After a tough road loss in Charlotte, Atlanta United “welcomed” their old New York Red Bulls friends to Mercedes-Benz Stadium for an early season litmus test. The following 90 minutes went from reasonably solid on Atlanta’s side to frantic ping-pong (by both teams). The result? An admittedly annoying 0-0 draw in front of 42.5 thousand strong. Here are the quick final whistle thoughts from Atlanta!
Playing through the energy drink press
Not to bring up ghosts of the past two matches, but Atlanta United played a very solid first half…without goals. They did well breaking the Red Bulls press, and only had a couple of iffy moments in defense. Goals change games, though. We know this, and Atlanta’s expensive attack knows this. They tested Carlos Coronel on multiple occasions and couldn’t quite squeak one past him early on, but the positive sign was that every player on the team looked to be in sync playing forward…at least on the short give-and-goes. The long balls up to Latte Lath and Miguel Almiron were certainly a bit lacking, but for about 60 minutes things were at least positive.
The chemistry and quick attacking soccer was a huge point in training all week, and it looked to have paid off in playing through the energy drink brand of soccer. That second half though…
Stringing two halves of good soccer together
Like I said, the first half of footy in the Benz was encouraging, but all eyes waited to see how Atlanta United would respond after emerging from the locker room. We all know how the first two matches played out, and both the players and Ronny Deila said they were making it a point to eliminate that issue early.
For the first 20 minutes of the second half, Atlanta looked…fair. However, it got sloppy quickly as the passes started straying and the decision making became less than stellar. To be fair, it wasn’t a complete switch-off like in Charlotte, but there were multiple opportunities that were wasted. The transitions went from crispy and full of potential to soggy and miscalculated. By the end of the match the play simply looked frantic.
And that’s just how it played out. A 0-0 draw is a 0-0 draw. It’s a point, but it doesn’t feel good enough. The game became progressively more frustrating to watch as the clock ticked towards the 90th minute. Atlanta United and Red Bulls typically have either very exciting matches or silly ones, and this one undeniably falls in the latter category. Let us know below what you thought!
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My thoughts as I reflect on a disappointing match:
Muyumba has better ball skills than Fortune but he holds the ball a little too long. Last night he played much better and played good defense. Overall, I think the midfield was much better than the last two games.
My thoughts:
Myumba put in a great shift DEFENSIVELY. However, his passing continues to be subpar. – Our passing as a team in general was poor.
Not the way to start off an extended home stand
Great points in this summary. We seem to have the right pieces, but haven’t been able to figure out the puzzle yet.
I know it will take time, but what I’m concerned about is how much more ‘complete’ the other competitive teams look early in the season. If it takes us ‘too long’ to figure things out, and then we have any injuries later in season, we could get behind the 8 ball quickly in the first half of the season. I’m not worried, but I’m also not feeling confident.
I have the same thoughts as you, just some caveats that might help us (me) feel better:
Charlotte was 5th in the conference last year, and had the best defense in the conference, 2nd best in the league, and there’s not a lot of other teams really even in the same ballpark. They just had to revamp some of their attack, and even then, they didn’t really “earn” their goals, we gifted it to them. Red Bulls, although in 7th last year, was much closer point wise to 5th Charlotte than 9th place us, and made it to MLS Cup final.
We’re also rebuilding, having a new coach, new (twist on) tactics, 3 new starters, slowly getting our full defense recovered from injury, where as the other teams although bringing in new and important faces, still have a foundation from last year to build on.
Though I would have loved 3 points from this, I’m encouraged by the defense and getting the 1st clean sheet of the season. Edwards stepping up and the return of Pedro are a big plus. Still would like to see Lenon back. His service into the box will be an upgrade that’ll help spark the offense.
Right now, I see some great ball movement in the attacking 3rd but our finishing needs to be better. The commentators were gushing over the NYRB keeper, making far fetched comparisons to Allison’s UCL performance last week. All but 1 of Coronel’s saves, to me, were routine as the shots were either weak or directly at him or both.
Agreed we didn’t really challenge him with any of those. Off the top of my head the only one that sticks out to me as a good save was the header low he went down to get