Fuller notes to come, as I'm busy with work. Will try to fill this out over lunch. Bottom line, it's gameday, 17s!
Atlanta United v New England Revolution Mercedes Benz Stadium, Atlanta Wednesday, May 31, 7:00 PM Apple TV MLSsoccer.com preview here. AJC.com preview here. Atlanta preview here. New England preview here. Player Availability Atlanta OUT: Ozzie Alonso (ACL recovery) OUT: Erik Lopez (ankle) OUT: Amar Sejdic (calf) OUT: Caleb Wiley (international duty) New England OUT: Dylan Borrero (left knee season ending) OUT: Brandon Bye (left shoulder) OUT: Nacho Gil (right leg) OUT: Henry Kessler (right hamstring) OUT: Maciel (left Achilles) OUT: Tommy McNamara (left leg) OUT: Damian Rivera (international duty) QUESTIONABLE: Gustavo Bou (left leg) Recent Results Atlanta (6-5-4) ORL 1-1 ATL CHI 3-3 ATL ATL 4-0 COL New England (7-4-3) NER 3-3- CHI PHI 3-0 NER MIA 2-1 NER
For me right now, Ibarra is plan A. Rossetto is not a liability, but he’s not a game changer either. Ditto for Sejdic. Sosa can be a game changer, but is also a liability. All four can be upgraded, though.
Halftime and we’re down two nil. It’s like we’re afraid of the penalty area. So many promising plays get to the edge of the box and just die.
You wanna watch a ton of possession and passes with almost no actual chances on goal while giving up two, this club's for you. *sigh*
HT: 0-2 Guzan with a grade A f*** up to give away a goal in the first 20 seconds. Literally sucked the air out of the match. Gulch hadn't even kicked into our first cheer and Brad is pulling the ball out of his net. So stupid it was surreal. New England doubled their lead around the 40' mark. In their build up, the ball shifted from right to left, and every Stripe moved right. Purata, Gutman, and Ibarra were all crossed in their signals, that the resulting cross saw Bobby Wood wide open for the header. From my angle it looked like Guzan had a play but balked, but I don't know. Atlanta's attack has been lethargic. On the heels of Roberson's article about the need for urgency from moment 1, I think we've seen maybe 1 minute of urgency. They're not feeding Giorgos, they're hesitant to pull the trigger, they're not crossing it quickly enough... The Rev goals will only make it harder, cause they're gonna sit back and defend.
After that second goal if it wasn't for the drums in the supporters section, it would have been quiet as hell.
That last goal was on Ibarra failing to cover down on Gil. If this defensive midfield isn't shored up in the summer window, I'm starting to call for Pineda's job.
And NOW Atlanta has given up the most goals in the league, to match most scored (barring the Galaxy giving up a few more in their game tonight). I've been holding out for a long time, but I'm finally ready to call it. It leaves a huge hole in the leadership department on the field, but Brad is too much of a liability in goal. We need a new GK. Atlanta GKs have only stopped 52.5% of shots this year. Next worst is 62%. You're not going to win games like that, no matter how many goals you score.
I liked Diop’s command of the defense when he was in. Maybe making him the regular starter will raise the confidence level a bit.
Diop's the best pure shot stopper on the squad. But since foot skills take a priority for Pineda, Westburg is above him in the pecking order. Which I think is a mistake, but it's consistent for Pineda.
His distribution has always been mediocre-to-poor. And now his shot-stopping ability seems to have slipped. It's time to move on.