The Crown and Coke derby returned back to Atlanta as the Five Stripes hosted Charlotte FC Saturday evening. After losing the earlier fixture 2-0 back at the beginning of the season – and riding an uneventful 3 match draw streak – this particular version of the derby was essentially a must-win if Atlanta United wanted any chance of scraping their way into the playoffs. Unfortunately a solid first half completely unraveled at the beginning of the second half and Atlanta United saw their 1-0 lead devolve into a 3-2 loss. Now Atlanta United turns their attention to the Seattle Sounders before the Leagues Cup competition rolls through, as the playoffs seem to be nothing but a pipe dream at this point. Here are your final whistle thoughts live from Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
The first half was quite nice
The first half of this soccer match felt like the first time in ages that Atlanta United played with true heart and purpose. There was a cohesion that’s been missing over the past few months, and though it wasn’t perfect, players were balling with some newfound confidence. The right side with Ronald Hernandez, Efrain Morales, Miguel Almiron, and Alexey Miranchuk floating in helped smother Wilfried Zaha while creating plenty of opportunities. Meanwhile, Luke Brennan was cooking on the left and causing all kinds of chaos. They went into the locker room with heads held high and things were looking positive.
Were.
Coming out of the locker room
I thought we had some serious dark arts going on when Atlanta United emerged from the locker room late, like maybe Ronny Deila had some true psychological warfare going on. Unfortunately, the team just genuinely forgot to actual step onto the field, as they gave up a ridiculously weak goal within the first minute of the second half. Minutes 45-60 continue to be a black hole for Atlanta, and part of the issue may have been the halftime change of Pedro Amador for Efrain Morales. The defense started the half completely unsettled, just 15 minutes after they’d been perhaps the brightest group of players on the pitch.
The second goal came from similarly pisspoor defending and simply allowing Wilfried Zaha to body Atlanta’s defenders as he ran straight through to goal. It was simply miraculous to see the Jekyll and Hyde nature of this team rear its ugly head once again. We’ll ask (or someone will) about why Efrain was subbed off at the half, because short of some serious load management concerns or an injury, that move completely threw off the game.
Bartek Slisz
This man has leveled up. Slisz has been consistently solid in the midfield over the past few matches and he’s playing like a true leader. He’s always been emotional and passionate, and now he’s channeling that into some very solid football. The Polish international has been all over the pitch, completely buzzing on and off the ball. As far as individual performances go, Bartek has been one of the most consistent players getting minutes for the squad, it’s just unfortunate that hasn’t equated to wins. But hey, it’s a team sport and the Five Stripes haven’t been able to channel a full 90 minutes of soccer all season, despite players like Slisz making things happen.
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Let us know down below what you thought of the derby.
Well guys, just when I thought we couldn’t get any worse than when Pineda coached, we’ve gotten a lot worse. How many more games do we give Delia? Maybe this is the right time to bite the bullet and go for it. It would give us almost 6 months to find the right person and give us time to get ready for new season with a new coach. I didn’t go the match and will not go next weekend either. I’d rather watch other teams until we make a coaching change. I’ve lost the little faith I had on Delia; the guy just can’t motivate or communicate with the players. I can’t think of any other reason; we have good players but, as we all know, they can’t play like they know each other
I feel like Deila and I watched 2 different games after listening to his post game interview. Some really confusing comments, especially those on Brennan. He was a constant threat on the left side and had a very solid match. Deila’s response when asked about Brennan implied that he had a piss poor game.
For those wondering, Morales was stretching his hamstring toward the end of the 1st half. That is likely why he was subbed. Why Deila refused to say it was an injury is idiotic.
This aged poorly. Now we know why he didn’t say it was an injury. Baffling if they do this deal.
So many people worrying that we won’t get a good coach if we fire Deila as though we have a good coach now. Who even cares? Just keep letting them go until we luck out on a guy who just needed a chance to show what he can do.
I have two facts for you:
1) No coaching legends were born with a trophy in their hands.
2) Deila is not going to magically figure it out if you give him more games. 23 of them with all your DP slots filled with quality talent* is enough to know whether you’re the guy… or even POTENTIALLY the guy. We are no better, and arguably (not really arguably) worse, than we were after he first got here.
*Again, excluding Miranchuk.
Deila had a real chance to rally these guys to a much-needed home win with a goal in hand at half, and instead, he effed around with late fielding shenanigans and made a really confusing sub that immediately negatively impacted a game that was going pretty well. Please. Just gtfo while any of us have any emotions left.
Mostly nothing is working and in an unacceptable sack of crap this is best to make change NOW and keep making change at every level until the org figures it out. Regardless , there is nothing to lose at this point. Actions need to show no patience for that which is not working and is sub par. Actions need to be swift the long wait for decision making obviously is not working. Hugest mistake was letting TaTa get away. My greatest hope leans on Chris Henderson. Unfortunately, it is hard to have faith in this org but I will try.
Having Williams as the only true CB for most of the second screwed over a lot of things. it’s not the only problem from that second half, but it was one of the most glaring.
Dude, he’s so bad and incompetent. I wanted him gone last season. How he’s still playing for atl is mind blowing.
I don’t necessarily disagree, but my main point wasn’t even that Williams was bad, it’s that he can’t hold down the entire backline with only FBs as support. He is too slow to be the one who puts out the fires that other defenders miss, but that’s what he was tasked with. I blame that squarely on Deila for not replacing Morales with another out and out CB. As much as I think Abram is a bad defender, that should’ve been his go to instead of the junk he screwed around with after that. Or Cobb even, but I guess he pissed off Deila or something because he can’t get playing time even when your defense lets in 3 goals in about 30 minutes.
People want to blame Williams, I don’t see that as the issue. When you have a 2 CB system, the two have to be in sync. He’s fresh back, different CB’s shuffling in, we have no consistency, goals will be conceded. Don’t blame him, blame the decisions.
4 wins? Manager must go. Terrible decisions.
Utterly shit by Deila. What will it take to move on from him? This team is still lost this late in the season and these glimpses of improvement are not sustainable.
Yup… the sad news is that we’ve been so bad, and have such a horrible track record with coaches (since Tata), they won’t fire him. It’s too much egg on their face.
No ‘good coach’ wants to be here unless they can be a real team manager and have say in who they bring on and let go. We are a club of two seasons of good, and then hopes, dreams, and nightmares without an end in sight. We literally are the definition of how to ruin a club and fanbase….I’m beyond upset and have thrown in the towel (just like our players have apparently)! Fire everyone and start over from scratch.