Atlanta United vs FC Cincinnati Mercedes Benz Stadium, Atlanta Sunday, May 25, 7:00 PM Apple TV MLSsoccer.com preview here. AJC.com United coverage. AUFC home page. Dutch Lions home page. Player Availability Reports Injury absences to be listed here. Stian likely the only absentee. Recent Form Atlanta (2-5-7) ATL 01- PHI ATX 1-1 ATL CHI 2-1 ATL Cincy (9-2-3) CLB 1-1 FCC TFC 0-1 FCC FCC 2-1 ATX ~ Musings and notes to come later.
I'll be working today, so I probably won't get to watch. Not terribly optimistic about the game, though.
Now let's hope the team puts on a show worth watching. Roberson implying Muyumba won't be available, and other sources implied the team worked heavily on shot production this week. Wonder in what lineups? FCC comes in looking fairly strong. Not quite the engine Philly has been or as flashy as earlier versions of Miami, but they're a stout defensive team and committed to making the other team endure mistakes. Atlanta will need to minimize the amount of possession the Cincy midfielders are allowed in the build up play, and to definitely keep crosses high rather than slipped balls into running strikers.
Miggy and Lath start up front. Mid 5 of Amador, Fortune, Slisz, Alexy, and Saba. Back 3 of Abram, Williams, and Edwards.
Strong lineup for Cincy. Evander, Denkey, Robinson, Miazga, et al. 15' to kickoff and the crowd is looking like the result is already decided.
HT: 2-0 I know, right?! The lads actually look like the Stripes we expected from Day 1. Cincy has had their chances, to be sure. Guzan has had to make a pair of big saves, and Cincy moves the ball like they know what they're doing. Helps Atlanta that 2 of their opponents have yellows. Fortune for #2 on a nice tap in after a Saba cross. Williams opened the scoring with a header off a free kick. Offensively Atlanta has looked sharper and should've had a third on a Lath breakaway. Their general passing and poise has been above par (for them) this season.
I am only listening to the radio, but I have it in my mind's eye how we looked vs games I've scene. And I feel like this should be our floor as far as effort and attacking competency. Not necessarily the score, but we should be able to create this style of chances.
Stripes let Cincy get within 1 on two occasions, and for a spell lot of people it felt like a tying goal was inevitable, but Atlanta holds on and Thiare seals it in the 94th. . Do that more often and they'll win more often. One can hope.
Watched some highlights and read a couple articles trying to digest more about the Stripes' evolution these past two matches. In addition to shifting to the back 3, Atlanta has apparently made an effort to attack via something other than the cross. As per Matt Doyle: As per Opta they launched the fifth-most crosses in the league (on average about 13 per game). As per Opta just two of those crosses, on average, were on the ground, which was 28th in the league. When you combine that cross-happy outlook with an attack that’s been weirdly slow to transition into the final third – and thus is launching those crosses against a set defense much more often than not – you get a team that hasn’t scored many goals. In the first half against Cincy, they didn’t launch a single cross (again, as per Opta). And in general, I thought they attacked with much more pace. For the game, they crossed the ball from open play just three times, and none of those were against a set Cincy backline. They forced the Garys to scramble and punished them for it, with four different goal-scorers. It should also be said that Jai Fortune clearly has been told to drive, drive, drive. He still made the occasional backwards pass and (along with others) pushed his luck a lot with dummy moves, but on the whole he was very successful at taking the ball and immediately driving forward. In fact, it was starkly obvious that Atlanta felt most in danger whenever they were hesitating or too slow in clearing the ball, whereas they were most dangerous themselves whenever they tried to force the issue. Last night they did so not only more often and with more ferocity, but also with more numbers. Fortune and Slisz' goals were the byproduct of having 4+ players in the box. In fact, both goals required VAR confirmation for fear another Atlanta player may have been offside or in an interfering position. The other big thing I noted last night was how much better Atlanta was at winning the ball, both in 50/50 instances and in taking it away from the Cincy players. Maybe they were simply angry at being called soft by the coach, and given Cincy has a much bigger team it was surprising to see at times, but Slisz, Edwards, Almiron, Fortune, and others all got in on the act last night and it made a huge difference.
That was what excited me about this game. Right now, I honestly don't mind if we lose 5 to 4 or even 1 to 0. I just don't want to see us pass in along the backline then down the wing for a stationary cross. The highlights on youtube showed more attacking down the center channel than I remember seeing on all the games on Fox plus a couple I was able to see on Apple.
I've only watched the first half so far (will try to watch the second half as a pregame for tonight), but the decisive attacking is the biggest difference. Don't wait for the play to develop. Drive towards goal and rely on the talent around you.