Risers and Fallers: Alexey Miranchuk’s heavenly season, Elías Báez’s unholy marking and more from Matchday 6

Y’all, I think this season’s a wrap.

Atlanta United’s 3-1 loss to the Columbus Crew was awful from the start, but I think the moment when I fully checked out was when I saw three Atlanta United players tackle themselves at the back post on a corner kick. That’s the moment when I realized this team is cooked.

Although a little late this week (my apologies), I’m back with my risers and fallers for this week. Since this was such a poor game, my risers were quite literally the best of the worst. I am not necessarily saying that they’re amazing soccer players or that I truly believe they’re right for this team long term.

Anyways, let’s dive into this crap.

Risers

Alexey Miranchuk

Miranchuk scored. Honestly, that’s the only reason he’s here. And it was a tap-in, too, so let’s not get too excited.

He didn’t help the team create any big chances; he had no passes into the box and only one shot, which he scored. With only one key pass and 0.05 expected assists, the numbers don’t lie: his ability to create has not improved from last year.

As I’ve mentioned in previous columns, Miranchuk has been given a different role that on the surface appears to fit him well. He plays inside the right half space as an inside forward with the idea that he can be in a spot to create chances and run into the box to finish. With four goals in almost 400 minutes, it appears he’s found some form.

However, I still think he’d be better suited playing as the lone No. 9 as he did in preseason against Lexington SC. I think his movement in and around the box is better than Emmanuel Latte Lath’s, and clearly, the end product is as well. Given that the Ivorian forward has yet to demonstrate an ability to consistently score after over a year of playing for the Five Stripes, I would be interested in seeing Tata Martino shake things up and give Miranchuk a more prominent role in spearheading attacks.

The downside to this, of course, is that Miranchuk doesn’t move as quickly and probably won’t be able to lead the press as intensively as Latte Lath does, but it’s not like Atlanta was pressing very high in this match anyway.

Oh, and just because I thought it was hilarious, here’s a moment from this week’s press conference when I asked Miranchuk how the team could compete all the way through to the end of the season, and he quite literally asked God for help.

Enea Mihaj

Though he was part of a backline that allowed three goals, I thought Mihaj was overall very solid in this match. He won four of his five duels and posted 10 defensive contributions, including five important clearances and a really good tackle inside the box.

I think Mihaj has been the most consistent player on the backline this season (and to be fair, it’s not like the bar is awfully high). He hasn’t been perfect, but he’s been a mostly stable presence who I feel really only had a poor performance in the San Jose match, where, let’s face it, everyone had a poor performance.

However, I will take a moment to critique him as a leader and communicator because those are some of the characteristics that we were told he would bring when he was signed last summer. I’ll go into more depth on this in my fallers (spoiler alert), but on Columbus’ first goal, I think he needs to tell Elías Báez to go cover Max Arfsten, who’s hugging the left touchline with acres of space, and stop covering the attacker that’s Mihaj’s responsibility in that zone.

Maybe the problem is that there’s a language barrier, but surely you can do something. I dunno, maybe yell “ELÍAS!” and point emphatically at the dude who’s waiting for the ball wide open where he should be? It’s either that or you gotta get on Duolingo, Enea.

Matías Galarza

“But wait, Matías Galarza didn’t play in this game.“

You are correct, dear reader. However, this team played so poorly without him that it only reinforces to me how important he is.

Atlanta United started Will Reilly as the left-sided No. 8 and Steven Alzate on the right because Galarza was unavailable. The difference was easy to see. Reilly and Alzate are two players who move rather slowly, making it difficult to take advantage of transition moves. It didn’t help that Columbus’ press was better structured and more organized than Atlanta’s, which is another issue that the midfielders contributed to.

Lack of progression plagued the Five Stripes’ midfield in this match. Very few of their passes actually helped advance play into the final third and NONE of them got the ball into the box. When your center midfielders are that poor at getting the ball forward and helping the team fashion chances, it’s almost impossible to conjure any genuine attacking threat.

Atlanta United has looked its best when Galarza is on the field. Plain and simple. Fortunately, the Paraguayan international is back in training, so he could slot back into the starting XI.

Fallers

Elías Báez

I sorta teased this one earlier, so let’s start with him. In my opinion, the first and third goals that Columbus scores in this match are mainly on Elías Báez. Let’s start with the first goal.

Here you can see that Báez (circled in yellow) is marking an attacker all the way at the center of the top of the box. The reason he’s so far inside is that the ball was over on Atlanta’s right side, so he came in to support — nothing wrong with that. The issue comes when the ball starts making its way to the other side and Max Arfsten (red circle) is all alone with acres of space and Báez isn’t nearby to close him down effectively. Báez actually doesn’t even have to cover the player that he’s on in this picture because that’s Mihaj’s (blue circle) man!

Now let’s jump to Columbus’ third goal, infamous for how quickly it happened after Atlanta scored.

On this one, both fullbacks are at fault because they both let Columbus’ wingers get the jump in behind them. Báez has stepped up from the back four and has given his back to Andrés Herrera, who slowly starts to creep forward until the ball gets to Steven Moreira, then he bursts forward and Báez is left scrambling.

So Báez is already at a disadvantage on the left side. Now look over at the right. The moment Moreira winds up to send the ball in behind for Herrera, Arfsten takes off behind a completely oblivious Tomás Jacob. By the time Jacob realizes this, it’s too late and Arfsten is too far ahead for him to catch up.

I chose to focus on Báez here because his positioning has been a frequent problem for Atlanta this season. The space in behind him is often targeted by opponents, often leaving the center backs exposed. Tata Martino wants him and Jacob to provide width in the attack, but they must also pick their moments carefully to avoid being exposed in this manner.

Will Reilly

While it’s good to see Will Reilly back from injury, the homegrown midfielder did not have a good showing at all in this match.

He did not have any productive progressive passes and played some balls that just didn’t make any sense. He lacks the dynamism that a player like Matías Galarza or even Cooper Sanchez brings to the midfield, so anytime he got the ball, it felt like attacking moments just grinded to a halt.

It’s no surprise then that Reilly was the first subbed off to bring on Sanchez. I don’t expect Reilly to start in an MLS match for a while unless there’s some extenuating circumstance for the same reason that Alzate began falling out of favor: he’s just not quick enough physically and mentally to play the kind of style Tata Martino wants.

Latte Lath

If I had a nickel for every time I’ve been disappointed in Emmanuel Latte Lath so far, I think I’d have enough to cover his transfer fee.

While it’s tough to blame a striker who gets little service, Latte Lath isn’t just any striker — he’s one of the most expensive in the league. When a club pays $22 million — at the time an MLS record — for a center forward, you expect them to be a level above the rest. Latte Lath has failed at that time and again.

The 27-year-old Ivorian international had zero shots in this match. You read that right, the former MLS record-breaking signing took ZERO shots among the 18 touches he had.

Another fun factoid for you: Latte Lath’s eight goals in his Atlanta United career (which spans over a year) are almost as many as Nashville SC’s Sam Surridge and FC Dallas’ Petar Musa have after six matchdays of the 2026 MLS season. It just hasn’t been good enough and I’m not sure how much more time the club can afford to give him.

Here’s legendary Red Bull New York striker and MLS on Apple TV broadcaster Bradley Wright-Phillips giving his take on Latte Lath on our latest show.

What do you think of my picks? Let me know in the comments and drop your risers and fallers for this game, too!