PLAY THE MFING KIDS!!!!!
The Five Stripes needed a hero at Inter&Co Stadium on Saturday night, and their homegrowns answered the call as Jay Fortune and Matt Edwards combined to force a 1-1 draw at Orlando City in Matchday 14 of the MLS regular season.
A point does little to improve Atlanta United’s position in the standings, but it’s better than nothing. With 11 points through 13 games and a 3-8-2 record, the Five Stripes stay 14th in the Eastern Conference and put distance between them and last-place Philadelphia Union (seven points).
Tata Martino made three modifications to the lineup that fell 2-1 to LA Galaxy at home last weekend. Enea Mihaj entered at center back in place of Stian Gregersen, while Jay Fortune slotted into the midfield to replace Cooper Sanchez, who was out due to illness. Emmanuel Latte Lath began on the bench to allow Will Reilly to slot into midfield and move Alexey Miranchuk to the false 9 role, where he has found success this season.
The hosts took an early lead after a systemic breakdown of Atlanta United’s backline that started with Enea Mihaj getting nutmegged, continued with Tomas Jacob losing a race to Ivan Angulo and Juan Berrocal failing to cover Griffin Dorsey’s run into the box.
Although things didn’t look very good in the first 45 minutes, the Five Stripes’ attack fired up in the second half, and the insistence was rewarded late as Jay Fortune hit a first-time screamer to level the match with his second goal in as many games. The assist was an excellent cutback from homegrown right back Matt Edwards, who entered the match as a substitute.
Despite Atlanta trying to find a way to steal all three points, their efforts yielded no success, and the team settled for the draw.
The Five Stripes will return to Inter&Co Stadium to face Orlando City SC on Tuesday, May 19, in the quarterfinals of the US Open Cup.
What did you think of the match? Let us know in the comments below.
Anyone else think that was one of the most balanced and well called and allowing physicality game in years?!? Feel like we always get terrible refs and she surprisingly did well imo
Tori Penso is definitely one of the best refs MLS has.
If Fortune can keep this up we will probably sell him for some GAM this summer 😔
The whole tempo of the game changed once we put some forwards in and sadly, looks like Fafa will be sitting out again…dude can’t stay healthy. LL was working it, not finishing it, but working it and we had a great chance at the end there.
As I was watching this game, it became clear there is really nobody in our roster I enjoy watching play. Saba, at times, makes me enjoy the game but that’s about it.
I like what little I’ve seen from Edwards.
Set pieces continue to be a major problem for ATL. No corner kick goals since August 2024. That seems almost unbelievable. Need new tactics and better crosses. ELL was again a complete disaster. Tata please remind him of his responsibility and expectations. He is a cancer to the attack when on the pitch.
Corner kicks statistically don’t generally yield many goals…that is true at a high level internationally and in MLS it’s like 2-3% of corners that are converted into goals. At around 5 corners a game, that’s around 150+ corners or 3-4.5 goals per season. Not sure how meaningful that is, though do think there is some correlation with broader issues. Not so much that we are a small team but we do lack finishers.
That may be true but we sure seem to give up a lot of goals in corners
I think it’s more than just seemingly. That’s been an issue for a while. Maybe height is part of the issue…wonder if our tendency to lack aggression and organization aren’t more so to blame…when one looks at the number of goals we concede off breakdowns, sort of makes sense as any set piece gives an offense more of a chance to create a breakdown. We’re just not a very organized team…and the flip side of lacking finishers is we have a higher % of players who might be ok but might also be error prone.
Regarding ELL, I wouldn’t call him a cancer, but he’s also not a game changer. He had a nice layoff at the end that *almost* resulted in a walk-off winning goal by Galarza.
Hoyos cant be in goal anymore. There is a total loss of confidence. Saba is clearly creating chances. Just need someone to finish
I am not that high on Hoyos either, but it wasn’t really his fault on the goal. That is more on Berrocal
Lately, I’ve been of the opinion that Hoyos, although not great, is not the priority. I’d rather get a new striker first, some more dangerous wingers second, a real #6 third, a replacement for Berrocal fourth, and then change out Hoyos fifth.
We cannot afford to go the rest of the season with just 3 true CBs. Even if we are play a 4 back set up, most teams want at least 4 CBs for depth and keep everyone fresh
I’m not saying fixing the CB situation isn’t urgent, just that we don’t have any major scoring threats; no real 6s, just a lot of 8s; and very few effective wingers. All of them are pretty urgent. We’ve been making do with Mihaj and Gregersen, but it would absolutely be a fail if they don’t end the deal with Berrocal and get a different CB this transfer window, preferably one who is better than all of the above.