It took nearly two months, but Atlanta United finally found itself in the win column.
Despite a barrage of shots from FC Cincinnati and another shaky second half, Atlanta emerged on the right end of a 4-2 scoreline to snap a 8-match winless streak. On another day, considering the chances it enjoyed in the opening 45 minutes, it could well have been a much more convincing victory.
A team desperate for points can ill afford to be picky at this stage, though. In the end, it was a long awaited three points for Atlanta, whose last win came on March 29 against New York City FC.
“After (what) we’ve been through, it’s a big, big credit to the boys,” head coach Ronny Deila said after the match. “This is a start, and we see what we’re capable of doing. Now, we can grow in what we’re doing.”
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Atlanta United responds after Ronny Deila’s comments
After Atlanta’s 1-0 loss to the Philadelphia Union on May 17, Deila stated that his players were “soft” inside the box — both attacking and defending — and lacked a “killer instinct”.
The team responded on Sunday with four goals, their most in a match this season, with two coming on set pieces.
“It was much better. When you see that determination in that set play, when you see that people want to score, then you see a different team,” Deila said. “You see that we want to clear the ball, we are first on the ball in the box. … This has to be the minimum when we talk about discipline, talk about killer instinct inside the boxes, and then we can improve our style in our play going forward.”
And despite seeing a pair of 2-goal leads cut in half on two occasions in the second half, Atlanta eventually regained their cushion both times.
“(Although) we conceded two goals, we still scored. So it means that we were pretty good in our box and especially in the opponent’s box,” Alexey Miranchuk said in the locker room.
Orlando City awaits on Wednesday
With one of the East’s top teams in their rear view mirror, Atlanta now prepares to take on another of the conference’s table-toppers on Wednesday: Orlando City, unbeaten in its last 12 matches (6W-0L-6D) and a 1-0 winner against the Portland Timbers on Saturday. The Lions ended Matchday 15 in 4th in the East, level with the Columbus Crew on points (27) but ahead on goal differential (12-7).
While the Cincinnati win snapped a lengthy winless streak, another can begin just as quickly on Wednesday.
“It feels good, but it’s nothing to get too carried away with,” Derrick Williams said. “Hopefully we can make it a good turning point. Wednesday’s a massive game. We need a win, so we just need to focus on the next game.”
“This is the way (that) we should play at home,” Miranchuk said. (Everyone) who’s coming here has to feel like it’s really tough to win the game.”
Great win, with the team playing like they really wanted it.
Miggy was all over the place, in a good way, not surprised he needed to go off after 80 minutes. Fortune also played very well and for me should be a regular starter.
Williams is very strong and experienced in defense. Overall, the defending was a little shaky at times, with poor closing down at the edge of the box.
Guzan is still a liability. Poor fumble to give away a completely unnecessary corner which led to the first goal. He needs to go.
Looking forward to the team building on this. Another strong performance needed on Wednesday and then six away matches in a row. We need this level of commitment every match.
Offense was better at times, and a bit quicker. Miranchuk was more visible and involved (still not great, but better), Miggy was good at times, and not at others. Thiare made a great move to put himself back onside just before the pass that led to the 4th goal. I think it is clear that having Saba (who still hasn’t regained his form) and Pedro as the wingbacks is the better plan). The defense was shaky at best, and it took Guzan standing on his head to get the result. Perhaps (hopefully) the defense will improve if and when Gregersen returns – but I still think the team needs to obtain a good centerback and a solid defensive mid in the next transfer windwo.
Seems like Gregorson is rarely healthy, unfortunately. We need another CB for sure if we are going to play 3 at the back.
Did we play better? Yes
Am I still very skeptical? Yes
As I said in another thread one game doesn’t make a trend. We still could’ve lost that game. There was improvements and seeing a homegrown player play well was encouraging to see. Our defense was very very shaky at best. If it weren’t for Guzan we could’ve tied or lost that game.
I’m looking for some form of consistency so even if we loose Wednesday I’d like to see us play well and not fold.
Miggy had an odd combo of good and bad this game. Sometimes he added a needed spark into the play, and others he became a black hole for an attacking buildup. Maybe my angle in the stadium wasn’t kind, but I couldn’t believe how a player of his caliber screwed up receiving and controlling a wide open space ball dropping to him behind Cincy’s line. He had time and space and tried to do a weird controlling header instead of just giving it a touch forward into the uncontested space in front of him.
Miranchuk was fine. Still not the game-changing player we need him to be ultimately, but this was much better than usual. He was a net positive which is the most I’ve come to realistically expect at this point.
ELL was unlucky, but as was pointed out, I think it’s mental right now. The way he psyched himself out of that 1v1 on the keeper into a 1v2 and shot into the side netting… He will want all of that back.
The numbers on this one weren’t good, but it passed the eye test. We’ll have to see what happens Wednesday.
This is a weird one because we got significantly outplayed for every metric except xG where we dominated.
I think formation and player selection wise, we are getting very close to our best 11.
We still seem so porous with Abram and Williams. I’d love to see Williams-Gregersen-Edwards across the back 3 but Gregersen has been out so much that I dont remember his status.
I think this brand of football can have success against lower half of the table teams. Not sure it will be sustainable against the top half teams but we will get the chance to see soon enough.
I would wager that Gregersen has missed more games for Atlanta due to injury/international duty.
Need to move on to someone who can stay healthy.
Where’s the optimism? Even cautious optimism would be nice lol
Great win, VAMOS
Optimism is buried under our record
I want to be optimistic, but I’m going to need to see more of that kind of production and chance creation on a consistent basis to believe that’s what we are. Too many data points in the wrong direction at this point in time. But we showed we can make shit happen, so maybe that takes a little bit of the pressure off. We were maybe a bit unlucky to not score 5 or 6, but on that note, Cinci can probably point to a number of chances that were also “unlucky”. Still, I’ll take the 3 points and barrage of goals and chances and hope we are turning a corner. There’s at least signs of life and a reason to be optimistic going into the next match.
I am a little concerned about the back line. Denkey and Valenzuela were finding dangerous spaces on a far too consistent basis. They didn’t make Guz move a ton, but our Bald Wall made some good stops on some really hard shots. Our CBs are also bad playing the ball under pressure. I think Gregerson gives us some good close down pace and size to win/clear aerial balls, but he’s not any better playing with the ball at his feet (and he’s out of the lineup far too often). We also disappeared (especially coming out of the half), but I liked how we found guys in space and let Miggy and our attackers use their pace to win balls and create. Saba’s touch let him down a few times (he’s never been outstanding receiving those balls), but I think he’s the better choice at RWB than Lennon. I also think we can build on the success and how guys fit in this formation. We will see, though. It’s a tough slate coming up, IIRC.
The positive to me is that the formation and the tactics were the same from the past few matches. We do so much better when we have the lesser possession stat. Difference last night was it looked like it is starting to click. Maybe some luck, maybe players getting comfortable in this system, I don’t know, but it worked (offensively). Still work to do.
Fortune was amazing, Miranchuk was again much much better playing deeper as a second 8 with 3 in the mid, feeding the ball into counter attacks and getting us out of pressure. Those 2 were man of the match, and runner up.
Slisz was still a turn over machine, Saba was sloppy on offense but surprisingly was able to handle Evander when they tried to overload our right side. And even with both of those criticisms Slisz gotta goal and Saba got an assist, so that is a positive.
Unfortunate for Lath, looks like he is carrying the pressure of not scoring, I think goals will eventually come, just need patience. Coach needs to find a way to help Miggy when he is triple teamed every time he gets on the ball.
Excited to see this against Orlando. We are going to need 3 or 4 wins in a row to dig ourselves out of the hole in the standings.
In my view (I will re-watch to confirm) Fortune was not good. He couldn’t make a forward pass; can’t dribble when pressed; gave the ball away in very dangerous situations and he totally was at fault on their second goal letting Valenzuela trot into the area free of marking. I’m not a Fortune fan. Even though he scored, I just don’t see him as a starter but we don’t have a choice, I guess….
We have so few bright spots, it’s amazing when you can’t see one of them.
True. I keep looking for excellence in young players vs just saying he’s OK. I am more critical since I feel he should be at a higher level if he is going to excel. There several young players (Gutierrez, Luna, Gerbet, McGlynn to name a few) that have developed much quicker and he’s nowhere near their level.
Jay Fortune was probably the single best player in the pitch Sunday. There are a hundred places where this performance could fall apart tonight against Orlando. Notably, I’m not sure OCFC have a Matt Miazga to run past at will. But this criticism of Fortune is just 180 degrees of the mark. Completely wrong.
I might break the record for thumbs down. Can we go to -20?
congrats on reaching -20!
😱😰 wow, this is a record, I think. May have to go get a drink and stay home for a whole week… but I’m going Wednesday anyway.
If literally everyone disagrees with you, perhaps reconsider your assessment.
Yeap. I was wrong assessing Pele too. 😂
I commented on your stuff in one of the other posts, but in addition to the build up of his goal, check out his play 41st minute through the end of the first half. He makes a number of good tackles, and most/all of the great chances we had during that portion were facilitated by him. He’s not always tight on marking in the box (in addition to the 2nd goal, there was another big chance in the first 10 minutes that’s because he’s not marking), but he makes plenty of big plays both offensively and defensively.
He was also trying to pump up the crowd right before the 3rd goal. Those intangibles go a long way.
I generally like your opinions/takes, but I disagree on Fortune. I think he’s been maybe our most consistently solid CM at least over the last 3 or so matches he’s started there. Maybe that speaks more to the quality of the other mids so far, but he’s earned the starting minutes, IMO. He’s admittedly a bit rough around the edges and is going to make some mistakes, but he plays with a fire and edge we need at the position (and as a team). I see some pretty good dribbling and some good ideas out of him. He’s also not playing scared.
On that note, we did a bit better overall, but we need to see this more often. We also need to figure out how to start the second half. We are now -10 in GD for the season in the first 15 min out of HT. The were “highlighting” this during the broadcast and we went from -9 to -10 in real time. We were just flat and letting Cinci control in this span. Fortunately, we woke up. I think this is the first game we really played decently over the course of both halves in totality all season, or at least since the opener. We need to do better, but it was encouraging to see our attack show up in both halves at least.
Got ya. Good to hear opposing points of view.
I didn’t initially see what he brought to the team when everyone else was singing his praises, but after the game where he started as a winger, then moved to wing back, then moved to CM, it kind of clicked. He’s a skilled young man with a lot of upside potential. He definitely should be a starter, over Muyumba and Slisz when needed.
Re Slisz:
He definitely wasnt perfect but I thought he made some good defensive interventions and had some very positive passages of play in tight spaces.
Slisz in that setup was miles better than Klich in any setup ive seen.
2 different roles IMO. The comparison is Slisz or Muyumba in our current setup. And Klich or Fortune.
Maybe stylistically, but I feel like Slisz occupied the same space Klich otherwise would have. Fortune occupied way more progressive spaces than Klich normally does.
Fortune looked like a slightly less polished Nagbe in him and Klich doesnt have that in his wheelhouse.
Edit:
Let me clarify that more broadly, Im just glad to prioritize Fortune AND Slisz over Klich and anyone else.
It’s a single cdm in this system. Not talking about earlier in the year, or style. Klich plays as the additional 8. His through ball to Tiare is exactly the play that this system prioritizes, and it was perfect. Chefs kiss. Fortune is very good at a lot of things but the perfect weighted through ball is still something he’s picking up – it’s fun to watch him learn. And yes, stylistically, he does drift a little higher up the pitch at times.
But Slisz and Muyumba have been tasked with the 6 roles, and Slisz has struggled. Luckily, the position of 3 centerbacks helped cover that weakness on Sunday.
I dont want to take anything away from Klich’s contribution but I do think the game state was also very favorable to him. I’d have to rewatch the goal but I want to recall there being a ton of space due to Cincy chasing an equalizer.
I dont think its a coincidence that we had something like 4xG before he came on. The reality in my mind is that Fortune and Slisz together were far more capable at helping the team playing through midfield to create various attacking scenarios.
You have to remember that Klich is more of an 8 and sometimes a 10, usually staying closer to the attack instead of the defense and Deila keeps using him as a 2nd 6 or a holding mid and while he can, that’s not really where he shows his skill. Also, our midfield as a whole hasn’t really looked all that good for a few seasons now, just ‘there’. Sure, the game was stacked in his favor but what he brings is ball control, winning it back, and those types of through balls. Look at some of the highlight reels from his DC days, he definitely thrives in that 8/subtle 10 role.
I think that helps reinforce the notion that his role for this Atlanta United team may be more of a veteran shithouser and/or reserve 8/10 who is versatile enough to either help see out games or even push for equalizers/winners.
He has shown ball control and winning it back as a sub, but at 34 years old it seems he needs the advantage of going against tired legs to leverage his strengths.
He has been a completely different player than what we saw as a starter. And there is nothing wrong with that. We need more well defined roles within our team and Im glad he seems to have found his.