The new era of Atlanta United is off to a strong start as the Five Stripes claimed a 3-2 win over CF Montreal in its season opener thanks in large part to its new big-money striker, Emmanuel Latte Lath.
The big question ahead of the match was whether Latte Lath, who had trained with the team for less than two weeks, would feature in Ronny Deila’s first starting XI in charge of Atlanta United. He did start along with the rest of the Five Stripes’ attacking combo that featured Alexey Miranchuk as the attacking midfielder, Saba Lobjanidze on the left wing and Miguel Almiron on the right. Mateusz Klich and Bartosz Slisz were the midfield pairing of choice in front of a back four consisting of left back Ronald Hernandez, right back Matt Edwards and center backs Stian Gregersen and Luis Abram. The goalkeeper and captain was Brad Guzan.
The Five Stripes were off to an energetic start, playing on the front foot and creating several chances. The team outshot Montreal 9-1 in the first half, which came from several eye-catching passing movements. Their dominance was rewarded with the opening goal in the 42nd minute. Latte Lath leaped into the air to head home a Saba corner kick to score his first for the Five Stripes just before halftime.
Things evened out in the second half as the visitors started to grow into the game. They were quickly rewarded with the tying goal in the 47th minute from Nathan Saliba who headed it in from the back post.
Latte Lath struck again in the 63rd minute after Miguel Almiron’s headed attempt was cleared by Jonathan Sirois and landed at his feet for an easy finish to reestablish Atlanta’s lead.
But once again the lead didn’t last long as Prince Owusu made things level at 2-2 by getting his foot to a ball that was headed down inside the six-yard box in the 71st minute.
In the end, Atlanta United found a winner thanks to Edwin Mosquera who found space on the left side to release a curling shot to make it 3-2 in the 85th minute.
The Five Stripes got the right result, but ultimately made it much closer than it should have been. The team couldn’t maintain the rhythm it started the game with and it very nearly cost them. On the plus side, that $22 million investment in Latte Lath is already starting to pay off.
Atlanta United returns to action on Saturday, March 1 when it travels to face Charlotte FC at Bank of America Stadium.
What did you think of the match? Let us know in the comments below.
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[…] Latte Lath debuts with brace in 3-2 win over CF Montreal […]
Dear Atlantistas: watched some of your game.
I watched because of Almiron, but who is the guy who headed your first goal??? That was brilliant. Top class work in the air. Very impressive, whoever it is. Did this guy come from Europe?
Other than that, congrats on the win. And why is Almiron not the number 10? The current number 10 is a lot less talented than Almiron, and slows the team. Why is Almiron playing on the wing? I think Soviet Mechanic looked happy, and now things should be good since he has good people playing with him.
On the negative side, there is always smth in the beginning of a season, I think defending was bad, and the team bent easily out of shape. Having a bad team like Montreal score twice, at home?
So, I saw good parts on the field, but not much of a coach. What say you, Atlantistas?
we were running a back up at RB, LB, and LCB, so of course the defending didn’t look good. also even though Almiron was listed as the RW, we basically played with two 10s. Miranchuk might be less dynamic than Almiron, but his precision passing is top tier.
Hi. I think any good team could break Atlanta with some ease. They need to have a better formation, and strategy. Miranchuk is the number 10? I am not familiar with him. I suppose he comes from the Balcans? I think Almiron´s passing is a lot better.
Miranchuk is from Russia, played in Italy. He’s kind of like a Thomas Muller Raumdeuter kind of player, not particularly spectacular athletically, but just great vision and passing.
The new guy who headed the ball is Latte Lath, our new most expensive player from English Championship League. He was on the short list for a few Premier League Teams
HI, thanks. I don´t follow the Italian league, I did not know him. But, still, Almiron is a lot better, and I think he has matured and could be a great number 10. A great passer who does not slow the team down, on the contrary, is a wonderful thing to have. On the number 9, Latte? I was very impressed by that header. You don´t see that in normal football.
I just think Atlanta should bring Josef back. This would be great for the club, and supporters.
I will say, MTL’s right center back is an Atlanta academy product who was transferred after limited first team opportunity.
By MLS standards, he is strong with the ball at his feet. There were a few times MTL broke our press because of this.
Granted, we did not look good when this happened, but I think over time we will generate some easy goals at the expense of an occasional concession due to our press.
Hi. I really thought your formation was broken too easily. A team needs to be able to deal with losing the ball and keep formation. This is the mark of a good coach. I think Atlanta improved a lot, player wise, I am just not very confident in this new coach no one had ever heard of.
The guy who headed the 1st goal was Emanuel latte lath a new sign
Very exquisite heading, don´t you think?
I was relieved to see Almiron clearly still be the best player on the field. I think we will be, at a minimum, moderately successful this year simply due to an infusion of talent.
I am still trying to get a read on the new manager. I saw a willingness of Atlanta to attack with speed, but I didnt really see many passages of play designed to exploit the other team. I saw no gameplan, and certainly no ability to grab control of the game in the second half to protect our leads.
It is true on paper that we were missing 3 out of 4 first choice defenders. But 2 of the 3 are strong depth starters. All respect to the academy kid at right back, but he didnt meet the minimum standard in my opinion.
I do think we will improve. Need a few more games to assess.
I agree that we have pretty good depth players in most positions this season, but Mosquera/Silva are probably starter level players on a number of teams across MLS while Hernandez/Edwards are not.
The most disappointing thing I saw on the field Saturday was a great match from George Campbell and a terrible match from Luis Abram. I recall we traded Campbell and replaced him with Abram one offseason thinking Campbell needed starter minutes and we wanted to show we wouldn’t hold back players from progressing. It’s now a few seasons later and I think Campbell is very much the better player and hits the cap $300k lower than Abram. Hopefully we find a good CB option in the summer window (or Cobb grows into a bigger role) so we can trade Luis.
Hernandez is probably a fringe starter for the middle third of teams and can definitely start on the lower third of teams, in my opinion.
I’m still confused how someone who plays at Abram’s level (not terrible, but mid by MLS standards even) is a consistent national team call up.
I personally wouldn’t consider Abram strong depth. I might be biased from FSF throwing stats at me, but the dude hardly makes any meaningful defensive actions.
Sounds like a reasonable evaluation, I think. I did not know you were missing so many starters. Still, playing at home, against a bad Montreal, should have been better.
Coach has opted to play our wingers inverted to start the season, and Almiron mentioned in the post game presser that coach is giving him lots of freedom to move inside. This will likely keep Saba out wide more on the left.
While Lennon is recovering (he went by a friends suite on Sat and said two weeks to being back!) this will make the right flank less effective. His replacement is an academy kid in his rookie season, and I would expect a young inexperienced guy to prioritize his defending responsibilities over getting into the attacking third. Once Lennon is back I expect that channel to become much more dangerous. His engine (and distance covered per game) is near the top of the league every season.
I would personally like to see 5-10 minute stretches in each half where Saba/Miggy switch sides to create a different look.
I thought Matt Edwards had a decent game all things considered. He’s forced into starting duty with a makeshift backline. And as fantastic as Miggy was in the attack, the free lancing left Edwards on an island to defend alone a few times. He did get beat on the goal we conceded off the corner, but I think he was trying to hold the line for offside (Miranchuk played Prince on, IIRC). It might’ve been a function of low expectations for a mostly unknown and young player, but he wasn’t a total disaster. It’ll be nice to get Amador and Lennon back, as well as Williams (Abram is bad at defending, and now is owner of worst contract on the team, IMO).
Hi! I just don´t understand playing Almiron as a winger. This seems like a real waste of very unusual talent. What Almiron has, is the capacity to be a number 8, and 10 in the same guy. He can move the ball up the line with extreme speed, in the center, and then distribute killer passes. I remember him doing this over and over, for Josef´s benefit.
So, your coach prefers to play a very academic Russian as 10, slowing everything, and allow Almiron to move inside, where he clashed with the number 10? Not smart, I think.
And I am sad to hear that Lennon is coming back.
I also agree that Almiron would be great as a center, but he has also played for the last 6 years as a winger at Newcastle. Similarly, although the Russian has played across the front 3, I don’t think he’s as good as Almiron at the wing. I think the current idea is to let Almiron be a sort of hybrid winger/10. Things would be a lot simpler if we didn’t have Miranchuk, but we also paid a lot of money for him and only just recently got him and with a team that will allow his passing to be effective.
Also, to his credit, Miranchuk actually doesn’t really slow the ball down. He’s not fast, but he’s very good at immediately picking out a good pass to keep the ball moving. If you look at good moments he’s had with the team so far, he’s often making a first touch pass that directly leads to big opportunities. Or like his shot in the box at the game, it was very clever and almost resulted in our first goal, and not the sort of shot you see many players make.
Almost all of Almiron’s 6 years in the best league in the world was spent as a winger, so although he would still be an excellent CAM, he has sharpened his skills as a winger and wouldn’t make sense to push Miranchuk out of position for that.
Also, I will once again reiterate that while your Brazilian footballing taste buds are always hungry for the filet mignon that is flair, agility, and technicality; much like filet mignon those things are often overrated in comparison to the protein shake that is straight-line speed, sweat, consistency, fundamentals, mentality, selflessness and grit. Lennon is an amazing footballer and a top RWB in the league.
Prediction:
In 2-3 games when we have more of our first choice wingbacks back, Alexy will look like Jamie Tart in season 3 of Ted Lasso, “stop playing to me, play through me.”
You’ll have Almiron, Saba, Lathe, Amador and Hernandez just constantly in behind with space.
Alexey and Klich will be master puppeteers controlling the field.
I said it before and i’ll say it again…Alexey isn’t our 10. We need to start realizing that. We have Miggy back, he’s a proven 10, and it’s very clear how effective he is with moving the ball, making key passes, and controlling the game. I’d say try Alexey at the wing and Miggy at AM next game and see how it goes.
I agree and disagree at the same time:
I don’t think Alexy on the wing is a great thing. Mainly due to the fact that Miggy (or whoever is acting 10) won’t have as many thru ball options as he isn’t the fastest. Also, Alexy needs to be central to be able to spread passes around and help us progress from a building stage to an attacking stage by feeding Miggy, Saba, and Latte Lath.
Despite all of this, I do still believe that Miggy, Saba, and Alexy interchanging throughout the attack will be to our benefit. I think set positions aren’t going to be beneficial to this team. This attack needs to be chaotic. And interchanging positions will be an amazing way to do this. We saw this last night with Saba tucking in, Miggy drifting to the right, Alexy moving out wide, and even Latte Lath moving out wide to make runs. This will be the way forward for this attack in my opinion.
Yeah, I really like the idea of having miggy be both a winger or a 10 depending on what he sees, and the fluidity to constantly shift the look we’re giving the defense.
I, too, am not sold on Alexey being a winger either because he’s just not as quick and able to take players on 1:1. He’s always felt more like a solid 8 than a 10 or a winger. I hate to say it but i’d prefer to see Xande and Saba on the wings, LL up top, Miggy at 10, Slisz sit and sub with Klich and have Alexey pull those strings at 8. I’m not the biggest Xande fan, if he can get back to what he produced when he first joined us he’s a great option but if he continues to fall out i’d rather just see him go and get another winger option in there.
Eh, it’s one game. Miranchuk really came on later in the year and playoffs for us in terms of final third production. I think Miggy will get better looks and more opportunities from the right when Lennon is the the lineup (or even Amador is back with Hernandez at RB). Edwards did as well as we could hope for a 4th option fullback making his first career start, but he was conservative in terms of getting forward and combining in the attack. Lennon is like an extra RW with his offensive capabilities in this league, and I look forward to seeing what he can add. Miggy is also almost always going to drift centrally to some degree, as he’s so much better finishing with his left. Letting him and Miranchuk learn to work with the freedom is a better long-term play, IMO.
There’s also the defensive responsibility for the wings when our FBs fly way up the pitch. Counting on Miranchuk to provide defensive support on the flank is probably a recipe for disaster. He did pretty well helping some centrally (at least more than anything he showed in that respect last season), but he’s not going to bomb back to provide cover like Saba or Miggy can and will from the wings.
The only thing that sways me to this argument is how it would impact Saba. I think he is much better on the right side, whereas Miranchuk plays LW for Russia, so it wouldn’t be an unnatural fit for them if we put Almiron as a 10.
But, I don’t think we will or should try that unless ~8 games from now we’re not performing at the level we want.
[…] Latte Lath debuts with brace in 3-2 win over CF Montreal […]
The quality is there but it was obvious we need some game time to gel. Lots of missed passes where guys just mis read or misunderstood where guys were going. That’ll get sorted. ELL is fantastic. It’s not just the brace it’s all the stuff he does off ball, too.
Miggy was fantastic. He was left, right, and center. He’s still got plenty in the tank.
Slits & Klick are too slow. Wouldn’t surprise me if Fortune takes Klicks job.
I thought they were good until they got tired around minute 60/70.
Also I can’t tell if you’re misspelling everyone’s name on purpose, or if it’s just a lot of autocorrect.
Are you serious? 1. Spell their names right; 2. Slisz was great this match—he won the ball well and often and he kept the ball moving; 3. Klich adds quality and consistency which you can tell was influential; 4. The lapses that those two had in the second half was part of an entire team lapse.
I’ll take it! Obviously lots of things to improve, especially what we’re going to do with Miggy and Miranchuk. But a W is a W
Miggy is a better 10. Nunchucks is too slow.
I think it’ll be less confusing in time. Miranchuk has told us he can and has played on the wing so it’s all just a matter of communicating it and executing it. I see the sloppiness, but more so the potential!