They had us in the first half, not gonna lie.
Just when it looked like Atlanta United had figured out how to put together a dominant performance, its second half defensive woes made for an overall disappointing showing in a 3-2 loss to rival Charlotte FC.
The loss puts Atlanta at 13th in the Eastern Conference with 20 points in 23 games and a 4-11-8 record.
Head Coach Ronny Deila opted for some rotation after a third game in eight days. He deployed Matthew Edwards at leftback and Ronald Hernandez at rightback, while Derrick Williams and Efrain Morales started as centerbacks. The midfield three of Tristan Muyumba, Bartosz Slisz and Alexey Miranchuk remained unchanged, but homegrown Luke Brennan replaced Saba Lobjanidze on the left wing.
There seemed to be a different edge to the Five Stripes in the first half. The players looked more confident on the ball and were getting forward often, putting up five shots to Charlotte’s two. They eventually got their reward in the 19th minute when Tristan Muyumba (all 5’5″ of him) directed a Bartosz Slisz cross goalward out of Kristijan Kahlina’s reach to give Atlanta an early 1-0 lead with his first goal of the season.
Cue the defensive implosion.
The charges were set once Deila decided to sub off center back Efrain Morales, who was doing an excellent job of locking things down at the back, and bring on left back Pedro Amador. This moved Matt Edwards inside as a right center back.
Just 15 seconds into the first half, Charlotte tied the game after both Hernandez and Edwards failed to clear a low cross, which got poked home by Idan Toklomati.
Then Charlotte took the lead in the 58th minute after Wilfried Zaha danced around Atlanta’s defense and scored with ease.
And Pep Biel put the cherry on top for the visitors after finding space inside the box and finishing with a first time shot.
Emmanuel Latte Lath pulled one back for the Five Stripes in the 86th minute after Miguel Almiron found him in space inside the box with a clever pass.
Despite the late goal, Atlanta couldn’t complete its rally and extended its winless streak to eight games.
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It seems to me that before we can even get to a discussion of the coach, we need to improve the quality of 3 or 4 of our defensive players. They just don’t measure for any extended period of time.
The coach has to go. Nothing will change with him there. The amount of choices and changes that made no sense are crazy to me. How you gonna play guzan? He’s scared to get hurt. Bad thought process for a GK. Williams and Edward’s should learn to code. Saba and Lennon seemed to be lost as subs. Not subbing in Reilly? The hell?? Afraid to lose instead of winning? The coach and the fans are both surprised he has a job.
To be fair on the Reilly thing (kinda), it was our last available sub (5th sub made) and it was so ridiculously apparent he needed a real CB next to Williams that he had to pull Reilly so that Abram could help out Williams.
It’s stupid that he got himself into that predicament in the first place, but subbing on Reilly at the moment would’ve been bad (he should’ve arguably gone on earlier, like instead of Lennon though).
That was Guzan? We were trying to figure who the guy in the mask was.
On the Atl Utd website, “Staff Writer” Adam Jasper described the match as “In the face of adversity, Atlanta United showed character and fought through the final whistle…” What adversity? You mean the self-inflicted defensive collapse????? What a load of crapola. I’ve heard of putting lipstick on a pig, but that description defies belief. What match was he watching?? I went to the match only because I was unable to give the tickets away. I am through with this team unless and until they make serious changes to Front Office, Coaches, and Players. Enough!
Any writer for the team website would have to put lipstick on a pig since their job is to make the team look pretty. It is like the team social media only puts up clips of Atlanta players scoring since it is for the team’s social media. You think they will have the job if they bash the team?
While Im glad we dont look completely lifeless now that we’ve banished Klich, we just still arent good enough to play 90 minutes at a level needed to win.
Glad the kids are still fighting.
Not sure what the circumstances were at halftime but it ended up being another game killing decision from Deila.
It’s just emotionally exhausting to watch them. I was at Atlanta Comic-Con before the game. Asked my son if he wanted to go see the ATLUTD match. He used to love to go. We had season tickets for 7 years.
He said sure but then wanted to leave at 3-1 down. Saying it’s just not fun anymore. Our team looks rudderless, hapless, just clocking in for the paycheck.
It’s disheartening to watch.
What a heart breaking turn this club has taken.
You know a club is in trouble when they’ve lost the kids Interest.
They’ve lost everyone’s interest. We sit very close to supporters and could barely hear them at times. We could certainly hear the Charlotte fans as game progressed.