Risers and Fallers: An admirable defensive effort (almost) stopped a ferocious LAFC

Good news! Atlanta United DIDN’T get destroyed by Son Heung-Min and Denis Bouanga. The bad news? It still lost.

The Five Stripes’ Sunday Night Soccer showdown against LAFC at BMO Stadium was a much tighter contest than I anticipated. I was pleasantly surprised that head coach Ronny Deila chose to play in a much more defensive shape with the idea of neutralizing the Black and Golds’ attacks and quickly springing forward on the counter.

On defense, there were a lot of positives. On offense… not so much. Let’s dive into it all with this week’s Risers and Fallers!

Risers

Stian Gregersen

LAFC’s new dynamic duo of Son and Bouanga had been burying opponents in goals, but was held scoreless until very late in this game. Stian Gregersen was an important part of that.

The Norwegian center back recorded seven defensive contributions against LAFC, including several key interventions. It’s not easy to keep a guy like Bouanga, who is tied with Lionel Messi for the lead in the MLS Golden Boot race, quiet, but Gregersen was there to stonewall him multiple times.

Then came the rather puzzling decision by head coach Ronny Deila to take Gregersen out of the match in the 78th minute to bring on Saba Lobjanidze. Those of you who were on the Discord watch-along may remember that I immediately criticized the decision. It made zero sense to sub off the team’s best defender 12 minutes before the end of the game. Atlanta paid the price eight minutes later.

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Jayden Hibbert

I think it’s safe to say that Chris Henderson won’t have to look too far for Atlanta United’s next starting goalkeeper.

While this match wasn’t about the quantity of saves that the 21-year-old made, his three saves were definitely full of quality.

In addition to making some key stops, Hibbert also displayed confident control inside the box, rushing out with conviction and handling the ball with composure under pressure. He was close to getting rewarded for all of that effort with a clean sheet until his defense let him down at the end (more on that later).

His long balls still need some work, so far Hibbert looks like the complete package.

Bartosz Slisz

You know things are rough when about $40 million’s worth of attacking players had time in this game, and the team leader in shots was Bartosz Slisz.

The Polish international contributed two shots from distance, one saved by the keeper and one that hit the post after a deflection, to Atlanta’s grand total of three shots against LAFC. However, Slisz saying, “Fine, I’ll do it myself” after none of his teammates were taking shots is not the only reason I’m spotlighting him here.

Slisz was heavily involved in both sides of the game, providing four defensive contributions and winning three of his four duels while also supporting the team’s attempts at build-up with nine passes into the final third and two accurate long balls.

Oh, and by the way, Slisz ranks third among MLS defensive midfielders who have played over 2,000 minutes in goals added (G+) with 0.20. He is only behind Seattle Sounders’ Cristian Roldan (0.22) and San Diego FC’s Jeppe Tverskov (0.20). Slisz’s passing G+ (0.06) is the second-highest among MLS DMs, and his interrupting G+ (0.08) is the eighth-highest.

The moral of the story here is that Slisz is really good and could be an MLS Best XI midfielder on a team that doesn’t suck as badly as Atlanta does right now. Hopefully, he and Steven Alzate can develop some more chemistry over the upcoming offseason and preseason so that the Five Stripes’ midfield runs like a well-oiled machine.

Fallers

Pedro Amador

Remember how I said earlier that Hibbert would’ve gotten a clean sheet had the defense not let him down? Well, by defense, I really meant Pedro Amador. Just watch him throughout the entirety of this play that leads to Denis Bouanga’s late match-winner. He is the blue shirt on the far right side of the screen who SHOULD BE TRACKING BOUANGA.

Buuuuut instead decides to take a nap while one of the league’s most dangerous forwards sneaks behind him for an easy finish.

It’s inexcusable for a defender at this level to completely lose track of his mark, especially when it’s someone who has scored 24 goals this season. Then there’s also the issue of him not being coordinated with the rest of the defense and playing both Bouanga and Timothy Tillman onside when the cross is played.

With nothing to redeem him as far as an attacking contribution, this goes down as one of his worst games this season, in my view.

Miguel Almiron

The attack was almost non-existent, but for me, the most disappointing performer was Almiron. Not necessarily because he was the worst attacker in the game, but because that creative spark that he had brought to recent games was absent against LAFC. I had come to expect more from Miggy, yet he created zero chances, had zero key passes, had zero shots on target, and lost eight of his 14 duels.

Basically, what I’m saying here is that I’m not mad, just disappointed.

It’s worth noting that Miggy was playing a different position in this match. He wasn’t a true winger or a 10, but a weird hybrid of the two that we soccer nerds call an inside forward. He and Alexey Miranchuk basically would sit just behind Jamal Thiare, the No. 9, with the idea that the two would link up to provide service forward. The issue was that Miggy and Alexey often became too isolated in the rare transition moments when the team burst forward. This made it all too easy for LAFC’s retreating defense to force either of them backwards.

I still think Miggy can be a standout No. 10 in MLS again, but he needs players around him that can get forward quickly and give him options. The folks he has to work with right now are just too dang slow.

Steven Alzate

Man, I sure hope what we’re seeing from Alzate so far is just a player who is getting used to playing in MLS. Sometimes it takes a while for a player to find his feet in this league, so I don’t think it’s too crazy to suggest that he’s still adjusting, but I will expect him to be much more consistent in 2026 with a full preseason under his belt.

Despite playing almost all 90 minutes, Alzate… didn’t really do much of anything. He had zero successful dribbles, won zero tackles, won one of his eight duels, and lost possession a whopping 13 times. Not to mention that he was on corner kicks for some reason, and none of them found their targets (though part of that has to do with how set pieces are drilled and positioning when executing them, which is an ENTIRELY different conversation).

I’m not ready to chalk Alzate up as a bust yet. Partially because I’m holding out hope that he’ll be the first good Colombian soccer player in the team’s history, but also because I’ve seen him do some really good things at times. Being able to draw in opponents and escape that pressure is very valuable, as it can give the rest of the team more space to work with. That’s part of what made Darlington Nagbe such a good midfielder.

If Alzate can be more consistent and tone down the nonchalance, Atlanta United could sneakily be going into 2026 with one of the strongest midfields in the league.

What do you think of my picks? Let me know in the comments, and be sure to share who your Risers and Fallers are for this match!