Atlanta United vs. San Jose Earthquakes Mercedes-Benz Stadium – Atlanta September 21 – 3:30 PM ET Univision AJC.com United page here. MLSsoccer.com preview here. ATLUTD.com preview here. San Jose preview here. Keeping it simple since we're hours from kickoff and most everyone knows the context for the day. San Jose comes in having lost 2 straight on the road, but they did not have a midweek match like Atlanta. They're fighting for their own playoff position in a very tight, crowded western conference field, currently sitting 6th at 1 point above the Mendoza line but also just 4 points from 3rd. !st year coach Matias Almeyda has galvanized a squad that's traditionally been an underachiever and made the most of Wondolowski's fading skills. They run, they look to shoot often, and they will do their best to make the game an up-and-down affair save for moments of counter-attacking play when they need to regroup. For Atlanta there's no news on the injury front as Barco is still considered out. Roberson expects some changes to the lineup as a simple matter of squad rotation as the Stripes have the biggest game left of the regular season in 4 days when they travel to the Bronx. But even then Atlanta needs to take care of business first, so 3 points today, at home against a team coming off 5+ hours of flight time, is a must. Build off the momentum from Wednesday, don't be afraid to play the long ball to keep the Earthquake D stretched, and keep Espinoza busy running backwards. Stripes win 2-0, and then all eyes turn toward Wednesday.
1-0 in the 5'(?) as Mera benefits from a wicked deflection. Atlanta had space to run if they can hold the ball but early goings find SJE running and running. Stripes need to move the ball more quickly from defense, by something OTHER than Miles dribbling into the opposing third.
'Quakes begging Atlanta's defenders to dribble out of their own half, and the Stripes are not adapting. Need to drop Nagbe back and make him bring it out instead of Remedi, who's struggling with his passes so far. Gressel being held in check by San Jose aggressively pushing forward every time they get the ball.
24' = yellow for Meram. 3rd time tonight a Stripes player races forward with the ball and loses it due to a bad touch or just dribbling into traffic instead of passing. If Atlanta just plays simpler and takes what San Jose gives them they'd have more possession, IMO.
26' 1-1 OG for LGP. Espinoza gets the ball off a keeper kick that Meram completely miss reads, races down the left and his cross into traffic gets redirected past Guzan.
33' Espinoza steps on LGP, learns math. 1 yellow + 1 yellow = 1 red. Bet he regrets that 1st yellow now!
With Atlanta building possession Nagbe, Pity, and Josef are all gesturing and yelling as if someone is out of place. Given the spacing it's clear no one knows who's to drive forward and who's to be the central lay off. 44' and Hyndman misses a sitter.
HT: 1-1 The team looks tired. Meram isn't proving as a effective, a lot of sloppy passing going on, and they're getting caught on the break. Put Tito on for Hyndman or Meram and Jeff for Remedi. Let Jeff provide the passing Eric cannot, trusting that the extra man won't cost you defensively by making this switch.
At the beach watching on Univision and spent the last 20 minutes trying to turn on the SAP feature.My high school Spanish is failing me.Tito on now... hoping he can provide the finishing spark.
58' and Tito comes on for Meram. 63' and the game is wide open. Lot of tacky fouls, misread runs... Everything except quality shots. 65' sees Vasquez come on for Remedi. Curious to see formation now. Edit: Nagbe drops back to replace Remedi while (apparently) Pity drops deeper so Brandon can play up.
Classic case of a team playing bunker ball now while the attacking team just can't find the magic opening. If you cant be at the game that's not a bad Plan B! Donde Esta?
79' sees Josef subbed for Mo Adams (?!?) after struggling to stay fit after a collision with Pity Martinez. Thus endeth his goal streak.
90' 2-1 Hyndman the gift of a defensive lapse by a tired San Jose D, which collapses onto a driving Nagbe and leaves Emerson wide open in right side of the box.
Switched to watching the game on twitter... then lost the feed just before the goal. Plan B = St. George Island
Thanks. SJE acquitted themselves well given the circumatances. Felt the red was earned but otherwise the ref was rash. Good luck the Quakes the rest of the way. Nice to see fresh faces in the western playoff mix.
Hope St. Josef is okay. The way they carted him off did not look good. That was a satisfying win. I'll need to catch the highlights later, right now the beach is calling my name.
Didn't see Espinoza's first card because I was in the car. Glad to get this win... we don't look sharp at all (some of that was because of a much-improved SJ squad), and I'm hoping everyone is suffering from end-of-season fatigue like we seem to be. Hoping Josef is ready for NYC, but my fears are still pretty high right now.
It's been long enough that I was going, "Wait, Mears and Walkes and Romario are gone, doesn't look like Bello... " until I could get a good look at the name. "Oh, yeah, that's Mohammed... forgot about him"