Wed. 6/14/17 7:30 KSU's Fifth Third Bank Stadium (Kennesaw) Clear skies/ high 70's expected at kickoff. Good Wednesday morning/afternoon, campers. Atlanta host their USL partners in tonight's 4th round US Open Cup tie, United's first foray into the competition. Atlanta is coming off their frustrating 2-0 defeat at Chicago on Saturday, while the Battery stroll in to town with the top spot in the USL Eastern Conference - 8 wins and 3 draws from 13 games! Charleston topped struggling Richmond 1-0 over the weekend in a game that saw them spell some players ahead of today's match-up. However, the Battery will be without one of their top goal scorers as United loan product Romario Williams is on international duty with Jamaica. Charleston plays a pretty aggressive style and have registered a goal in every match, so odds are they'll get at least one tonight. They're actually an entertaining side and I'd encourage you to catch a game live or on the web if you can, especially if any of the United loanees are involved. Press reports have indicated Josef Martinez will get his first return to the starting line-up since his injury, while Jeff Larentowicz has also indicated he's been told he's starting. The rest of the first XI is expected to feature a lot of 2nd string players, but no word about the much hyped Carleton making the cut. Personally I'm expecting to see McCann, Kratz, Ambrose and Bloom among the starters, with Miles Robinson also getting significant playing time. Larentowicz playing is likely with an eye toward providing the younger defense with an experienced leader up front. Link to US Open Cup site with online video option Link to AJC article about the match-up.
Under a lightning delay to start. For those that could not make it cross town the game is being streamed on the official site. For those interested: https://www.atlutd.com/live
The whole back line is new blood. I'm gleeful. In fact, Kann, Larentowicz, and Almiron are the only regular lock starters taking the field tonight.
"You've been... Thunderstruck!" Shocked to see Miguel involved at all. Would've bet money someone other than Kann would've been in goal, as well. Granted, at the rate this is looking we may yet see a new lineup by the time they kick-off.
I guess you start Almiron and Larry because you really do want to win the game in the end. If it were me, I'd have kept them on the bench in case things went south. You start Kann because you know what you've got in both Kann and Guzan. You really only need to be two deep at keeper with an emergency backup on the roster making the league minimum. No need to risk blooding someone new and giving up a howler when the other half of your two-deep roster isn't even here yet. I'm going to be up past my bedtime watching this thing.
Okay. Down 2-1 at the half as the highly unorthodox lineup for United takes a looong while to gain traction. Your first XI for the night: Kann Bloom, Lloyd, Robinson, Walkes Larentowicz Vasquez, Kratz, Almiron, McCann Martinez If that looks funny as a configuration that's because a) the players haven't held a shape tonight and b) at least 3 of those guys are playing out of position in order to get onto the field tonight. Offensively it's looking awfully disheveled. You can see where the mdifielders are pausing before passing because they're unfamiliar with the runs being offered. A lot of errant passes. Edit: Start of half 2 sees Gressel enter the game for Robinson, so Larentowiz drops back to D while Kratz become a deep pivot mid. Lloyd is also taken out for Ambrose.
The substitutions sees Atlanta play more of a 3 back set and gives them a better grouping of ball handlers in the middle, and the result is telling. They've dominated possession this half and a 3rd feels imminent. But Walkes goes and commits an overly aggressive professional foul and injures himself in the process, forcing Atlanta to use their last sub early in the half. Joy.
Kratz has been solid and he plays well with Almiron, who is running like this is a match that matters. Would be tempted to see Kratz and Gressel play in lieu of Villalba and Asad one day.
Side note: Atlanta is in their road white's tonight. I don't like that it's the case for a home game.
Vasquez! Brilliant buildup from the back as they string 6(?) passes together ultimately leading to Ambrose making a sweet move to get into the box and near the end line to send a good cross toward the 6 yd line. As the announcer said - "One way traffic at the moment."
So right now Atlanta is basically playing a back 3 of McCann, Bloom, and Larentowicz! And for now it's working well.
81' minute and Charleston misses a big chance with a header that misses the target. Off a set piece (corner), surprise, surprise. Wonder if Carleton or Goslin would've gotten in had Walkes not been injured?
I guess coach just wanted to try out new guys on the back line. I thought Lloyd was playing well, and that Robinson wasn't doing badly. I can see why you'd want Gressel on the pitch, though, when you need a goal or two. Walkes was not holding his own and needed to come out of the game. He would have been the first one off for me. Also, it's now officially tomorrow in the Atlanta area.
FT, United wins 3-2. Fatigue kicked in late as the Battery had a couple good points of pressure but fail to get a clean shot after that last header. Kratz MOTM for me. Martinez looked fair but I'd prefer he didn't drop so deep. But it's "win and advance," so that's all that matters.
A win is a win, but that was an ugly one. LHUSOC might be our best bet at silverware this season, so I hope we take these games seriously. Kann looked a bit shaky a couple of times, including the first goal. Nothing he could do about the second one, though. Martinez, Gressel, Almiron, Larentowicz, Vazquez, Kratz, Robinson, and Lloyd looked pretty good against inferior competition. Several Charleston players looked good, too. Remember, they're our affiliate. We need to keep an eye on a couple of their speedy attackers, especially. Woodbine, for instance, was everywhere.
I think we learned that we do actually have some depth problems. That back four looked lost all match. We were especially toothless with McCann as the CAM. Vazquez was OK for me. He seemed to slow down our attack many times and gave the ball away very easily at the top of the area. I thought Kann had some unlucky bounces, but watching him up-close and behind him, he didn't help in the organization of the backline. Ultimately, we didn't lose to a lower-tier team. Which three MLS clubs did, including Orlando. So yay for that. But if I'm Tata, I'm displeased with how some of the reserves played.
Oh... and isn't it amazing when you send a corner kick into the box? We scored indirectly off one and had a couple of opportunities.
You're right about the lack of depth but I've giving the lads a little leeway, too. It's not like Charleston was the Sisters of the Poor, and it's not like Atlanta is topping their division. If we did a straight table a la European nations there's only about 12-15 spots between the two teams. Add in the delay, the sloppy pitch, and a completely wacky line-up and the result seemed as expected, to me. Put another way, where Atlanta has depth is not distributed so as to field a complete B side and expect it to click. Hence the reason we had (by my count) 6 central players on the field, with 3 of them trying to play out wide. Vasquez showed his raw nature, and was the most affected by playing out of position, I feel. I've hopes he could grow into that #2 option at striker but he'll have to keep improving. We did have a Zach Lloyd sighting last night, and he looked fair for a first roll out. Plays better with the short hair, maybe?! Walkes left me disappointed. For someone with his pedigree he's left me wanting in both ability and decision making. Was beat quite regularly to loose balls and did not seem to be communicating with the other defenders. Granted, seeing as that whole line was make-shift that was the equivalent of herding cats, made more anxious by falling behind so early. Sorry the game took away the chances to see Carleton or Goslin, as that was ideally their best opportunity this season. Surely if United goes up by two in the 2nd half with a full slate of subs one of those kids gets on the pitch. Alas. On to Miami.
Vasquez was out of position. I guess ruing the lack of depth isn't an indictment on the players not in our starting XI, but rather just us being a new club. A lot of those guys were brought in to fill the roster. I expect that to improve. Maybe Walkes is the one to blame most for the shambles in which the backline lived the entire night? I also expected more out of him.
US Open Cup is back this week. Haven't seen where we can watch it yet but it appears as if streaming should be available if past USOC matches are indicative. Miami FC is considering this their biggest match in their history and they're looking to fire up their fan base. They've been socializing the hashtag #beatatlanta on twitter and including this match in a special summer ticket package. The team is playing very well at the moment as well. They've won 13 in a row across all competitions and appear to have the NASL spring segment all wrapped up so playoffs are in their future. They play at FIU's football stadium and that seats 20K. Considering they had nearly 7k for their most recent game against the Cosmos I'm guessing they'll come close to filling the place up. Should be a nice, raucous, environment. Hope our boys come prepared and aren't overlooking these cats.
AJC today had a line indicating one of the players thinks Atlanta will feature most of their usuals for this affair, though I find that hard to believe. With 2 league matches within 6 days after this game I would hate to see AU slip too badly. Yes, I want to win but at what cost? They realize that team is no longer in business, right? But hey, props for touting women's soccer.
You'd think they would rest most of the starters. Maybe Almiron will start and play 75 minutes with Josef and Villaba getting subbed in late if needed.