Atlanta United vs. Columbus Crew SC Mercedes-Benz Stadium – Atlanta September 14 – 7:00 PM ET Fox Sports South MLSsoccer.com preview here. AJC.com United page here. ATLUTD.com preview here. Crew preview here. Okay, campers. Break time is over and it's time to get back to work. 6 games left, and Atlanta is close enough to controlling its fate that there is all to play for. Miles and Guzan return from US national team duty to lead what should otherwise be a rested side that hopefully took advantage of a week layoff. Roberson has implied the team has recouped and regrouped. (Save Barco who is expected to miss due to injury) First step: Revenge for #RainSoakedDeluge'19! Columbus comes in near the bottom of the conference but having only lost 1 of their last 6. Coach Caleb Porter has struggled to recreate the fluidity of possession he had at Portland, especially with regard to defensive solidity, but their play has evolved and Columbus isn't a simple out these days. They simply have to find offensive options outside of Zardes and Santos. For Atlanta it's about execution and avoiding the mental fatigue. Keep Columbus from direct runs and minimize the impact of wide players to drive forward. Keep Pity and Hyndman/ Villalba pushed high so that Trapp and Artur spend more time on defense. Seek to shoot early and often in an effort to rediscover the Stripes' offensive form. Atlanta wants home field playoff advantage. To do that they'll need to essentially win out. If they want to achieve that they need to show they can take care of business against the likes of Columbus. Stripes begin playoff push on a high. 3-1
I have not seen anything, but it doesn't mean nothing's out there. My guess is he's being brought back slowly. He's played well enough to have gotten more time if he was healthy.
Could be that his role isn't has vital now that we have settled on a 3-5-2 formation. I assume he is healthy. Is he with the 1st team tonight or down in Tampa with AU2?
HT: 1-0 Josef initially given credit but I would expect it to be changed to an own goal. Team has looked a little off. No LGP so the defense is a 3-5 variant with Pogba, Miles, and Franco in the back. They've defended well but Pogba is hit or miss on his passing. Hyndman filling in for Barco and doing well, but he seems to be missing where to mix with Pity and Meram sometimes. Couple of attacks have died as players literally crash into one another. Overall Atlanta has controlled the match but it's not a given right now. Also, it's a 3rd tier special at the Benz, which means it's sparsely filled stadium with by my guess 55-60k here. Atmosphere has lagged as a result of that and the silent protest by Resurgence from the 30' to the 45'. We need another goal.
86' 1-3 Own goal by Miles. The team has been pathetic tonight. Essentially looking just like the 2nd half of the Philly match. Lethargic, lacking creativity... This display won't win a playoff game let alone host the east.
Ugh, just got back from MBS. We are up 1-0 and in control and then give up an inexplainable goal on the counter. That was the death knell. We were on the attack and gave up the ball when we should have simply slowed down the play and held onto the ball. So, F.N.ING. frustrating. I need to decompress with some college football.
Had other plans tonight... checked the score... All we can do is get mentally prepared to finish this season, go on the road and hope for the best. It would be extremely good fortune for both Philly and NYC to come back.
Ga Tech lost. ACC had a cap day. Man U won. Tottenham won. And then AU choked at home. What a s*** for my sports teams. If Arsenal lose today I may as well jump off the bridge, as it were. Blech. As to last night's match... - I'm a huge believer in form. There's no shame in losing a match where the other team is simply better on that night (LAFC match, for instance) but it's something else when your team goes out and caps the bed. It implies that can happen again and makes you question their potential. Safe to say that mental note seeps into the players' minds as well. So that's a huge fear from last night, that the team as a whole simply wasn't mentally prepared for the match, even though we all knew what was at stake. Did the time off kill their momentum? Did the week's training not hit the right notes? Bottom line is that if the form doesn't improve then it will be a short post-season, regardless of where they play. - I've come to feel Miles has great 1 on 1 play but struggles at times in his team positioning and his transition game. To the latter he was very slow with the ball last night and looked doubtful anytime he was asked to do more than pass it to the side. As for positioning I'm sure some of last night was the by-product of being alongside Pogba instead of LGP. (Could they have played Franco on the left and Parky on the right?) Also didn't help that Remedi and Nagbe (or anyone, really) was doing an A+ job of being a release for the defense. Bottom line here is that the ability to quickly move from defense to attack was not there. Looked too much like early season form. - Hyndman literally collided with other teammates 3 times last night. May not have all been his fault but that's a sign something wasn't clicking among the midfielders. At the least somebody wasn't talking. - I said in the preview Atlanta had to push forward and keep Columbus in their own half, limiting the Crew midfielders from getting up field. That barely happened in the 2nd half and Atlanta paid the price. Crew controlled the match and was able to move the ball pretty much at will. They weren't afraid and used everyone in moving the ball forward. Whatever Atlanta's plan for the night it either didn't work or wasn't being executed. Stripes' movement off the ball was nonexistant. Recipe for a loss, no matter how lowly the opponent. - FC Cincy match now has a lot of weight. 1st looks out of reach but still want to host a match and possibly 2.
It figures, I give Florentin a little praise and it goes to his head and he is horrendous. I usually record the matches so I can watch the home games with a little hindsight, but I forgot, so I need to record the replay tonight. I think this three in the back only works with the big dogs on the pitch... Miles, Franco, and LGP and perhaps Big Red playing deep in support. As I said, I need to watch the match and reflect.
Kind of glad I was at drill this weekend. Josef is still credited with that goal as of Sunday evening, so that's 14 in a row. I think they gave him the benefit of the doubt since he got a touch on it. Who knows? His touch might have been heading towards the back post. Maybe. I'm happy to call that a really wicked deflection; so is the C'bus defender.
Horrible display. Even the pyrotechnics guys sucked, hitting the switch and setting off celebrations when Josef's shot was pretty clearly outside the post.
Watched the 1st half this morning. We really needed to go into the half up 2-0. And what has become of Eric Remedi? He has been playing poorly of late. Not sure I can force myself to watch the second half.
I was sitting just above and off to the side of that goal. Right after the shot and the fire lit up, I turned to my friend and gave the "WTF shoulder shrug."
It looked like a goal from my seat, and when the fireworks went off and the whistle was blown I was so happy. We sure could have used that goal.
A. Don't bother watching. See the highlights just to understand the defensive blunders but otherwise save yourself 45 mins of frustration. B. Remedi is not disciplined enough to stay as a central d-mid when other pieces around him aren't doing their own job. A lot of times what looks like him showing effort is him leaving his post, and that was glaring Saturday. What made it worse was that the offensive players weren't able to sustain possession and move the play toward the Crew goal in a manner that sustained an attack. This meant more players were again running around being out of position, which caused Eric to chase even more of the play. When the defense is solid Eric works well because he's faster than Jeff and will want to be involved in the attack. When it doesn't we'd be better off with Jeff to at least have one less problem on the pitch. Says I, anyway.
You hit the nail on the head, 3 in the back only works with a disciplined defensive midfielder that isn't giving up sloppy passes. At this point I'd rather see Larry in that spot than Remedi. Big Red gives you the added benefit of being a leader to spark the team and calm the nerves.
Both spot on. My buddy and I also remarked during the match that Remedi seemed really poor. He was all over the place but not in a Kante kind of way but rather in the headless chicken kind of way.