Atlanta United vs. Philadelphia Union Mercedes-Benz Stadium — Atlanta June 2 - 7:30 pm ET FoxSports Southeast MLSsoccer.com preview here. AJC.com 3 Questions here. Pick your storyline: Atlanta trying to end a 2 game home losing streak. Atlanta trying to stay in pole position for the league's best record. Philly looking to extend their own hot streak (10 points from 4 games). The Benz featuring an open roof. Philly comes in having figured out how to play more like a team, with off season signee Dockal now looking like someone worth the effort. This even as CJ Sapong has struggled so far this season. Atlanta comes in knowing Garza is out but everyone else should be healthy, pending Tito Villalba's knee. The question is how well the team has recovered from the midweek trip to New England, and in particular how they've mentally recovered from giving away 2 points with brief spell of poor discipline. The good news is Philly is not (as yet) considered a strong pressing team and their offensive options have been limited this season, so if Atlanta plays with the same hustle seen in the 2nd half Wednesday they should control the contest. The players have indicated they're itching to rediscover the form that would win games by 2, 3 or more goals so let's see if that hunger drives them on or yields more frustration. They need to find more consistent options than Martinez and (of late) Barco, so don't be surprised if the likes of Gressel and even Nagbe start tossing a few more shots toward the Philly onion bag. Conversely, Parkhurst and Guzan were quite upset at losing the shutout in midweek, so look for the defense to likewise play with a chip on their shoulder. 3-1 to the good, today.
I just hope this will be more interesting than the other 2 games I've watched today, IRE vs USMNT and Timers vs Galaxy. Maybe we can break out of a goal scoring slump. I'd love to see a 5-2 game.
Well, the ref was in our favor tonight... feel kind of bad for Philly. That said, we should have been a lot better.
Another pretty uninspiring game. Good for Martinez with his 3. The only thing that looked remarkable was how well Philly played down 2 men. Not often you get to see 11 on 9, so it's difficult to judge how well they did play. Philly held their shape and went forward with 3 for a large portion of the match.
Of interest: Philly's Medunjanin was suspended two extra games (three total) for his actions towards the referee in their game against us. AND their coach was fined for criticizing the refs after the game. Another Philly player also got a double suspension for their game against Houston. Stay classy, Philadelphia.