Five Takes On The Five Stripes

The one where we are gggonna be ok

A discussion, big picture, about the state of the USMNT. 

The one where we’ve run out of clever intros

1: Fits and starts. I can not and have not been able to make heads or tails of this team this year and the quality of some of our performances. In our waking states we look ok, even pretty good at times. But we have not been able to maintain any sort of consistency for any extended period of time. 

Sometimes it works with this formation and that formation and this group of players and that group of players but then not again with those same players in the same formation. So then we make changes and that doesn’t work. Then we have a good outing against a quality opponent and shit the bed against a lesser opponent and then vice versa. My shoulders hurt from all the shrugging. 🤷‍♂️ 

 

2: Almada is such a technically gifted player. I hope next season goes differently for us because if he’s still here and if he’s playing in a system that suits his abilities, he could be one of those players that has a relatively short stint in MLS but is talked about for years. 

 

3: Next year will be very different with MLS going to Apple TV and Leagues Cup. I’m very excited about being able to watch every match no matter where I am. Being able to sync up local radio calls is also going to be a fantastic addition. At the same time as much as I’m thrilled to have the games moving away from Bally (who is truly awful) I’m going to really miss Mo, Jillian, and Kev on the broadcast. Im assuming Apple will have their own people but maybe they’ll recognize the value this team has brought over the years and bring them over. Leagues cup next summer is also gonna be great. I love the idea of having a month long tournament outside MLS for a trophy that could end up becoming really big. It’s an opportunity to grow the league and for teams and players to test themselves against opponents they would regularly never see. It’s also a chance for casual MLS viewers to be exposed to more of what the beautiful game has to offer. 

 

4: Joe stays. His time will come to an end but I don’t think anyone, least of all him, wants it to end like this. He has a year left on his contract and an option. Play it out. Move on from Luiz, and keep Thiago if you can, and then let’s see if whoever comes in compliments him well and maybe he can get back to his old form or close to it. If it doesn’t come off next year, we’re in for a full on reboot anyhow so I say let’s wait till then, even if that may mean risking another year of pain. I think the potential reward is worth it. 

 

5: It was nice to see and hear from Guz at the end. My lord how we have missed him, Miles and Ozzie this year. Of all the things that hurt us this year, not having veteran leadership on the pitch game in and game out hurt the most. 

The one where we needed a Revolution and unfortunately we got it

1: Really poor goal keeping from Gudino on the first goal. It was clumsy to give away the penalty and then really poor on the penalty kick itself. It’s usually always 50/50 on PK’s but he was already well off his line and diving right before the ball was even struck. It was gifted. 

 

2: Almada was doing everything he could to win this game for Atlanta. Anytime we posed a threat it was generally off a through ball from him or some lovely piece of dribbling. Apart from that, the attack was disjointed at best. It will be interesting to see what the future holds for him. I’m sure the club would love to hang on to him for another season but big European clubs will undoubtedly be picking up the phone. 

 

3: Sosa had a good individual game but that’s been a consistent them this season. Individual standout performances but not a consistent team performance consistently enough. Still, I thought he was good in his play, connected most of his passes and was aggressive in his duels which overall was severely lacking throughout the rest of the team. 

 

4: With that Goalazo and his late season performances in general, Josef will give Pineda and the FO something to ponder. I disagree with Pineda’s choice not to start Josef today. For me, you play the hot hand. Josef has looked better and he’s coming off scoring for his country. You start him. It’s definitely a question that Pineda will face as far as why he didn’t. Josef made answering it that much more difficult. 

 

5: The more concerning thing for me over the course of this season has not been the amount of losses, but rather the performances that went along with them. I want to win as often as possible but I don’t have an issue with losing to a better team after a good performance. Too often our losses haw showcased a really really poor performance. Today was no different. 

The one where we have at least Juan reason to he hopeful

1: First half was very much the story of the season. The first half of the season anyhow. We were in complete control of the match. Quality chances created. Couldn’t find a goal. Even with a PK chance. The team did look better and more cohesive with Dwyer up top and Araujo more out wide. Luiz even looked better tonight, even with missing the PK. Why is that? Does it have something to do with Josef not being there? We could speculate all day, but to my eyes, we looked like more a unit today than we have in any prior match for a long time. 

 

2: Gudiño is not comfortable with the ball at his feet at all. Unless he’s got time and is under no pressure, his distribution isn’t great. He just kinda hacked at the ball the few times he was under some pressure. It’s a problem and not someone we will probably be able to look to long term unless we completely change the way we play and become a team that wants to play direct and hit on the counter. 

 

3: Help us Obi-Juan, you’re our only hope. The first player to hit a hatty with his head in this league since 2010. What an addition he’s been to this team. For all the criticisms the FO gets, some justified, some not, credit has to be given when they get things right. He’s one they’ve gotten right. When people talk about “wiping the slate clean” you really wanna get rid of players like him? 🤷‍♂️ I think we thought he’d be a solid presence in the back and offer up some much needed leadership but I don’t know if we expected him to be the aerial threat that he is. That’s a great weapon to have. If it’s not going our way and we’re finding chances hard to come by, let’s take the ball down and win some corners and give him a chance to go up and win it. 

 

4: I really really like Mosquera. I’d like to see what we can do as a starter. He’s bringing that intense 20 minute injury, fighting for every ball using his insane speed. Could he spread that out over 90? Is he better suited in that Jake Mulraney super sub type role? Something tells me he’s got a bit more to give and good potentially be a really vital component of this team going forward into next year. 

 

5: This was good. Is it too late? Mathematically no. Realistically? I still think it’s too steep a mountain to climb. Tonight gets us a little purchase on the playoff chase slope, but the incline certainly gets steeper than Toronto. Toronto was also missing several key players. So, another good performance against a less than great team. Now we have to go on a run the likes of which we haven’t seen 2019. 

The one where we are the best of the worst

1: We went up against the worst team statistically and aesthetically in MLS and we couldn’t net a goal in the first half. It’s not good enough. I figured DC would come out with a little more after getting embarrassed by Philly again, but nonetheless, we should’ve scored in the first half. 

 

2: It’s cool to keep the opponent guessing in how we are going to score, but so often it looks like we are keeping ourselves guessing. We move the ball around well enough, we get it into the final third and then too often we’re missing the final key pass. For me, we just lack an attacking identity that the players feel comfortable and confident with. 

 

3: As far as individual performances go, I thought Brooks and Almada were outstanding. Two assists for Brooks and one from Almada. Thiago could hit a target that was ray shielded and only 3 meters wide. If we are to go on a run and if we are going to get hot in the post season it will be his passing quality that plays a major role. 

 

4: Can we be happy with this win and recognize that the level of performance against a bottom dweller is still not good enough to get us into the post season and then do anything once we are there? Yes I think so. Once again we could say the team showed grit and fight to come from behind, twice, to get the result. And once again we can say that we shouldn’t fall behind, much less fall behind at home, much less fall behind at home to DC. Nonetheless, our post season hopes are alive, now all we have to do is get a couple results against Philly and Portland away. No problem. 

 

5: The King has returned. Maybe. This was far and away the best version of Josef we’ve seen in a very long time. To be fair to him, Josef has looked a little better recently. He has in fact, prior to this match, had a goal and an assist. But in those matches he still didn’t look like the “old Josef”. Today, for 30 minutes, I thought he very much did. FWIW, I liked the no celebration after his goal. He knows it hasn’t been good enough. He knows he hasn’t been good enough. There is still time to set things right. 

The one where the woodwork won’t work

1: It is the hope that kills you. The first half, in particular the first 25 minutes was hands down the best attacking soccer we’ve seen all season. You gotta make hay while the sun is shinning and we just didn’t make quite enough in that time. It’s great that we came from behind yet again to dig out a result and that’s something we probably don’t do a few weeks ago. But if we just didn’t always have a damn mountain to climb. A result on the road against a dangerous attacking team is something any team will happily take, but the win was there and at this point we really need a road win. 

 

2: It was a combination of individual mistakes (been the case all season) and Cincy’s ability to transition into attack so quickly that lead to their goals. This is a completely different Cincinatti team and most of that is due to Brand Vazquez and Lucho Acosta. Acosta is sitting on 6 goals and 9 assists and Vazquez has 15 goals and 4 assists. Those are wildly good stats. It would be a mistake for Greggggggg not give Brandon a call for September. He’s goal dangerous and we need that in Qatar. 

 

3: Despite being scored on twice in the first half, I thought this was a good game for Rocco. He had 3 massive saves and his distribution was more than on point, it was dangerous. With only ten games left, I think he’s locked down the spot for the remainder of the season. 

 

4: Purata is great. The messy 2nd goal is whatever. He times his tackles so extremely well. For a defender, he doesn’t get whistled for fouls all that often because he’s winning his challenges so often. He’s been an outstanding addition.

 

5: We are a totally different team with Gutman in the XI. On top of his clutch goals, and all of his individual contributions, we just play with more urgency and intensity when he’s out there laying his body on the line. 

The one where winning is Gutman

1: We are still not pressuring enough and turning the ball over in dangerous spots. Furthermore, when we do, we don’t transition into attack quickly enough. In stark contrast, we are getting turned over more than pancakes at Waffle House. It’s a major part of our game that is and has been lacking. It was a better in the 2nd half. 

 

2: Injury FC returns. Did we really think our no injury luck would continue? We’re now missing Campbell and it looks Rossetto for an extended period of time. At least we have Purata with us now and Sosa back healthy to make up for these new defensive and midfield losses. Purata has added a much needed calm veteran presence to our back line. 

 

3: It was nice to see Luiz with some runs in behind today. He can be really threatening when he’s doing that and today he was rewarded with a great assist. We all know he’s great 1V1 and can bring the sauce anytime he wants, but if he would just do more of the simple things more often we would get more out of it. 

 

4: Small sample size but I look what I saw out of Mosquera. Good movement off the ball. Good control with it. He looks like a threat on the wing and he’s comfortable on either side. For just landing this week, he looks to be syncing up quickly. 

 

5: Don’t base your well-being on sports. It’s nothing but heartbreak and pure elation with absolutely nothing in between. I was ready to add this game to the every growing tally of matches where we actually play pretty good football and get nothing for our trouble. This is something we can build on and the winning goal coming from a player coming back from injury feels like a little bit, just a little bit, of justice. I’m glad we could send Darren off with a win. 

The one where our results are unified

1: Here we are, once again, talking about something we don’t to talk about, Refereeing. At the time of writing this it’s not 100% clear but based on Pineda’s comments in the post game presser, it seems to him that Rocco have a thumbs up gesture while he was by the post which Rivas took as him saying he was set and ready when he wasn’t. We have not yet heard from Rivas on what he saw and why he blew his whistle when he did but even if he did see Rocco giving him whatever gesture, he’s by the post when doing so, and no keeper would ever signal to a ref that he was set in that position and IMO, Rivas should know better. Deliberately or not, he directly affected the outcome of a match. 

 

2: After the goal it be came a different game. Orlando basically stopped playing. They were able sit back and deploy the dark arts. They didn’t have to press their attack which didn’t leave much space in behind for Ronaldo to run into as he did against RSL. As per usual with this team, our success is very much predicated on getting the first goal in a match. Very rarely do we have a way to break a team down and a win from a trailing position. 

 

3: If we don’t make the post season, let’s be clear about why. Injuries and 5 inches or less. I’ve lost count of how many “so close” goals we’ve missed on. There were at least 3 tonight with two of them being from Josef. 

This isn’t, and hasn’t been a team that’s played trash football for the majority of the season. Some chances have not been converted because of missing that little bit of extra finesse, others have been from keepers putting on their best gloves against us. Fortunately the East remains tight and we do have a game in hand. Reinforcements have arrived, the team is playing better with the personnel we have, and we haven’t had an injury in 3 matches and we do have some players that should be returning soon. It is still there for us but we will need to find some crucial road points. 

 

4: I think Pineda got the substitutes absolutely right. Since we were chasing the game for so long it was better suited for Josef than it was Ronaldo. But keeping Ronaldo on with Josef and Almada was also the right decision. In the event we got the equalizer and things started opening up more, which happened, having Ronaldo still making darting runs was useful. Giving Dwyer the 20 minute runout was also the right move since Ronaldo was pretty gassed at that point and we know Dom has the ability to break a game. He brings a level of chaotic energy that teams struggle to contain. We didn’t get the win tonight but trust that Orlando was defending for their lives for the last 20 minutes. 

 

5: Even without a goal Moreno played one of his best games tonight. I really really like how he and Caleb are combining. There’s some really good chemistry building there. Moreno won more than half of his dribbles and even had 6 tackles, 3 successful. He also won 20/30 duels, created a chance and was fouled 6 times (he was tackled much more than that). Can’t ask for much more than that. 

The one where we play Real good soccer.

1: Sejdic had a helluva game. Him and Rossetto both were at their best. Sejdic had at least 3 tackles leading to turnovers that, at the very least, lead to good attacking sequences if not outright chances. He ran himself into the ground and I think this team, now more than ever, needs a player doing that. I don’t want anyone inured but that kind of effort, playing for literally every ball, has a big ripple effect. 

 

2: The theme of giving up a goal quickly after scoring continues. Justin Meram has so much quality but truthfully his target was WIDE open. Once again, Alan Franco left a man unmarked. Hard to believe he was on a DP contract initially. There’s a lot of criticism being leveled at the FO right now, some fair some not. I think it’s totally fair to hold them to account on Franco. He’s good at times but has never been consistent from game to game. His mistakes are of the most glaring variety. 

 

3: Ronaldo was dynamic as hell tonight. Both of his goals in the first half were top class under pressure finishes. He looked confident running at goal calling for the ball like he did with his first goal, receiving the ball from Almada. That assist was nothing to shrug at either. Almada has the ability to put the ball on a dime when he wants to. 

 

4: The attack looked totally different when Josef came on for Ronaldo and not really for the better. I’m not saying Ronaldo is a better player than Josef, but i am saying that who we had available tonight was better suited to the type of player he is. And that will be something for Pineda to consider going forward. He’s more of a work horse and will do more off-the-ball and defensive work than Josef will. He tends to play a larger role in the manufacturing process of his goals. 

 

5: This felt like a careful result. There were times when we could’ve broke on counters, or even midfield turnovers, and more often than not, we made the conscious choice to hold up the ball, get everything reset, and then move forward. A more confident and cohesive Atlanta United would probably be more aggressive in those moments. Given who we are right now, that was probably the right move even if it’s frustrating at times for us fans to watch. Right now, it’s about points by any means necessary. 

The one where we are not alright alright alright

1: Austin, maybe more than any other team in MLS, is so good at making something out of nothing. It’s a metaphor for their whole season. They are a completely different team from last year and a legitimate cup contender. Reminds me a lot of us in ‘18. They look like a well drilled team that understands who they are, what they want to do, and is oh yeah, healthy. 

 

2: At times our build up looks so good with  clean crisp passing in tight spaces. There’s moments where it looks like passing drills. Really good stuff. But we couldn’t generate genuine chances out of it. 

 

3: We can still mathematically make the playoffs. But so much has to be turned around for the good for us and so much turned around for the worse for other teams. It does seem pretty unlikely. There’s pretty much no margin for error at this point and with so much of the season still to be played, errors will happen. Unless we do what the Braves did in June, it may be out of  reach. Still, maybe, just maybe we could squeak in at the end. 

 

4: I think I would’ve like to have seen a more aggressive substation move at the half, but would that have really changed the result? No probably not. It’s not like there was anyone on the bench that would’ve been a real game changer on that level. Seems like Sosa may still not be able to go a full half yet anyhow and he’s the only other player on the bench that I think could’ve made any sort of meaningful impact against what we were facing. 

 

5: The problems we are facing will not be solved quickly. We’re over halfway through the season and it just seems unlikely that the lack of consistency that we have been struggling with in terms of the lineup and defensive performances will come good quick enough. Consistency takes something we are running out of. Time.