Will Reilly’s first MLS goal may not have been the prettiest or the classiest. The 22-year-old, though, was happy to open his account either way.
“A goal is a goal, right?” Reilly said after scoring the equalizer in Atlanta United’s 2-2 draw against the Chicago Fire. “They all count the same.”
It looked to be a matter of right place, right time in the fourth minute of second-half stoppage time. Alexey Miranchuk’s corner kick sailed into the box, deflected off a Chicago player, and fell into the path of Reilly, who powered it in past Fire keeper Chris Brady as Atlanta secured a draw at the death for the second straight match.
Reilly, of course, kept the match ball, spotted behind him in the locker room. Where’s it going?
“To be determined,” he replied.
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Youth served again for Atlanta United
Reilly, who entered for Tristan Muyumba in the 71st minute for his seventh appearance of the year, is the latest young player to make the most of his opportunity during a tough season for Atlanta United.
It’s a list of players headlined by the injured Jay Fortune, but it’s one that’s grown over the past few weeks: Jayden Hibbert, Luke Brennan, Efrain Morales, and now Reilly.
“He always works hard,” Ronny Deila said. “To be trustworthy is a very important word. … that means you do your job, the simple things (well), and that you trust also that you’re going to do everything you can to help your teammates.”
While noting that Reilly still has “more steps” to take before possibly working his way into the starting XI, Deila has been pleased with his progress.
“Will is a guy that you know is going to do his job. He’s going to do the fight. He’s going to run enough. … The basic things are there. He has developed a lot from (the start of the year) until now.”
“Next play” mentality
Reilly, a graduate of Atlanta United’s academy, was a four-year player at Stanford before signing a one-year Homegrown Player contract at the start of the season, with options for 2026, 2027, and 2028.
His objective in the professional ranks, now, is to keep looking forward and developing with the hopes of affecting the first team even more, knowing that mistakes are a part of his growth as a young player.
“Something we say a lot, and it’s been drilled into me at Stanford as well, is ‘the next play’,” he said. “And so (I’m) really working on that mindset (and) mentality.
“I’ll mess up a pass, l’ll mess up a touch, but it’s ‘next one, next one, next one’. Keep doing as many actions as possible on the field, and good things tend to happen.”
[…] Will Reilly steps up as latest Atlanta United youngster to shine with first MLS goal […]
Kudos due to Will on his first goal – he saved our ass
I still think there needs to be more conversation around Miggy being equally or less impactful than Miranchuk. While I agee AM has “lead feet”, he would have more space to operate if Miggy actually played in his role and didn’t overcrowd the midfield when he was directed to play RW.
Take AM’s goal for example: Bartek played a nice pass to Miggy (who was out of position at the 10) passes it to AM (10ft away) and Miggy cuts into the box and lures players away to give the space to make the goal scoring shot.
Even though it was a contested ball, Miranchuk got the assist on Will’s goal.
I’m all for accountability, but let’s make it somewhat fair with who we pick on. (this is all reflecting y’all’s 3 points podcast blurb)
I’m not sure if this is in opposition to your point or in support of it, or just another point altogether:
leading up to Miranchuk’s goal, was a turnover that Slisz chased down and won back. Lath and Muyumba, who were near the ball it when turned over, were also chasing down but further behind the play, as was Amador who tried to stop the turnover with an initial tackle. Saba and Almiron stayed high up and were slow to get back. Miranchuk was running to come back but was on the other side of the field and slow.
When Slisz pushed up field, Muyumba, and Amador all stopped, somewhat reasonably having made gut busting runs to catch up to the break. Lath starts jogging to get back in position, but also slow given gut busting run. Saba makes a run up the line, having not run back hard on the defensive transition. Almiron is walking having still been in a RW position from not coming back. Miranchuk is walking and not getting involved in the attack yet.
Slisz passes to Almiron. I’d argue he’s actually in position (he’s about equal with the Gutman), but I don’t know whether it’s a good thing he’s in position given he wasn’t making any effort to get back into defensive shape. Now Lath starts making a harder run up the middle, realizing he should’ve been there to begin with (I’d argue he shouldn’t have been running to pickup on defense, though I get why). Miranchuk realizes the attacking transition has promise and begins to run to get in position, running to the right side given that the play has naturally pushed Almiron more middle, and the inside is too congested.
Miranchuk gets ball and cuts inward. Almiron, Lath, and Slisz all make runs into the box for options. Miranchuk with space but with 5 opposing players arguably in front of him (but also all his options pretty well marked/blocked), takes the shot, and by talent and luck manages to ping off the post in the goal.
My takeaway from this: Slisz, Amador, Muyumba did everything right. I think Saba could’ve run back defensively, but did well offensively. Same with Almiron, though I place slightly less blame on him defensively seeing he was on the opposite flank. Lath didn’t need to be coming back defensively, and was thus out of position offensively. He at least tried to make up for it with his effort. Miranchuk was fine defensively (slow movement back to position but at least came back, and was also on the opposite side), but was slow to react offensively, but once he finally did chose all the right spots.
pretty good breakdown. I don’t think Saba, Almiron, Miranchuk, and Latte should get a minus for defensive efforts since technically they are supposed to be strictly attacking players. Their focus should be at worst (70 offense/30 defense), but our defense has been overall so poor, that those players are pulled back to be more defensive, which is not their forte. Saba and Latte gives a bit more effort on defense, whether that is actually effective or not.
Yeah, it kinda depends on what instructions are/tactics. I was thinking our wingers often help in defense to prevent overloads, and should maybe get more involved, but I also am not bothered that they didn’t scramble to help in defensive transition. I’m actually giving Latte a minus *because* he made a defensive effort, so he couldn’t be an effective part of the offensive transition.
I’m sorry, but I don’t see Deila as being a guy who will get Reilly to his full potential. We see time and again good players coming in the door (externally sure, but also internally including our homegrowns like Reilly) and by the time they leave, they have seriously regressed. I can maybe count on 1 hand the number of guys in the past couple years that have improved or even maintained what they came in with… even that might be a stretch.
I don’t have a deep understanding of our Academy/AU2 and first team relationship, but have we considered pulling some resources from there to help with player development on the first team? Obviously the competition level is different, but we consistently get quality product from all levels of the organization until they get to the first team and then… well, you know the rest.
I’m happy to share that the club is putting a great deal of effort into continuing the development of players once they reach the first team through an integrated system. Matt Lawry (former Academy Director and current MLS assistant coach) does a lot of that work alongside Javier Perez (Director of Methodology). The club also hired a former Barcelona academy coach and the director of Barcelona’s Arizona-based Barca academy to work as an instructor covering the entire development pathway through our organization. There is a lot more going on there beyond the staff I have mentioned.
That’s great to hear. And I’m also wondering specifically if we are leveraging the obvious talent of the development staff for our NON-Academy player acquisitions? Everyone, even our big money talent, just regresses so hard after they’ve been here for a couple months. It’s like we coach the talent right out of them and it’s baffling. I think it’s pretty obvious that Heinze, then Pineda, and now Deila (maybe still debated) have no idea how to grow or manage players and we need some serious help there. Otherwise we will continue to throw money at the problem and never see good results.
ATL UTD suck. Atlanta Falcons suck
Arthur Blank is the WORST owner on the planet
He’s the problem, consistently hires chumps in the FO. Blank check = 💩
The season is shot, so let’s play the “kids” as much as possible and see what we have for next year. They’ll make some serious mistakes along the way, but they’ll learn.