan. cb on the ball. take a few touches. look around. take a few more touches. lateral pass. 3, 4, 5, 6 touches. lateral pass. rinse, lather, repeat. nashville could/should have had 4 or 5.
this was my first time seeing amador in person. i haven’t been impressed in the minutes i’ve watched, but after watching him in person, i am thoroughly unimpressed. mosquera, lennon, slisz, rios, thiare, xande, dax (retiring), guz (should retire), hernandez, abram…none of these guys are starting XI caliber.
we are officially 6 years into our “rebuild” now, and we are probably 8-9 players away from a top four competitive team.
Tyler, remember when I asked you at the beginning of the season (after the loss to Columbus) if your expectations had changed? Seems like a long time ago but I was very suspicious of that performance and my suspicions have proven correct. This match was a horrendous display of ineptitude and lack of spirit which extends to the clubhouse for announcing a “sell out”. Pitiful spin to a terrible season. I opted out of the playoffs and even though I renewed my STH status, I’m seriously thinking about selling back most of the tickets. Nashville looked like a team; we did not. Don’t know what else to say. Outplayed and Outcoached; again.
A fellow STH told me last night that you will be able to “sell back” up to eight games. I believe the “sell back” is credit towards 2026 STs.
Haven’t heard that officially but I will sell as many as I can specially the Wednesday matches
yeah…selling back is just committing to 2026. they apply a credit to next year’s tix
I remember 😭 Which makes the way they’re playing – especially last night – that much more frustrating. It was just…poor
Just watched the LA-LAFC match… we are Sooo far behind in coaching and quality players; it may take us TWO more seasons to rebuild, assuming we get everything right from now on. We need a great coach, GK, RB, CB, LB, #8, #9, LW, Backups for all of these plus backups for RW and #10, so we are an “expansion” team
Culture of losing.
Wait a minute, I thought we were back, baby”!?????
Team sucksssssssssssss.
“We’re losing at home again, baby!”
We should play the rest of the season at KSU and maybe achieve 59-60% attendance?