At this point in the season, Atlanta United not only needed to win every game but be the recipient of some spectacular failures by a few teams above them in the conference standings. But it really isn’t about that, is it? The Five Stripes are not a complete product, so fans realistically just want to see the team head into the offseason with a group of players who look as if they train together often. They want a team that wins inside their own stadium, and doesn’t concede silly circus goals. Saturday night’s match didn’t do a whole lot to provide hope for those fans, but it did provide a smorgasbord of goals. It just so happened that Chicago Fire had more of them. Here are the final whistle thoughts from Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Do it for the fan
Everyone’s aware that this team’s chances of actually pulling off a miracle and squeaking into the playoffs is minimal, so the least the team could do is pay off the fans who’ve actually continued to show up to the Benz. It all began well enough, as Miguel Almiron and Tomas Jacob combined for an early open-play goal, and it was legitimately a fun one to watch. Miggy looked honestly like vintage Miggy for a while. It was nice.
Then came the lull, as Atlanta slowly but surely conceded possession and looked more disorganized as the minutes passed. Chicago would equalize in the 30th minute off a corner given up by a collision in the box that didn’t go Lucas Hoyos’ way. Despite Atlanta’s best effort to go ahead a short time later, Embolo’s potential goal would be foiled by none other than the keeper’s chicken nuggets.
Ultimately, the best play of the game was the team and the Georgia Lottery giving out like $200,000 worth of cars and vacations. I could do a lot with a cool 50 grand, even.
Play spoiler, be difficult
This final stretch of matches isn’t about forcing some misguided notion that the team will click and end the season on a cool high with hollow victories. The players that the front office knows will be returning next year need to develop their chemistry. The rest don’t need to see minutes anymore. Whatever identity Tata wants to instill in his guys needs to get a full head start, because this club has quite the distance to cover before the word “good” even becomes part of the conversation again.
In the meantime, this group needs to look inward and figure out what it truly wants to be. At minimum, be annoying and obnoxious to play against. Be the bad guys, and make other teams hate Atlanta United. Embrace it, and let it become the common denominator that gets these players working as a full unit.
Lucas Hoyos
I never like singling out one player for a bad performance, but this one was rough for Atlanta’s keeper. All three Chicago goals were directly due to decisions he made in his own box. An indirect free kick in the box is one of the rarer events in the game of football, and yet Hoyos picking up a back pass is exactly how Chicago scored their final goal. The one prior to that was a terrible pass off a goal kick leading to an immediate turnover and shot. The only one that’s sort of excusable is the first, with the aforementioned collision, but he absolutely has to be better there.
Jayden Hibbert should be getting minutes. A goalkeeper isn’t the position a coach, front office member, or fan wants to worry about, and yet Hoyos hasn’t been good enough all season. The indecisiveness in and around his box is unforgivable.
Let us know below what you thought of the match.
It’s been said a few times that this team doesn’t really have an identity and I still see where it lacks that. Not sure how to fix, because it seems very much like our front 3 are out of sync with the rest of the team and no individual addition is going to fix this.
My favorite Atlanta United holiday this year will be November 8, when we can announce what should be a slew of departures. I’m not sure I care whether I recognize a single name in 2027.
I’m not the greatest of tactical minds, but I don’t understand the strategy of go up 1 (ONE) goal 5 minutes into the match and then immediately enter bunker down and waste as much time as possible for 85 minutes. Jesus, you punched Chicago in the mouth minutes into the game at home and then you thought the best strategy would be to rely on your shaky-at-best defense to win the game against Lewandowski?! Fortunately for him, though, Chicago didn’t even really need him to step up, we self-imploded. You know the exploding bus scene in Speed? Yeah, that’s what we look like when we “park the bus.”
I don’t know anymore.
This team runs out of ideas in the final third. Much more often than not, they make the wrong decision when they get near the opponent’s goal. Too many passes, too many wayward passes, scuffed shots, too much dribbling, crosses to nobody, overcooked crosses,…the list goes on. The opponents scoop up the ball and in 2-3 passes they’re in our box threatening to score. Our attack needs a massive overhaul.
hoyos can at times make some very good saves. His ability stops there. He’s absolutely terrible in distribution (worse than Guz was) and is of no use organizing a back line (which guz was fantastic at).
it has baffled me for two years now why tata keeps foolishly leaning on him. Hibbert is right there.
And to see us get scared and curl up after the early goal was inexcusable.
Tata is a stubborn old man. He is the one who wanted Hoyos to be brought over in the first place. So Tata is willing to go down with the sinking ship even if there was a perfectly fine new ship right next to it.
If you are a Tata guy, that’s it…..you play.
Hoyos makes fantastic, highlight-reel saves. He just doesn’t make any other kind. Throw in the bad distribution and lack of organization, and we’ve seen enough to know what we’re getting from a 37-year-old keeper.
Time to move on. Give the kid a chance to improve. A couple of games in the Open Cup ain’t enough.
What if Hibbert is actually worse than Hoyos in distribution?
well, we won’t know unless he gets an extended run with the 1st team will we?
The extent to which the team needs to overhaul players for the sprint season (new (and competent) goalkeeper, CBs, wingers, attacking mids, and defensive mids) is, unfortunately, beyond what can be done under MLS’s stupid rules. So I guess we’ll have to suffer through another season of poor play.
Best case we suffer through only one more season of poor play.
At least it will be a short season
I have said dozens of times that I never understood how a goalkeeper as poor as Hoyos ever played for Vélez. He’s indecisive, fragile and he is simply terrible at playing from the back. He should have been benched long ago, and Martino really owes us an explanation for this debacle his stubbornness has created. What a circus of clumsiness.
Because he is a Tata guy. That’s it.
Well, Hoyos had been playing well. His distribution was better than GUZ and much better than Hibbert BUT overall I agree we need a much better keeper; we need a great keeper with our defense being so slow and a midfield that can’t generate anything offensively or defensively AND an offense that is annoying to watch.