So much happened in Atlanta United’s 4-3 come-from-behind win over New York City FC on Saturday that you’d almost be forgiven for forgetting that Dominik Chong Qui made his first MLS start.
He wasn’t supposed to: Pedro Amador was warming up with his teammates ahead of the match before he felt discomfort in his quad. It wasn’t bad, according to Ronny Deila, but enough for him to be ruled out for the match.
Dominik Chong Qui? You’re up, kid.
“I’m really blessed for the opportunity,” the 17-year-old said in the locker room after the match. “I’m happy that my coaches game me an opportunity to be here in the first place, and I’m happy that the team got the win.”
Chong Qui, named to the matchday squad via a Short-Term Agreement, ended up playing 58 minutes. There were still some rough spots becoming of a player of his age and lack of professional experience, none bigger than in the 51th minute: a poor touch in his own box that was ultimately put in the net by Hannes Wolf to make it 3-1.
Fortunately for Atlanta United, not long after that, things took a turn for the better. In a big way.
“It happens. Mistakes happen. Everybody does them. So it’s nothing much to mourn on, especially because the team got the three points at the end of the day,” Chong Qui said.
“Just leave it out, Dom, you know?” Brad Guzan chimed in from the locker stall next to him.
“I really believe in him”
Chong Qui gained constant praise from Ronny Deila during the Atlanta head coach’s short tenure, with his physique and quickness standing out to the Norwegian manager in preseason along with his abilities in 1v1 defending.
He’s received attention from U.S. Soccer, too: along with ATL UTD 2 teammate and fellow academy alum Kaiden Moore, he was at a U-18 training camp in Spain that started in mid-March, meaning he’d only arrived back in Atlanta Friday morning.
“I really believe in him,” Deila said. “I think he did some really good things today, but of course he also did things that he can do better. We have a player for the future, and not only for the future. He can do something now. … He just needs to keep on training and pushing because he has something special.”
Now, Chong Qui will have plenty of time to develop with ATL UTD 2 after signing for them from the academy in the offseason. With his four Short-Term Agreements exhausted, he can’t be called up again unless he’s signed to a first-team contract; his deal makes him a Homegrown Player on Jan. 1.
Who knows? Maybe he can expedite the process.
“I’m just gonna try to prove (myself) to get on the roster,” he said.
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17 year old kid gets a last-minute notification he is starting in a professional league against grown men. 17 year old me would have possibly peed his pants. The fact that he was even an option speaks to the belief the organization has in his talent level.
He’ll be okay. I think that was his last time to be called up and play this year in MLS, as noted in the article. He will get a lot of PT with the 2s, which is what he needs.
he will get better – but he needs to start on a regular basis with the 2s for the remainder of the year to get both the conditioning and more experience (and I wish the 2s were still part of the USL so that he would get experience playing against older, more experienced players and not the MLS Next teams).
Big mistake but the pass to him was compromising with two NYC players waiting to pounce on him (NYC targeted his side a lot, especially in the first half). In addition, the goal scorer was TOTALLY open, nobody reacted. In my mind it wasn’t totally on him.
It was 1000% on him, but its good context to know the decision for him to start was last minute. He didnt look mentally prepared or confident at all and that explains why.
What game were you watching?? He spilled a cross with a bad touch straight to the NYC attacker…..