Five Takes On The Five Stripes

1: Atlanta has a Michelin star (it looks nothing like a star)

2: USWNT still struggling

3: The Braves need starting pitching

4: The Hawks not starting out great

5: Last minute ATL themed Halloween costume ideas

Five things to to know for the week ahead. 

1: A new Station Soccer mini pitch is opening

2: Nick Firmino's first team contract

3: One of Atlanta United's staff lost their apartment in a house fire. Here is the go-fund me link if you'd like to contribute. https://shorturl.at/aqxKN

4: San Diego FC rereleased their crest and it's definitely a crest

5: Josef will not be staying at Miami.

1: In the first half we accosted Acosta. I lost count of how many times he had the ball taken off his feet. But then we back off of one challenge & he finds Powell who finds Badji for the goal. In the post season we have to be better at closing down high quality threats like that

2: For all his offensive prowess Caleb can be a defensive liability. Sort of a problem for a defender. He’s still giving too much space to his man on the wing & you just can’t get wrong sided & lose an aerial duel to the shortest player on the pitch. 

3: Losing Almada was the worst thing that could’ve happened in a fairly low stakes match. We now miss him for the first round. We lacked real discipline tonight. We nearly lost two players for the first round. We knew what was at stake and what was important. It’s disappointing and it’s not the first time it’s happened with Thiago. 

4: I know we may get frustrated with repetitive coach speak but I really feel like tonight came down to those little moments that Gonzo so often likes to reference. Lapses in concentration, STUPID fouls. They were our undoing tonight and may be our undoing in the playoffs. 

5: I know many of us were scoreboard watching tonight, trying to assess who would be our preferred opponent. Not sure it matters now that Thiago is out. I was thinking Orlando over Columbus but Disney FC has the best away record and Columbus is quality. 🤷‍♂️ No good options.

Caleb and USA U23's Olympic Pursuit

USMNT 3-1 Loss to Germany 

Playoff Scenarios for Atlanta on Decision Day

The Unified Team

Franco Ibarra's return

1: I get why Caleb took the position he did to cut off incoming balls to Gressel but when those balls find Jullian, good grief. Gressel only needs half a yard to cross in a quality ball and Caleb gave him more than that. 

2: We attempted to apply pressures in Columbus’ half we just didn’t win the ball off of them nearly enough and the few times we did, we didn’t launch into a meaningful attack after. 

3: It’s a little jarring to play a team like Columbus only a few days after a team like Philly and it showed. Columbus passed at 91% and won 8 corners in the first half alone. That should tell you everything you need to know about how effective we let them be. They kept the ball on the ground and moved it around effectively and we didn’t do enough to break up their rhythm. Credit to our defense for a few good moments and some key tackles because without those, it’s 2-0 Columbus at the half. 

4: Even with Miles scoring the winner and even with the goal we conceded I think MOTM goes to Guz for me. Maybe his distribution wasn’t the best at times, but his gloves kept us in this one. 

5: This was billed as a an exciting match where both teams wanted the ball. Well it was exciting (and frustrating in equal measure) but I only saw one team that wanted the ball. Try as we might, we just could not get the ball off their feet. I give Columbus a lot of credit. They did not change their approach one bit at any time. Even kicking off directly after our equalizer, they were quick, aggressive and progressed the ball quickly on the ground. They basically played the type of game we like to play. They looked a contender for MLS cup and we looked like maybe we’ll get out of the first round. 

1: That was a handball. The game changed from there. 

2: I’m honestly surprised Philly didn’t score on us earlier in the first half via taking advantage of us not being switched on. We looked reactive to everything. The very definition of not being switched on. Philly figured us out. Play quick against the slower team. 

3: We transitioned into our old form of having no transition, either direction. The 2nd goal is shambolic and inexcusable. I don’t think Chilowicz called the players over for a discussion. If that was the case then he should absolutely stop the play and call for the ball to come back. It looked like our guys simply chirping and if that’s the case, I’m so tired of it and we do it too much.  If you’re gonna do that, someone better be standing in front of the ball preventing the kick. It’s embarrassing and unprofessional to give up a goal in that manner.

4: Credit to the boys for having a proper go of it in the 2nd half. Edwin showed up big again from the bench. I stand by last episode’s take on him. It’s a shame the same team didn’t play in the first half but is nice to know we have game changers on the bench. 

5: We’re at our best when we keep the ball on the carpet and move it quickly. The 2nd half showed the fans that and it should show the players that. We have go to remember that, especially when things aren’t going our way via giving up a soft or flukey goal or a call not going our way. We aren’t going to get back into the match by getting away from who we are and what we do. 

1: Those whipped in balls from Saba are really difficult to bring under control but if you can do it, you’re probably going to score. 

2: Didn’t much care for the manner in which we conceded but I did like our response. The goal looked like we were looking for a call from the ref. Hamdi just had so much time and space, I’ve got no other explanation. But we went right back to work. Couldn’t find an immediate goal but we didn’t hang our heads. 

3: Left, right and center. We utilized the entirety of the pitch, which is something we did not do in DC. The right was still preferred but we did a good job of keeping Montreal guessing which lead to them being disorganized often. 

4: Pretty good introduction for Jamal getting a player sent off 😆. Every new player is contributing in seriously meaningful ways and every old player has raised their level to match. The FO has hit an Acuña level home run with this window. 

5: Edwin Mosquera has faced serious adversity. He barely saw the pitch last season in a difficult moment, gets loaned out to a team that doesn’t want him and comes back in yet another difficult moment. He deserves all the credit for putting the word, blocking out the noise proving all the doubters, myself included, wrong. 

1: A really poor start to the first half. Pepto Bismol FC came out hot and were relentless with their pressure and physicality. Credit to them, it worked. They did exactly what I think WE wanted to do. They played on the front foot and counter pressured their way to success. We got rocked. 

2: There’s flipping a switch and then there’s ripping the switch off the damn wall. I don’t believe we’ve ever scored 3 goals in the span of 9 minutes. It turns out that good things happen when you put the ball in the box and or get direct. I really don’t think it’s any more complicated than that. We just played with more aggression (that almost spilt over) started executing our game, particularly in the area of counter pressures and the 5 second rule. 

3: Saba is a total game changer. Grant it we had already managed to flip the script by the time he came on but he brings a style and an an energy that teams don’t seem to have an answer for. I know he’s meant to start but he might be the most effective super sub we’ve ever had. With Mosquera having been much improved I think it’s a legit option to roll on as is. 

4: The goals we scored all felt different in terms of their build up and finishes To be able to hit teams in so many different ways is reminiscent of 2017-2019. 

5: That was a statement. That was historic. Whatever happens with Miami going forward, however much more success they or don’t have in the Messi and friends era, Atlanta will always be the team that dealt them their first L. Might even have the added bonus of being the team that keeps them below the line depending on how the remaining games for them go.

1: I cannot believe Miles got beat like that. Seeing the ball out is the right decision And yes we see that called a foul at times but for me, it wasn’t.  I can’t be mad at the decision to try and see the ball out. It’s the right one for me. He just got beat. It did look like maybe the ball was out of play, but there was probably a small piece of it that was still on the line.

2: We had a decent initial response to the goal, but then the same thing happened that always happens when we give up the first goal. We get rattled and unraveled. However, surprisingly enough, we managed to do something we just haven’t done much of at all the past three years and that’s dig out a response when things are clearly not working for us at any level. That’s pretty huge in my book. Happy for Air Georgios but boy was he lucky not he sent off in for a second yellow for that elbow. 

3:Sosa looked liked a kid at a new school trying to play it cool but is in actuality totally lost. I don’t think he had a single meaningful touch, of the positive variety anyhow. The midfield was such a massive drop off until Tristan and Silva came on. I would have liked to have seen him subbed off much earlier. 

4: It’s amazing what players like Thiago can do. It’s even more incredible when they have the right pieces around them. Tonight’s two halves showed that very cealrly. Yeah he was still able to serve up a great hall to GG for the dunk, but Thiago was exponentially more impactful in the 2nd half and that’s not down to him working harder. 

5: OK we’re OK. Match kind of played out the way we thought it would with the given personnel on the pitch at different times. Clearly the window has been positive. We have identified needs and got the right pieces in. We have a clearly defined starting 11 and clearly defined depth pieces. When is the last time we’ve been able to say that? I feel really good about where the team is right now, we just need to stay healthy. Having Ozzie back will be helpful and who knows if this final player is going to come from Senegal or not but as it stands right now, things are pretty good.

1: Forget dripping in finesse Silva is drenched in it. Yeah he gets a little fortunate with the deflection on the pass to Mosquera but that controlled touch to set up the chance? The boy has real technically ability. If I have any criticism of him it’s that the boy wants to play with ball all the time and sometimes, you just need to boot it long or clear your lines rather than constantly trying to start an attacking sequence. 

2: So you’re telling there’s a chance but you’re also telling me that chance will be dealt with defensively? I can live with that. In the first half we did an excellent job of controlling the tempo and taking care of the ball. It’s why Cincy just didn’t have much. Hard to have much when you don’t have the ball. 

3: I’m really happy Mosquera scored but that does not take away the fact that he is not at the level needed. I’m sorry but when nobody is within 10 yards of you any direction, you gotta be able to take a ball down out of the sky. He scored a goal with an XG of 💯, and he scoffed 3-4 really good opportunities that I feel like Saba would’ve done more with. Unfortunately Saba never really got the opportunities that Mosquera did but i imagine we will in the future simply by starting over Edwin. 

4: The officiating was poor. But that’s not why we lost. We lost because we lost control of the ball from about min 60 onward. Cincy took advantage of that and just hit us with counter after counter until we conceded on a Goalazo +1. The goals didn’t feel like the soft goals we’ve seen so often, they came because we just stopped taking care of the ball. 

5: And because we lost control and didn’t take care of the ball, the attacking opportunities, via really good midfield combination play didn’t come and Saba never really got a chance to do much. It’s like we just sort of stopped doing what we had been doing so well. A couple of good subs from Cincy and maybe some tired legs from us and we just couldn’t handle it. We’re definitely playing better but we missed out on an opportunity to really make a statement tonight. But, Cincy is the best team in the league for a reason.