Atlanta United’s struggle has been real lately, y’all. You can unclench your fist or other body part, though, it’s over.
Atlanta United has won a game against one of the top teams in the league, after a dramatic 4-2 drunken shenanigan-fest of a Sunday Night Soccer match. Here are the final whistle thoughts from Mercedes-Benz Stadium!
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How soft is the team?
Keeping in mind I type these articles as the game progresses, the first 10 minutes have been…suspect. Ronny Deila told media last week – and we’ve discussed it over and over on the show – that the players were soft, and urged them to show more anger after these types of results. The opening few minutes
Ok, let’s start over.
It’s now 2-0 after a Derrick Williams goal followed by a Jay Fortune goal. That bet probably would’ve won a ton of money if someone had the cajones to lay down a hundo, but who cares where they come from. Alexey Miranchuk and Saba Lobjanidze are both credited with the assists on the goals, and it’s nice to just see Atlanta jerseys crashing the box in dangerous moments. I’ll go back to what I was originally going to say in this paragraph, that Ronny Deila noted the team has been soft, but they gave a much better account of themselves after the opening ten minutes.
Cincinnati was still wildly dangerous in and around Atlanta’s box, but there was some more cohesion from the Five Stripes going forward. Maybe it was fully the edge we all want to see, but it was leaps and bounds better than it has been in quite some time.
Come out of the locker room
Here we are less than five minutes out of the half and Atlanta United has let Cincinnati have all of the ball, which led to a corner, which led to a Miles Robinson goal. Atlanta United players quite literally barely touched the ball leading up to that moment, and it’s yet another example of these instances where the Five Stripes just can’t grasp the momentum and hang onto it. It just feels like the complete 90 minute performance is such a struggle for the team to put together.
Momentum
While we’re on that topic.
Atlanta has struggled mightily – in the past few seasons – with holding on to a lead. Tonight was no different. No sooner had the crowd quieted from Bartek Slisz making it a 3-1 game that Cincy had pulled one back. And yeah, Cincy is a good team, it’s what good teams do, but Atlanta desperately needed to squeak out a win here. It was pure squeaky bum time, but it didn’t need to be. Wow. That being said…
WE BACK BABY!
Let us know down below what you thought of the match!
[…] The First Reaction 2025: Atlanta United vs FC Cincinnati […]
From the eyes test it seems the team is starting to understand what RD wants the defensive setup was great from low, mid, to high press thr last goal Guz could have stopped it
The eye test for me: we have a very fragile defense. Cincinnati was able to play fairly easily through us. Their second goal was on Fortune, he just didn’t mark Valenzuela at all. I think they took almost 30 shots and should have scored more but a little luck never hurts. Battling the rain felt good after a win.
Not eye test but hard data test:
Big chances were 9 to 3 for us. Cincy was unable to penetrate the mid and low block for most parts and took shots from distance. Of the 30 shots, only 10 were on target. Just taking long shots does not mean we are easy to play through.
And, if we are going to talk about “nearly goals” then:
Our non-penalty xG is over 15 games is 21 and we’ve scored 15. Those 6 missing goals would’ve been a lot of points!
Also, we’re mid table on non penalty xG for opposition teams against us. Non penalty xG for opposition teams is 19 versus the 26 goals we’ve actually conceded. Where’s the difference? The 5 penalties we’ve given away- that’s far and away the worst in the league. Those are individual mental lapses – Latte Lath, Miranchuk, Brooks….
We’re not a champion team but we’re a mid table team. Hopefully we start getting some more points in the bag over the next few games though with the large number of away games, that is going to be a challenge.
We’ll be back when we reel off a winning streak of more than a few games and play consistently. So, stop with the “we back” bullshit til that happens.
That said, best game of the year from the attack. Defense still let too many opportunities into the final third.
I think that may have been a little tongue-in-cheek. I only listened on radio. But I feel like this type of game should be our minimum expectation as far as effort and chances created (not necessarily score)
Was not personal to Tyler, but saw it a lot in the Reddit thread. WAY too early to make those kinds of statements.
Yes!!!!!!
Very pleased with the outcome. Thought we looked quite dangerous though I’d say the two worst players on the field tonight for me were ELL and Miggy. Gotta find a way to fix them…
Also, someone needs to take the boys out back for that free kick in extra time
Miggy was fine enough, Miranchuk was invisible though until Miggy got subbed off and Miranchuk took over as SS. To be fair to him though, he looked good once he was there.
And LL just forgot what to do when he actually has service, I’m sure he’ll shake it off.
Agree with Miggy being fine. But Miranchuk was amazing. One of his best games in sn Atlanta shirt
For the first half. Then he stopped running.
Second watch, you’re right. I forgot how involved Miranchuk was involved in those first goals. My thought on him being invisible was I think based on early second half I think? There was an extended time before Miggy got subbed off where I noticed that he hadn’t touched the ball in a long time.
Honestly, everyone was invisible for the start of the second half.
Miggy was fine? I didn’t see enough of a spark to command a roaming position
Well, he lost the ball quite a few times and made a few bad passes but I also think he gets pressured quite a bit. I didn’t see many times were he had less than 3 Cincinnati mids on top of him. Cincinnati has a strong midfield and marked us pretty tight. LL again was too isolated but kept them on their toes. If I’m gonna pick on someone it would be Fortune. Even though he scored, he gave the ball away in dangerous areas and when he had a time, he could not make the right pass
Yeah with Miggy I thought he was good at being an engine, attempting to get the ball in dangerous areas. It dont think it generally resulted in anything, but I saw that as him being tightly marked and good play by cin, not a mark on his bad play.
Fortune, I’ll have to review again, but I thought he was good. he’s not as clean on the ball, but he made a lot of daring passes that did come off, generally progressed the ball; defensively, also made a lot of important tackles, and pressured other players on long dribbles enough that allowed the rest of the team to get set. That goal that he scored, he also made a tricky pass where he was put in a bad spot being closed down on the sideline by 3 defenders. That goal gets stopped there in most other situations.
Sure, Miggy tries to spark something, by putting his head down and dribbling himself out of possession. I just don’t see it with him. He doesn’t really connect with anyone on the field and seems dead set on just playing hero ball
In Austin he made the pass that lead to our goal to tie the game, but regarding this game:
First, he’s up top with Lath, so what he’s being asked to do is to be a runner more than a passer. But just going through the game, the first half so far, I’ve seen him combine decently well a couple times with Lath, Amador, Fortune, they just didn’t work out. In general, the times where I remember him taking taking the dribble is because he has no good options, because him (and often LL) have beat all of their teammates there and they’re both marked. Check out in particular 20-37 minutes, and the stoppage time craziness.
No he’s not perfect, otherwise he’d have more goal contributions, but the reason why I say he’s fine is because you can see he’s trying to make things happen, and his part in it gets accomplished often enough.
Hell, we needed that.
Desperately needed win, so I won’t complain about the particulars. Now go get another W.
Still think our second was a little suspect but guess they’re saying LL didn’t interfere with the play.
I’d say as long as he didn’t touch the ball, it seemed fair. He wasn’t obstructing anyone, didn’t attempt to play the ball.
And Im pretty sure mira was off on the third…but we finally got a little luck going our way and we probably should have had two other goals, so feel like score line ended about right. BUUUT, while relieved I go back nycfc and we need 4 goals to win. We are NOT a good team
I think this win disguises many of our problems. Our midfield is not good; our defense is fragile at best; our attackers are still in different time zones; can’t play from the back and we just launch the ball to give it away; our goalkeeping is very inconsistent. Brad makes a good play and then follows it with a terrible one. Maybe I’m just too demanding. We needed a win though.
Yes, way too many back passes to BG.