Atlanta United invited Toronto FC to the Benz for a Sunday afternoon jaunt around the pitch and it was…something. A line up full of changes seemed to signal shades of optimism amongst fans, as Jayden Hibbert got his start in goal and Saba Lobjanidze floated back over to the right to make way for Miguel Almiron as a false 9. The ensuing 90 minutes were anything but enthralling, though, as the Five Stripes spent most of the game creating a couple of minor chances and not much else. But hey, it was a 0-0 draw, so kudos for Jayden Hibbert’s clean sheet. Here are the final whistle thoughts from the Benz!
The wings
The wings were sorta lemon pepper dry and not lemon pepper wet. They weren’t bad, they just could’ve been better. They were double teamed by Toronto most of the night, which actually opened up tons of space in the central areas of the pitch, but Atlanta didn’t exploit it very often. When they tried, it actually created some of the better opportunities of the afternoon.
Saba Lobjanidze seemed to have a bit of pep in his step even while being outnumbered and Luke Brennan played with his trademark confidence, it’s just a shame that Atlanta struggled to take advantage in the other areas of the pitch.
Miggy anywhere but the 9
The decision to play Miggy up top seemed odd, considering the team had both Jamal Thiare and Cayman Togashi on the bench – both of whom have had fairly effective and efficient minutes when they play. Ultimately, it felt like Miggy just struggled to get involved as he played on an island for most of the match. If he dropped too far back to get on the ball more, his passing options up ahead were very limited.
I’m a big fan of experimenting with lineups – I’ve called for it more often as Atlanta’s season has sputtered – but I don’t know that the “Miggy as any form of a number 9” needs to happen again. Cayman Togashi has done everything possible with the 2’s plus snagged a goal with the first team a few weeks ago, so it’s hard to say what else he could do to break through. He was ultimately subbed in for the final few moments of the match and immediately showed some energy in a dual striker setup with Thiare, but the limited time was too much to overcome.
Jayden Hibbert
It wasn’t like he had a ton to do, but happy for the young man to snag a clean sheet. Despite not being tested often, he played with poise and confidence, which I’ll take as some smidge of optimism from this kick about.
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Let us know down below what y’all thought of the match.
Is there a more disappointing season in MLS history than this?
Disappointing compared to expectations? No.
Disappointing due to circumstances? I’d say the 2020 squad was just bad in general.
That was a top 3 worst refereed match that I’ve seen. Absolutely brutal. I came to watch two toddlers fight, not one also getting beat up by the babysitter because she doesn’t like him for some reason.
Hibbert should start every game for the remainder of the season except the home finale.
Brennan should start from here on out.
Thiare and Togashi should each get a half going forward, don’t care which one starts. Let LL get an early start on off season rest so he can start fresh next season.
Start the three new guys, sub them out when needed if not 90 minutes fit.
We need to see these guys play together as much as possible over the next 7 games since most of them are likely in the 11 or are important reserves next season.
That plan assumes Deila is 100% our guy and that the only issue is lack of cohesion through fatigue.
All 4 wins had ELL, Almiron, Miranchuk, and Saba starting. Excluding draws since I was too lazy to look, we are 4-6 in those games and 0-6 when we dont start those 4 players.
So I think we either need to accept that we *still* need some significant roster overhaul, or accept that Deila is not our guy. Or both.
If we get rid of Deila, I dont care of a caretaker manager plays the kids. But I sense from Henderson that there’s some level of skepticism that Deila is locked in. So I want to see us continue to search for highest performing lineups to see what Deila can do the last 7 games.
I think we still need significant overhaul. As posted elsewhere, I see 2 reasons to give Delia another year.
1) Give the manager some input in which players we sign in the next window so the continued roster overhaul results in guys he believes fit his system.
2) I don’t want AU to develop the reputation as being a club that will not give the manager any input on the roster but will fire him after 1 year if he’s not able to turn a bunch of mismatched parts into a cohesive unit. If we get this reputation, good luck hiring a new coach with a proven track record.
I don’t know the Delia is the guy, but if we do #1 we’ll know for sure by the end of next season.
Im not opposed to keeping Deila. Im just saying I think we still have to build our best lineups in order to assess what this team needs, and whether its changes in personnel or coach.
As a Spurs fan, many were reluctant to let Ange go after the Europa win, but Frank appears to be a cut above.
To your point, it doesnt make sense to cut Deila unless we have our version of Thomas Frank lined up, and I dont trust that thats the case.
Letting Ange go only made sense because we brought in Frank. He’s a clear upgrade. If ATL can find a clear upgrade over Deila, then do it; otherwise, may as well keep him on to see if he can mold a team with a few of his own players on it (assuming they’re brought in over the winter).
“Mold a team” I just can’t see what kind of team it would be; maybe you can explain ‘cause I cant figure it out
You know — a team. That’s, uh, been molded.
Also Almiron picking up a retaliation yellow card was not a good look as the person who wore the captain’s band for the match…it is already was silly yellow even if you weren’t wearing a captain’s band, but if you are picked to be a leader on the field, you need to act like one.
Me and my friend said the exact same thing
Sometimes the captain’s job is to send a message.
no, that is the enforcer’s job. The captain should not be the enforcer
We don’t have an enforcer currently. Slisz is the closest we have. Klich might have been the enforcer before based on the Orlando shenanigans. This is probably part of our team’s problems, actually.
Yea, I agree. Klich was more troll than a true enforcer, but Slisz is probably the closest to an enforcer, but he wore the captain’s band after Almiron left the match.
He’s been the moist disappointing player for me this season, because I had very high hopes he’s not come even close to meeting.
Attended the match – crowd was quiet (not surprising given what transpired on the pitch), and the match was virtually unwatchable. We move so slowly it almost hurts – and we do it even when our players are faster than theirs! Like every match before, we tried to give up a goal in the first 5 minutes of the second half, but thankfully Toronto is also pretty bad. New manager and new players are needed.
This is only the third home game I’ve missed (last two games this year) watched on AppleTV and was one of the most boring games I’ve seen. This is what gives soccer a bad image in the US. Really hoping this game would show me “something”. What are we trying to do? Make the opponent fall asleep? Make them score an own goal? Or perhaps allow them to have a beer while playing us?
I have totally given up on our coaching “philosophy”
I think Owen Goal is our 3rd leading scorer.
Wow. I missed the game cause work, saw i didn’t really miss much, decided to check out the 5 minute highlight.
That was the most boring highlight reel I’ve ever seen. I’m sorry for all of you that sat through the full 90+ of that.
There was literally nothing memorable about that game and had to have been some of the dullest 90 minutes i’ve watched.
Deila should’ve flipped Miggy and Miranchuk. I also hope Alzate is ready to go 90 soon: Miggy’s finishing has never been his calling card and pace/work rate aren’t Miranchuk’s.
TFC did a good job neutralizing Miggy by sending extra defenders at him, too. Pretty poor showing by the attack (again).
Gregerson had a strong showing. Hibbert wasn’t really tested much but did as well as you’d want given the game. Slisz had a solid game as well. Muyumba made some good clearances from the box but had two (maybe three) awful passes backward. Hopefully Alzate can go 90 soon.
I thought the ref sucked. I was at the game and only got one replay, but that looked like a foul in the box for a PK in our favor in the first half. It would’ve been easier to stomach if he was allowing a more physicalgame, but he proceeded to call every light foul under the sun the rest of the match’. If it’s a foul at midfield, it’s a foul in the box.
That was absolutely a PK. Not because it was a foul, but because not 5 minutes before that, it was called a foul against us at some random place on the pitch.
Conte noted that virtually every 50-50 call for foul or no foul against AU went Toronto’s way, and AU was not getting the foul calls that Toronto was.
So yeah, the ref probably did stink, but then so did we.
M. Almirón. CM/F 3 goals 6 assists
A. Gutman LB 2 goals 9 assists
I guess if Almirón has been average this season, Gutman is a baller. Watching some of their matches, he’s certainly looked more decisive, creative and clinical with passes.
That’s not even considering Gutman makes $600k annually.
That’s some funny stuff.
I hated that they let Gutman go, but they needed roster space and I think he was the only guy they could move at the time without eating a bad loss. He was making less than $300k, so not tragic to have him on the bench until Wiley got sold. He’d easily be the best FB on this team.