Atlanta United vs. Columbus Crew SC Mercedes-Benz Stadium — Atlanta August 19 - 4 pm ET Fox SportSouth MLSsoccer.com preview here. AJC.com 4 Questions here. Ahoy, kids. After a 2 week spell the Stripes return to action with a chance to exact some semblance of revenge for last year's home playoff defeat to this same Crew. More importantly Atlanta has to keep the pressure up during the closing stretch as they fight the New-York-in-name-only teams for playoff position and possibly the Supporter's Shield. (Remember fans, the team that wins the otherwise useless shield does get to play in the CONCACAF Champions League.) As the league points leader Atlanta is hardly trash at home but they have had their woes at the Benz, dropping points against the better teams capable of packing the defense. Their lack of ability to close out games may yet cost them in playoff positioning, but then again if they do play better on the road... Supposedly Atlanta will have Barco and Escobar available for the lineup, plus Remedi has had more time to gel with the team. Hopefully this means the team will feature a stout defense for the occasion, even if as one article notes Columbus has only scored one goal against Atlanta in all their match-ups to date. But Atlanta's offense this year has been intricately linked to the defensive solidity. While waiting for Nagbe and the newer players to sync with the side Atlanta has scored a lot but also left a lot of opportunities go wasted. They need to do better pushing the 1 goal lead to 2, the 2 goal lead to 3, etc. They also need someone to help Martinez with the scoring load, so that defenses will have more attack angles to cover. C-bus comes to town still weathering their asinine owners public relations fiasco, but have done well so far to stay 4th in the east and look a fair shot at competing for divisional honors. With Justin Meram returning as another midfield resource and Zardes proving an able MLS striker the Crew are certainly a threat on most days. Especially given Steffan's ability to keep them in games defensively. They've won 3 in a row and won't be shy or scared when they come to town. If Tata and company are worth their salt they've used this break to their advantage and will be anxious to run. Villalba has to be thinking about this as a key run for him as he fights to stay in the starting lineup down the stretch and showcase his worth for the future. Look for him to make Afful work hard on defense and take more shots in an effort to keep Steffan on his toes. Larentowicz and Parkhurst should be rested as they seek to reassert some defensive coordination that had lapses in the past 2-3 matches. 3-1 Atlanta, and the stretch run for the Shield is on.
Once again, New York sees the opening provided by Atlanta's lack of killer instinct, and politely decline to take advantage of it. At some point, one of those teams is going to win if we keep giving them the opportunity to pass us. How about we take care of business today, out some daylight between us and the pack, and don't look back?
Very nice game. I was very happy to see players other than Joseph score. Good call on the score, Gunner! FYI, Atlanta hasn't stooped to the chintzy-looking tactic of not having kid escorts for the away team... 2 weeks in a row now. The culprit: DC United. It makes DC United look cheap and somewhat petty and potentially hurts the leagues' reputation. Does anyone know some way to push this in front of league officials?
My big takeaway from this game was Tito on the right. He was completely ineffective all game on the left.
I didn't see much out of Remedi. Larentowicz in the post-game said he prefers Remedi's style over Nagbe's (Remedi is more defensive-minded and Nagbe is more offensive-minded) because it takes more of the pressure off Larentowicz, but I'd rather see more possession. I thought our midfield got bossed the whole game, in fact. Almiron was invisible for long stretches, and Larentowicz and Remedi weren't terribly effective in winning possession back from Columbus. That being said, the only major defensive error all game that I noticed was the one that led to their goal. Even before the pass was made to Zardes, I was screaming (ineffectually from the upper deck) for somebody to mark him. Nobody did, and Parkhurst just froze in no-man's land between Zardes and Higuain after Zardes got the ball. LGP also failed to close, and thus a completely un-marked US national team striker had like three whole seconds all alone in front of goal with the ball. Our defensive strategy in that moment appeared to be, "Well, maybe he'll shank it." He did not. Great goal from Villalba, and props to Martinez for feeding Almiron. I think Miggy needed that goal. LOOONG road stint coming up, so we need all the offensive firepower we can bring to bear. Also, welcome back Barco. We need you so Villalba can play on the right.
Could Escobar slide to LB, to let Gressel slide back to RB? if not, I might bench Escobar to keep Tito on RW.
No idea, but I suggest emailing the league and give them a polite notice. This and the D-mid positions are Atlanta's biggest quandaries. If they can figure out a way to keep Gressel and Tito both on the field and both on the right, without undue sacrifice elsewhere, then they'll be sitting pretty. Well I'm of the mind Remedi is there to inherit Jeff's position next season, sitting in behind Nagbe, and that they only have to dance together because due to injuries it's this or a) play Gressel out of position or b) play Kratz as a starter. Early results on those samples have thus far proven less than ideal. But yes, the result of having two D-mids on at the same time like that is a disjointed transition game to supplement the attack. So long as Remedi is prone to chasing the play and going deeper in the defensive third you'll get things like this: - - - - - So it's all your fault! I can't recall exactly when but we saw something like this a few times last season when they would shift to a back three, but that was more easily accomplished with Walkes behind them. (Or possibly because Carmona and Larentowicz were a better pairing than Remedi and Larentowicz at the moment?) Bottom line for me, I'd hate for Julian's defensive responsibilities to force him to spend so much time deep in the backfield that he can't make those runs and beautiful crosses. Personally I'd love to see Tito and Josef play as a true two-striker pairing. Barco, Almiron, Nagbe, Remedi/Larentowicz and Gressel as the midfield. Left Back, Parkhurst and Escobar as the D.
I've thought lately that the problem may be Escobar. With him running to fill the RW position, he takes space from Gressel. Gressel has been quite productive from that RW position. I'd rather see Gressel as right sided midfielder on the same line as Almiron, and have Escobar stay back in defense. Instead of the 4-2-3-1 they currently favor, shift to a 3-2-4-1. Same personnel, different responsibilities. Maybe we can petition the league for a special 13 players exemption?
What kind of result do we want tonight, NYRB and City? I’m hoping for a tie most, but I guess a City win wouldn’t be disastrous. Can’t have Red Bull win anymore this season
Meh. I still watch and enjoy some college sports but the last round of expansions really killed my enthusiasm. It's such an unfair enterprise - for certain programs, for the kids - that I've well and truly stopped caring. What other sport/league would we consider legit yet still allow such things as unbalanced schedules, dark recruiting practices, academic scandals...? It's all for the same 30 or so power programs, and it's gone so beyond being collegial I just feel sad about it. When they rein all that stuff in and force balanced home and away schedules I'll be all in. Until then I'll always be GT proud but consider college sports as little more than a diatraction.
Sounds like I may be in the minority but I thought Escobar was effective this week going forward. Varying his runs down the sideline as well as underlapping toward the middle. Causing all sorts of problems for the defense. My issues with iron man have always been in the defensive half. And, you know, being a defender that appears a bit problematic.
Great result tonight! Only thing is BWP seems like a man on fire, and Rooney has completely changed DC United into a real threat.