Atlanta United scored within 10 minutes, but that was the only thing that went well for them on Wednesday.
Orlando City added three unanswered goals — two off the foot of Antoine Griezmann — on their way to a 3-2 win at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. After a three-match win streak, Atlanta is now winless in its last three outings (0-2-1).
Things didn’t start out that poorly. Atlanta received a dream start in the seventh minute on what looked to be an offside sequence before being called a goal. A ball played into the box eventually found its way to Breel Embolo, whose touch deflected off David Brekalo, past Maxime Crepeau, and into the back of the net to make it 1-0.
But Orlando pulled level in the 26th minute. Antoine Griezmann ventured unmarked behind Atlanta’s defense and slid in to put home a Joran Gerbet cross to level the score at 1-1.
Orlando controlled the pace of play after the goal, finding various opportunities to go up by multiple goals while Atlanta couldn’t get many looks in the attack.
The Lions finally extended their lead in the 59th minute. Robin Jansson played a ball ahead to Martin Ojeda, who settled it and passed it to Ivan Angulo for an open-net finish that was initially called offside but later given as a goal after Video Review.
Griezmann added the backbreaker in the 77th minute, as he combined nicely with Justin Ellis, got past Atlanta’s defense again, and completed his brace as Orlando went up 3-1. That was the last straw as a thin Mercedes-Benz Stadium crowd thinned out even more, with Tyrese Spicer’s own goal in stoppage time serving as merely a consolation marker for Atlanta on an otherwise dismal night.
The loss is a gutting one for Atlanta United as their already-fading playoff hopes took a massive blow. They’ll return to action on Saturday at D.C. United.
A few thoughts on the club in general, as opposed to the match:
Miggy is obviously is not as impactful for us Messi/Mueller/Greizeman/Lewandowski are for their squads. But he was never at their levels anyway. He’s not the game changing DP we needed, but he’s not a “bust.” He is obviously too overlapped in skill sets by Miranchuk.
Miranchuk isn’t lazy or not trying. I promise you, if he wasn’t committed to the team Tata wouldn’t play him. He is obviously too overlapped with Miggy but he’s not “not trying.” That’s lazy internet fan pseudo psychology.
AU is in an extremely deep hole after years and years of refusing to admit the need for a rebuild. They cycled through a half dozen managers and systems looking for a quick fix back to glory rather than the longer haul that was needed. That’s not really an AU thing, it’s an Arthur thing. He did the same thing with the Falcons after the superb-owl that shall never be discussed as he did with AU after Josef blew out his knee. A series of constant patches rather than a proper rebuild. That’s an ownership problem, which explains why it’s been consistent through manager after manager after manager.
Tata seems to be on the right track, but there’s so much muck in the gears from years of neglect and duct tape and baling wire it’s going to be painfully slow. Add to that the fact that the league has sort of returned to the pre-AU model of team building where you buy fading Euro stars rather than build/develop/sell and well.. You get this shit show.
The solution is obviously to move Miranchuk and go buy Ronaldo.
Agree with much of this from you. Thumbs up.
I can’t help to observe what I think is frustrating to me as a fan. DeBoer was a winning coach, but the fans say the locker room rift is ALL because he’s European, so after the team captain retires the FO strips him of Nagbe, Gressel, and LGP 2 months right before Josef goes down without a replacement. Covid blah blah blah, but then they concede to follow the winds of general consensus fans and fire him before he can build a team for his vision, only to then hire an Argentine as the fans request. Watergate, can’t blame or see that coming… whatever, have to cut bait, sorry it didn’t take long… but then the fans’ ADHD says it’s ALL because no coach is given enough time. (A new goal at this point? Otherwise, why not stay with DeBoer?)
So the FO listens to all the media hype and headhunting PR to hire the longest running
– less experienced coach Pineda is brought in. For 3 fucking years. Patience didn’t work, his excellent recruiting of Derrick Etienne jr, Mosquera, ciceneros and roco Rios novo did not help even given us having money players like Almada, giakomakis, Araujo, (usmnt) Robinson / Guzan (at that time) and Josef during the newbies tenure.
Finally the fo come to their senses annd let him go – but they WAIT half a season before asking the fans (and media) what they wanted this time, “it just has to be MLS experience”.That was the “we’re Back Baby” miranchuck summer before they get Ronnie’s opinions on style and direction: Deila was honestly about the best with the current coach dejour qualifier available at that time, but a year… at this point there is no Vision and no singular direction for the team builds. And his big summer signing was Alzate.
Lagerway has to be the biggest disappointment from ALL the media hyped Seattle castaways. And now, no surprise, to your point “extremely deep hole” for the next manager.
Nostalgia? Maybe? Experienced, check, Argentine, check? “Fams HAVE to be happy”, can’t help to feel like it is still just hoping to patch a hole. But a broken clock…,,
Now tata has to dig himself out of this (something he had not needed to do last time) and whether I can see the results or not, it has been a TON of changes and direct vision since he got here. Fans agree or disagree something is brewing and it’s taking a lot longer than hoped but imagine the changes of Alzate or etienne being the only thread of hope from past goes.
Giving Tata more time only makes sense IMO at this point. Keep him cooking until he can replace Miranchuck and Miggy. Might be competitive after the sprint season.
I didn’t turn the game on until the 75th minute and have no insight into how the first 75 minutes went, but at the 75th minute it looked like 10 players struggling to run around and keep pace. Everyone looked gassed.
I had this discussion with a buddy of mine and I can see why people get jaded by the new guys. Other teams bring in new people and they go on a tear to show what qualities they bring. But this isn’t an individual sport and just because Griezeman has looked good isn’t all on him, he’s got a surrounding cast of players who elevate his play.
We’re still figuring out the surrounding cast, so it prevents getting anyone elevated from it. It feels like it’ll take some time but damn it, we’re sick of waiting on time but that’s what happens when we’ve made many bad decisions historically. We can’t keep struggling to stand up when we’re constantly beaten back down onto struggling foundation.
And gosh dangs it, we need some veteran MLS players…look at how Dax, Fafa, Brooks and the like have done for the team when they came in. They know this game and the leadership it takes.
Positives:
Negatives:
Until this team figures out how to score the defense will always look bad. Opponents are not afraid to counter with higher numbers because they know Atlanta has a very slow counter and terrible passing in the final third. The tactics of this team just don’t work.
Yeah, well, those yellow shirts look like shit.
Almirón doesn’t have the legs anymore, and I’m not really sure what Miranchuk is good at. It’s hard to perform with 2 DP misses. I’m undecided on Embolo still.
I thought this was a weird midfield 3 choice, and they kinda got smoked. Greizmann is just plain good, though.
On Embolo, I thought the team looked better in the beginning with a true 9. He holds up well, and has a rocket of a shot.
I didn’t like seeing him dive so much though, just an ethics thing for me and he already has a bad rep.
I wish we had a real playmaker so we can see what Embolo can do
Orlando’s organization was about as elite as it gets for the MLS. They made us look like a high school team chasing them around. Very impressive. Griezmann was dominant. But our defense of the wings was atrocious. horrible communication. We were consistently getting beat by simple box passes time and time again leaving them wide open for a dangerous cross. We so desperately needed a true ball controlling 10. Alexy needs to go.
Wow, this game showed how bad our defense and midfield really is. Orlando could just walk through like it was a practice game. Griesman showed how a true DP should play (talking to you Miranchuk). I actually enjoyed watching Orlando play really good soccer, quick passing, great movement, speed and using the whole field. Our CB’s are way too slow to play in MLS. I on’t care what people say about MLS but it’s fast and athletic, our CB’s are not.
Not trying to defend Miranchuk, but you can’t call him out for his play when Almiron isn’t giving consistent DP-level play as well.
As much as we may like Almiron, both he and Miranchuk need to go, and a true 10 and a very speedy winger are needed – along with a couple of much faster CBs
Well, true but at least Miggy is a lot more noticeable on the field. Miranchuk just disappears completely.
no argument there! Miggy is really trying and Miranchuk often is invisible. Unfortunately, Miggy just doesn’t have the speed anymore to be a winger, and having him and Miranchuk in the center (and they both go into the center regardless as to where they start) is creating major problems.
I agree with your take. It looks like they’re trying to run the offense through Miggy, and he seems to want the responsibility, but then he tries to do too much and it all breaks down. Miranchuk seems happy to just shuttle the ball from one teammate to another every so often, but mostly he just hides. We need him to do more and Miggy to do less.
Agreed. Our game plan seemed to be create chaos not chances and hope for the best. If he keeps performing like this, Own Goal will soon command a hefty transfer fee.
You guys better put Own Goal on the player ratings for this match, cause Own Goal is the MVP for Atlanta with a perfect 5 stars.
Being a forever optimist. I thought the first 25 minutes were great. Hoyos, amaro, embolo, everyone looked inspired (except for Baez).
But then we got slapped across the face by a Grizeman and couldn’t find the way to get the momentum back.
Pre-match I was thinking they might have a letdown after Miami but yes the swagger was there early then we lost the mojo. The Barça kid was good though.
Well, our flanks were really exposed after we scored. Orlando missed at least 2 or 3 very clear chances to score thanks to Hoyos. It went downhill very fast…
I am always optimistic, then I look at the lineups and start getting a little less confident, then after 20 minutes I really get concerned, after 40 minutes I am fully nervous and very concerned; my optimism has totally disappeared. After 60 minutes, I just want to leave…