I’m lost for words right now.
I wrote this article about 5 or 6 times before hitting publish because so much happened in Atlanta United’s 4-3 win against New York City FC. Here’s a summary:
- The first half, apart from Alexey Miranchuk’s goal, was bad.
- The first 10-15 minutes of the second half were even worse.
- Ronny Deila pulled some strings, and somehow Atlanta won the game
I’m still trying to catch my breath. Here are the final whistle thoughts after one of the wildest Atlanta United matches we’ve seen in some time.
How did Atlanta United win this match?
Well, what do you know? Maybe Saba Lobjanidze is better on the right, maybe Alexey Miranchuk can be a No. 8 for Atlanta United, and maybe Miguel Almiron is a decent 10.
As soon as Mateusz Klich and Dom Chong Qui came off in the 57th minute for Xande Silva and Matt Edwards, Miranchuk dropped further back to the 8, pushing Almiron to the 10 and Saba to the right wing — with Jay Fortune at the 6 after Bartek Slisz exited at the half.
And, dear reader, it was night and day. It took just minutes for Saba to ping one off Keaton Parks into the back of the net to make it 3-2. From that point, you could feel a third was coming eventually…and it did in the 75th minute. (It just had to be Miggy, right?)
Then, in the 84th minute, miscommunication between the keeper and a field player led to a goal…this time for Atlanta as they took the lead.
I guess Deila wasn’t kidding about wanting to win matches 4-3 instead of 1-0! There’s no way he changes this up for FC Dallas, right? Right?
Dom Chong Qui’s performance
I was going to write about how it was an OK (not great) performance from Dom Chong Qui as an emergency starter in place of Pedro Amador, a late scratch due to a quad injury. That said, he was at fault for NYC’s third goal.
Chalk it up as a learning moment for Chong Qui — the future’s still bright for the youngster and he’ll learn from it. For having such little time to prepare to start after the Amador injury, he was decent outside of that one bad touch.
But seriously, how did Atlanta United win this match?
I wanted a nine-point homestand from Atlanta United. I didn’t think the first match would play out like this, though.
Let’s be honest: Atlanta was second-best in this one until they weren’t. That’s credit to Deila for some intelligent substitutions and tactical wrinkles that NYC simply couldn’t cope with. I’d think it’d be foolish for him to go back to what wasn’t working after this match, but what do I know?
That’s all I’ve got. Let us know what you thought of the match in the comments.
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[…] Atlanta United kicked off their three match home stand against NYCFC a few weeks ago, and after that miraculous come-from-behind win I really hoped the Five Stripes were turning a corner. I’d have loved to write that article […]
it was kind of interesting to see how it felt like the entire team had issues with heavy touch on the ball yesterday. it almost seemed like the ball was playing differently off the turf yesterday. did they make changes to the turf recently? because some of the passes yesterday also seemed like it either had too much pace, or not enough pace. definitely glad Atlanta won out in the end.
That match looked liked rec league for the first 55 minutes or so.
A bevy of atrocious first touches and bad give aways, far to much juice on a lot of the passes leading to careless turnovers. Me thinks the boys may have been pressing a bit and I’m not talking in the technical sense.
All that said, the heart they showed to come back from down 3-1 was massive. Particularly after that 3rd NYFC goal when the Benz got really quiet. Cudos to the supporters section for revving it back up.
Williams needs to sit, I’ve seen enough of his sloppy play.
I think he’s actually our best CB (low bar), just because he keeps everyone else organized. He’s not as great at stopping the ball, but he’s still better than Abram.
We’ve come a long way down since Miles Robinson
What Miles always lacked was organization/leadership. I think if he had been paired with someone more like Williams (or if you want a better option, Parky) instead of the training cone that is Abram or the decently talented but also not organizer options that were Purata & Franco, our defense would’ve been a lot better.
Agree.
I saw him get blamed for their first goal, but it was really a result of him having to cover for Chong Qui on the left, who was getting absolutely torched all first half.
I think as solid as Williams has been for us since he joined, this was his worst match for us. So I think he gets at least a mulligan for this match.
ELL is a baller
Such defensive presence it’s staggering tbh
My very chaotic full time thoughts:
All of this. Look at how the game opened up and we actually looked dangerous when we had Alexey at the 8, Miggy at the 10 (he needs to dust those 10’s boots off), and we controlled the midfield. Those are the keys to improving our attack and I hope we see some form of this come next saturday.
Also, hopefully Amador can quickly recover, his skill was missed tonight.
I got on him last week but Matt Edwards put in a very solid shift tonight. CBs must improve.
I’ve been a harsh critic as well but he does seem to be growing in confidence. Lets hope Chong Qui can recover. I think today’s moment was a bit too big for him.
On the other side of the field, I was extremely impressed by NYC’s 17 year old Shores. Kid was confident, composed, and barely put a foot wrong.
Almiron did not play nearly as well as the other 3 of the front 4, aside from the goal, obviously. Xande did Xande things. Fortune sub is what helped since Bartek was knocked early.
I thought Almiron played a lot better once he was at the 10.
I slightly agree. Hard to look over all of the sloppy passes and him getting dispossessed. I know he had a goal, but aside from that he hasn’t been stellar.
He played better, but still up to the style of play we all know him for. He’s gotta dust those boots off and switch from being a winger the last 6 years. Just like riding a bike, he’s got it, just needs to get back into the swing of things. He’ll get there.
4 letters.
S-L-A-M