Atlanta United felt they deserved much more from a 2-2 draw against Inter Miami, a match that featured Lionel Messi entering just past the hour mark and a frantic finish that could have seen multiple goals scored by either side.
For a team on the outside of the playoff picture looking in as of Thursday morning — they’re in 11th place with five matches remaining, one point from ninth in the East but with the Philadelphia Union and D.C. United ahead of them — there’s no margin for error.
And while a point’s better than none, that wasn’t quite the position Brad Guzan seemed ready to take afterwards.
“To have as many chances we had, we should be coming away with three points,” Atlanta’s captain said in the locker room after the match.
While Atlanta certainly could have won, they very well could have lost, if not for sterling defending down the stretch including Pedro Amador’s goal-line clearance of a potential Luis Suarez back-breaker seconds before Alexey Miranchuk’s stunning equalizer.
“Listen, that was just as important as trying to go and win the game and not lose the game,” Guzan said of the backline’s performance. “In that aspect, it’s a positive if you want to say that, but we need to be picking up wins.”
That final 15- or 20-minute stretch was as frantic and wide open as any at Mercedes-Benz Stadium this season. But it’s something Atlanta hasn’t quite been able to sustain throughout an entire match with consistency.
Goals aside, the collective performance was better than it was on Saturday against Nashville SC, although the bar was quite low to begin with. And while they claimed a draw against the Supporters’ Shield leaders — despite Messi and Suarez being inserted into the match and some massive let offs for the defense — the relative lack of urgency across all 90 minutes was the root of Guzan’s frustration.
“We need to be able to start games like we finish,” Guzan said. “I don’t know if it’s guys are scared. We’ve got to go out and play with confidence and be on the front foot. We talk about that daily (but) when the whistle blows, we wait for things to happen.”
The short turnaround between Wednesday and Saturday’s match at the New York Red Bulls, then, is another opportunity for Atlanta to make up ground.
But the pressure to win away, something they’ve only done three times this season, is even greater after just one point out of a possible six at home.
“I can sit there and think about being disappointed with that, or I can move forward,” interim head coach Rob Valentino said. “Now, we’ve got to pick up points on the road. We always knew we were going to have to anyway, so now we know where we stand, and we’ve got to do the work on the road.”
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It was certainly better than past matches but to me, it exposed the true liabilities we have. Miami played with their motor idling, they had much better organization, ball control, ball skills, even with their best players missing. They’ve built a pretty deep roster; we haven’t.
Based on what I’ve seen this season, I would only keep Gregersen, Amador, Slizs, Saba ( who is a one man team) and the new guy Miranchuk. Everybody else goes or moves to the bench, including the current coaching staff. Mosquera has not developed at all; aren’t coaches working with him? he needs help. If we can’t help him develop, get rid of him. He can probably do better in a team that can develop him; he has speed and rough ball skills but he’s young, so he has a long way to go.
Interesting thought on a “rebuild”. I’m not sure I would characterize us as 6 years into one as we’ve never truly gutted a roster to do it. In my mind, we’ve never really gone full rebuild, we’ve just had a lot of ins and outs
If the first “rebuild” had gone to plan we would be wrapping up the final year of Josef’s extension. It’s hard to overstate how badly his knee debacle blew up this team’s long term plans.
I’m trying to decide if the team was screwed even before Josef’s knee. I think FdB was a downgrade, but I don’t know that his coaching/tactics alone would’ve destroyed the team.
Looking at the roster at the beginning of the year, our probable best 11 would’ve been something like:
Barco – Josef – Pity
Jeff – Hyndman – Remedi
Walkes – Meza – Robinson – Escobar
Guzan
Or maybe:
Barco – Josef – Pity
Mulraney – Hyndman – Remedi – Lennon
Walkes – Robinson – Escobar
Guzan
With our bench something like looking like:
Kann, Castillo/Mulraney/Meza, Lennon/Jeff, Rossetto, Bello (remember he was still 18 & developing at the time), Mo Adams, Jahn
That team had some massive holes, particularly at the backup ST and the LB/LWB, and our team is definitely downgraded in replacing LGP, Gressel, Nagbe, Villalba, and others compared to 2019, but it’s not the worst team.
I think the make or break that would’ve determined if the team would’ve survived, that we never got to see, is if Josef/Barco/Pity would’ve found some chemistry or not (they tended to step on each other’s toes before, and then they were never really healthy all at the same time) and if we would’ve gotten some leadership on the field to replace Nagbe and Parky. Jeff provided that, but only because that midfield was generally a disaster if he didn’t play, and he was supposed to be stepping back.
In the CCL matches before Josef tore his ACL, PB&J actually looked pretty good
It was still going to be a roster cap strapped from hell and dependent on Pity being better than he ever turned out to be. But a healthy prime Josef in the middle solves a *lot* of problems and clears out the center above the box for Pity and Barco to be their best selves.
Not sure it would have gelled or Josef doesn’t snap with de Boer ball. But being buried under that contract for what became a backup striker in MLS was devastating.
I can agree with all of that.
I’d keep Jamal and Muyumba as well. Everyone else I would replace.
I still say we need to tread away from the 4-3-3…
They are OK as depth pieces but we need better starters