So close… so freaking close…
Atlanta United added one more point to its bid for a playoff spot after a 2-2 draw on Saturday against New York Red Bulls at Red Bull Arena.
The result brings the Five Stripes’ point total to 33, which puts the team a point behind 9th place CF Montréal and three points behind 8th place Toronto FC.
Rob Valentino introduced a 5-3-2 shape with Noah Cobb joining the usual Stian Gregersen and Derrick Williams center back pairing. Alexey Miranchuk started at the No. 10 in front of Bartosz Slisz and Ajani Fortune in midfield. Finally, Jamal Thiaré and Saba Lobjanidze were deployed as dual strikers.
As expected, the hosts dominated throughout most of the first half. Red Bulls held an overwhelming 61% possession through the first 45 minutes and peppered Brad Guzan’s goal with shots.
Frequent balls over the top caused all sorts of problems for the Five Stripes, but it was set piece defense that proved most problematic. Red Bulls found the back of the net early from a corner kick, but it was called back for offside. Another corner in the 31st minute was put away by Dante Vanzeir and this time Atlanta wasn’t so lucky. The Belgian’s first goal in 20 games gave the hosts a 1-0 lead.
Things weren’t looking good for the Five Stripes. The Red Bulls put three of nine shots on target and looked to be closer to a second than Atlanta was of equalizing. Nevertheless, a golden opportunity came for Atlanta just before halftime after Jamal Thiaré was taken down inside the box and referee Chris Penso awarded a penalty kick. The Five Stripes’ newest designated player stepped up and buried his attempt to score his second goal in two games.
With the change in formation not yielding the desired results, Valentino took off Cobb and brought on Luke Brennan to start the second half. This shifted Atlanta to its habitual 4-2-3-1 formation.
While he hosts continued dominating the game, Atlanta created some dangerous chances. However, the tides would turn in Red Bulls’ favor after a foul inside the box was called against Fortune after VAR review – penalty. With just five minutes remaining in regulation, converting would likely secure the win for New York. But the experienced Guzan heroically saved the penalty to keep the Five Stripes in it.
The momentum would continue Atlanta United’s way as Edwin Mosquera entered the game in the 92nd minute and scored with a curling shot just 10 seconds later. The Colombian’s 4th goal of the season put the Five Stripes ahead late on the road.
And it seemed as if the Five Stripes would FINALLY claim a victory at Red Bull Arena. But there’s no such thing as joy in Atlanta United land.
In the 7th of 9 minutes of stoppage time, a failed clearance gave Elias Manoel the perfect shot to tie the game. And he took it. With that, the game ended in a 2-2 draw.
Yeah, you could see that coming from a mile away. The win would have been a massive boost for the team’s playoff hopes, but alas.
The Five Stripes will continue trying to get in the top nine on Saturday when it visits Philadelphia Union.
What did you think of the match? Let us know in the comments below and fill out your player ratings below.
The more I think about it, it was Bocanegra who probably made contact 😅
For those who don’t follow both, Five Stripe Final recently pointed to an article by Tom Bogert stating that Vieira is a finalist for the spot. Which at the very least sounds more promising than Wolff.
wut
There’s no way, right? That just has to be at most that the searching company just reached out as a name among many many names? There’s no way they’d get the head coach of a team in the same league, worse conference, same (arguably worse) record than us, and expect that to fix things?
This seems like fabricated rumors, at best. Maybe his name is just on a vetting list for AUFC, which means nothing. His resume as a head coach is terrible. There’s been rumors about his possibly/likely firing since July, and their fans seem to want him gone very much.
He is 49-30-66 as head man for Austin, his only such job. That’s a 34% winning percentage or 1.22 ppg.
Austin by season:
2021 – 31pts, 24th in MLS/12th in WC
2022 – 59pts, 4th/2nd
2023 – 39pts, 25th/12th
2024 – 35pts, 20th/11th (currently)
In MLS play Austin is averaging 1.37 GF/gm and 1.53 GA/gm. He made the playoffs once in four seasons (currently 7 points out of the play-in and 11 points out of the guaranteed 7-seed).
I would suggest people not waste stress on rumors like these. When they announce interviews and finalists, worry about them if you must. But this? This is just the internet internetting.
Please no
Atlanta United is done hiring promising assistant coaches. Now it’s time to try unpromising head coaches!
Probably Guzan’s best performance of the season and that’s about it
Said it before…this squad lacks football smarts. Too many mental lapses or wrong decisions. Lacks fundamentals as well…heavy touches all over, poorly weighted passing, etc.
I’m starting to come around to the idea that the coach makes a huge difference because i’m just not seeing the same type of play out of these players. Look at Lennon, dude has been Mr. Reliable and a great crosser…not this season. Slisz looked solid and has since fallen off a bit. Xande, something happened to him that made it look like he just doesn’t care anymore. And Muyumba used to be a solid 8 then he went and found ways to suck.
Do we think they’ve gone downhill, or do they know something we don’t and are just waiting for that next thing to happen? Aren’t a good chunk of players FA after this year?
My guess on Xande is he got a little comfortable and complacent. When we got him on loan, we were like his 5th team in 3 years. A new two year contract after that would motivate some, others it let’s them slow things down and catch their breath.
Alternatively, when Muyumba and Silva and Slisz joined the club the league had no real scouting on them and didn’t know how to defend their strengths and exploit their weaknesses. As the league got film on them they became better at defending them. No magical secret knowledge of how the professional athletes who have been ultra competitive their entire lives became lazy and soft overnight because of lemon pepper wings or whatever needed.
Don’t be knocking the lemon pepper wings!!! I always played better knowing those were coming after the game!!
In itself, not a bad result. But in the context of chasing a playoff spot, it’s a gut punch.
just think of it like the NFL, but instead of tanking for a draft pick, we are tanking for extra allocation money
How much do we evenget if we miss playoffs?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allocation_money#:~:text=MLS%20teams%20receive%20general%20allocation,CBA%20section%2010.17%20%26%20roster%20rules)
It might be in the team’s long term interest to take the L’s and cash in the Allocation money, but they are pretty clearly not intentionally tanking on the field. They’re just at the limit of what the talent currently rostered is capable of doing.
agreed. I do also wonder if the team is getting to the point of the season where the results have been stagnant and FO not revealing its hand regarding future TD or HC, so some of the players are losing sight on the goal of this season
The players mentioned above – Xande, Muyumba, Slisz – were all acquired to be secondary and supporting players. None of them are DP level contributors. Our only real DP level guy at the moment is Alexey. We need a striker and another offensive contributor to support him and Saba in the attacking third.
Typical