Atlanta United still can’t beat Charlotte FC at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Behind goals by Pep Biel and Liel Abada — and a pair of assists by Allan Saint-Maximin, his first two in MLS — Charlotte won its fourth consecutive match at the Benz, beating Atlanta 2-0 to break the Five Stripes’ three-match winning streak.
Tata Martino made a pair of changes to his starting XI from the past few matches. Matt Edwards replaced the suspended Elias Báez at left back while Will Reilly started in place of Adrian Gill.
Charlotte had the better of the play to start, ultimately taking the lead in the 22nd minute. Saint-Maximin raced down the left side of the pitch and fired a cross in for Pep Biel. Biel got a touch to it, but with Lucas Hoyos pulled out of goal, Idan Toklomati was there to follow up with the finish.
Charlotte scored again in the 48th minute thanks to a counter-attack led by Saint-Maximin. He played it into the box for Abada, whose composed finish made it 2-0.
That seemed to wake Atlanta up, as it appeared marginally better in the attack. Ultimately, it couldn’t put one past Kristijan Kahlina, who made four saves on four Atlanta shots. Hoyos stopped two of the four shots he faced.
Atlanta United returns to the pitch next Saturday at Inter Miami, with a 7:30 ET kickoff from Nu Stadium.
The lack of having a true striker was glaring last night. Multiple times we had the ball on the wings or even crossed into the box, and nobody was there to get on the end of it. Then there were the multiple overcooked crosses that nobody could have gotten to even if they were in the box. We went back to the slow, plodding buildup approach. We don’t have the skills to slice through a set defense, so we need to stop dorking around with the ball in the back and try to create something on the break. It was a dreadfully boring game.
Saint-Maximin and Pep Biel are really good.
We really needed a left footed LB. The back line shift didn’t look good. Diaz looked great LAST match, but had a few bad gaffes in this one. I’m a little perplexed as too why Riley started over Gill, and I’m not sure having Alexey go so far right in the first half did us any favors. We have vulnerabilities still to over come in the line up and depth. I think Tata over thought this one.
Miami is going to be tough
well good thing we have Amador…o wait, we sold him. well, at least Hernandez is serviceable for short stints in at LB…o wait, Tata prefers Edwards over Hernandez, but Edwards can’t used his left foot to save his life…Tata makes too many questionable roster decisions
Early in the game I thought Edwards looked more aggressive and grown up. That quickly dwindled. It’s glaring to not have another left footed LB. I would have considered going 3 CB’s instead of 4 at the back and put a more striker focused person up front. I mean, Cayman is available and is that guy in a pinch…not a game changer but an option.
And not starting Gill showed just how much he brings to the team.
Unfortunately just an unserious starting lineup
Well, a return to the “why does it feel like we’re playing with 10 men” days shows the last few games are the outlier
We had 10? I thought we had less.