When : Sunday March 11th at 3 PM Where : Mercedes Benz Stadium, Atlanta TV : ESPN I don't feel optimistic about this game. It's their home opener so their crowd will be extra loud. And their players will be extra motivated after their lackluster debut in Houston last week and their poor performances against us last year. Sooner or later they're going to make us pay for all the points we've stolen from them. The first week's team selection was pretty straightforward for Ben. This week we'll begin seeing him having to make tougher decisions. With Acosta back, which attacker gets benched? Or will Benny be bold and bench a box to box guy like Segura? With Mattocks' poor debut, does Mullins get a start? And does Joseph Mora walk into starting lineup, or does he stick with Fisher?
Would be a little surprising, but Atlanta's big weakness is at the 6, so you could try to overrun the midfield.
I hope Ben reads your summary I doubt if any of your points have crossed his mind yet. I heard rumors that he was contemplating painting the traffic cones in Atlanta colors to add realism to the training though.
I'm not so sure we lose to Atlanta. There is one coach in MLS who was out-coached by Olsen twice last year. His name is Tata Martino. He jumped wildly into the attack and overlapped his wingbacks aggressively. As Olsen's squad dumped the long ball to the wings there was nobody there to defend the counter. Most teams keep their fullbacks/wingbacks even with the defensive line (against us) and recycle the ball as we dump to the wings. Atlanta didn't watch any game film from the past 5 years apparently. Let's see if they make the same mistake.
As noted, Mora is not available. Martino appears to be a defensive moron, but he does have a loaded attack. Houston got on Atlanta very early so that put them out of any type of rhythym. DCU, has to rely on Mattocks to create a similar disruption — I don’t see it. I would keep the same lineup as Orlando with Acosta replacing Stieber. However, Acosta, Segura and Asad would be on a short leash. If any of them shows poor form I would dump Stieber back in, with Harkes not far behind. Is Canouse fit enough for the 18 this week?
I'd line them up a little differently than last week: Asad -------- Mattocks --------- Arriola ------- Acosta ----------- Stieber ----------------- Moreno DeLeon - Birnbaum - Brilliant - Fisher ----------------- Ousted You could also try rotating Stieber out to LW and move Asad inside. But Steiber is the best long-ball guy we have (we're playing Atlanta!). He's good at connecting and too valuable on set pieces to sit on the bench anyway. I'm swapping DeLeon and Fisher, because I'd rather give the career outside back a chance to play on his preferred foot, and I suspect the worst of it will be coming down our right flank.
I like the idea of sitting Segura for Acosta and just having all our attacking players on the field at once. I don't know if Olsen/Ash have the stones to do it though. Personally, I'm just counting the days that Mora is available to play and DeLeon can be benched. That alone will help our team tremendously. He is a turnstile at FB.
One thing I remember from the Atlanta match: Segura misses low and wide, but DeLeon misses high and wide (and always has).
I didn't watch Atlanta's first game, but this is one of those situations where a broken clock is right two times a day. Olsen's typical drop deep token high press and heavy low block combined with counter attack to the flanks is well suited for the mega compact Atlanta attack. Maybe Atlanta changes things up an doesn't attack us as aggressively as last year, but I'm not sure I see that changing. What we trotted out last week looks good, but someone has to sit. Is it possible Asad plays the #8?
Miranda would have to go on a season long loan for his Intl slot to open up. As it is, he's a shuttler, which I think is good but ties up that slot.
I’m curious to see who plays too. That said I think it’s too early in the season to change your game plan after one game especially since it was an away draw. I expect a 4-1-4-1 again, with only one change. I suspect since we are away it’ll be Acosta for Steiber but you never know. I’m not sure what the formation will end up being either could be 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 before it’s over. I wouldn’t mind us trying a 4-3-3 with a false 9 just to get our best 11 out there. Oh and I agree that I can’t wait til DeLeon is out of RB but he didn’t cost us last game by a long shot. So that’s no panacea.
The sad truth is... here we are. Exactly where just about every poster said we'd be. Which talented midfielder do we drop? and, boy I wish we had a half decent striker.
This will definitely be a more interesting game than had hoped. How will they rebound from the horrible 2nd half last week, do they all believe it was just the late travel, do they doubt each other? Will be interesting to see. I don't think you can take Stieber out so I'm interested to see the midfield shuffle that happens. He and Acosta both being in makes it harder for defenders, dangerous balls could come from all directions, especially if you add in Asad (I seem to remember him having some nice passes last year). Can the middle be fluid enough to draw defenders away from Mattocks? Or will his performance last week mean they leave him more alone anyway... I will be cautiously optimistic DCU - 2 Ga Brown - 1 And may the final 20 minutes go by much faster than they did last week.
Unless we drop two guys into defensive midfield we are going to get torched on the outside. Atlanta will likely look to run their speed against our flanks spreading out the midfield and opening up holes underneath the attack and in front of the defense. We need to clog that up from the start and just hope someone can fast break the other way. Ousted NDL (sigh) Brilliant (Bernie)Birnbaum Fisher(spooner) Durkin Moreno Arriola Acosta Asad (Rent a striker)Mattocks Or just stop pretending to have strikers and put Asad up top with Steiber on the wing. James