Atlanta United made the trip across I-20 Saturday afternoon for another preseason friendly vs Birmingham Legion, looking to implement more of head coach Ronny Deila’s concepts. Though the week’s headlines have been focused on the blockbuster (re)signing of Miguel Almiron, the squad has been hard at work on conditioning, tactics, and discipline after the first preseason loss up in Chattanooga. With fan’s vibes at perhaps the highest level they’ve been in years, the only better way to cap off the week would be with a check mark in the W column. In front of a solid crowd at Protective Stadium, the Five Stripes did just that with a 2-0 win. Here are the final whistle thoughts straight from Alabama!
Discipline
We know these preseason games are as much about building chemistry and implementing tactics as they are about actually winning games. Fans should see progress throughout the early weeks as the players integrate concepts and fix mistakes, and by that measurement, the week was a success. Atlanta United played a much more structured, compact formation, keeping their lines in check and holding each other accountable.
Deila could be seen on the touch line helping direct and fine-tune some of the younger players positioning, while Noah Cobb and Efrain Morales did a wonderful job holding their defensive shape. Bartek Slisz took the captain’s armband in the first half and played the director role well, and overall the team just looked well-drilled.
Cayman Togashi
While Atlanta fans continue to hold out hope a Designated Player striker deal will happen early next week, newcomer Cayman Togashi has been silently putting in the work. He was inches away from a goal in Chattanooga, but he was rewarded in Birmingham for his persistence and absolutely chaotic energy. He scored the opener in the 25th minute off a Ronald Hernandez set piece, but literally never stopped moving in the first half.
The amount of off-ball movement is a breath of fresh air, as he never allowed Birmingham’s center backs a moment to rest. This allowed Will Reilly space to play forward and created opportunities out wide with Luke Brennan and Edwin Mosquera. It’s a small thing, but his work is very unselfish, so it was good to see him get rewarded with the first half goal.
Overall it was simply a good day of footy out in Alabama, and now the team prepares to travel down to Florida for three more preseason matches in Bradenton. We’ll have coverage of those games here so keep an eye out, and let us know below what you thought of the match!
I think the main questions are who’s going to be our midfield pair, and who’s going to be our starting FB while our starters are injured.
For midfield, I personally would like Slisz and Klich. Slisz was a really great metronome this game. Muyumba is sort of an odd situation, as he really seems stuck on some bad habits of always passing back even when he has the room to turn forward. But then, when he decides to push forward like he used to when he first got here, it results in great plays like the one leading to the forced own goal. Fortune hasn’t been bad, but I thought was a bit invisible in this one.
For FB, I expect it would be Hernandez and Medwards as the backups, and they’ve done decently well so far. I was really impressed by both Chong Qui and Wynne though. I wonder what the likelihood of getting them to the first team is.
Actually, that also reminds me, what happened to Javier Armas? I’m assuming he’s still with the 2s?
Still with the 2’s, per Grey’s article on them about a week ago.
I believe Chong Qui qualifies for the new off-roster homegrown rule. The rule change now allows 6 appearances in league games and unlimited appearances in cup games. I would expect to see him moved up periodically, especially with Amador nursing a hamstring to start. Based on these 2 appearances, he belongs.
I also think Brennan has improved. I think moving on from Wolff and giving Brennan more opportunity makes sense. Small sample size, but he has moved even or slightly ahead of Mosquera for me on the depth chart. There are situations where Mosquera’s speed is going to make sense as a 2nd half sub, but Brennan seems to have more well-roundedness to his game.