Five Takes On The Five Stripes

The one where our sheets are dirty

1: Cubo is like my dog with her food at night, he refuses to finish. HIs work rate and effectiveness outside the 18 and final third is great but I don’t believe he could walk a ball into the net. It doesn’t matter how good the ball in is, he can’t convert and it’s infuriating. 

 

2: Set piece defending is much improved. Man marking was effective and no Philly player was able to find space for a free header by getting in front of their defender. This has been a weak point of ours so I’m VERY happy to see improvement here. 

 

3: Barco was surprisingly quiet. I expected more of a jolt and impact from little boat motoring around the pitch. I didn’t really see him making many runs off the ball and the few touches he had didn’t lead to anything. With Josef and Hyndmam out and Cubo being what he is, this is more opportunity for him to be the showcase piece he needs to be. It wasn’t on display in the first half. He was much better in the 2nd. 

 

4: We have to  start seeing matches out. The equalizing goal from Philly is #SCTOP10.  Glesnes should’ve been closed down sooner, but you can take nothing away from that strike. It’s not the first time he’s hit from range. The first goal tho, that’s a switch off immediately after scoring and can’t happen. Blowing back to back dos a cero leads in the final 15 minutes is demoralizing and sows doubt into the minds of us supporters and I’m sure the players as well. I would like to see a more defensive shape/subs from Heinze when we’re up a goal or two and trying to see a game out. I love the brand of football he has us playing but sometimes you just gotta sit back and a see a game out. Fresh legs and sharp minds are needed. 

 

5: I’m proud of my club for continuing to make priorities a priority. Releasing a kit (albeit with typos) that focuses on unification, diversity and equality reinforces the founding principals of Atlanta United. Results on the pitch may be inconsistent year to year but what ATL UTD stands for has always remained consistent and that was on full display yet again today with the kits, tifo and Dr Bernice King hitting the spike. 

The one where Miami isn't the only one dealing with corruption

1: Route One United. Robinson was like an overturned brinks truck dropping dimes. That ball to Moreno....with 3 defenders.....c’mon. Great finish from Moreno as well. He had another great direct ball to Mulraney as well. Route one hasn’t been a big part of our game but I like that we added it in this game. It gave Nashville big problems. Miles and Bello are the case studies for what our development system can do and produce. They will both move on this year or next for big sums to big clubs. That’s massively important for longevity of this club. 

 

2: Heinze has to be given a Ton of credit. He’s held firm. He’s been true to his philosophy and made minor adjustments along the way. IE the miles long ball we saw today. It’s fair to say that the FO has been a bit on the Chaotic side as of late with the Atheltic article and now the “mutually agreed” 🙄 departure of McDonough. Despite all of those issues and drama, the progress of this team has been steady and uninterrupted. Heinze gets all the credit in the world for that. 

3: Five Takes influences everything. The two players we’ve been asking more of deliver! The second goal came from a terrific run by Moreno and then a decent enough ball from Bello but it was nothing amazing. Eric Lopez was just able to sneak into the box and have a cheeky little finish. And Nashville let him. He just ran by the defenders. Lopez had a big leap forward today. 

4: Chance creation is still not to the level we want it or need it to be at. We’re talking about good quality chances and better service for Josef, not just balls over the top. We need more chances created from the build-up. Today was better in that regard. Now we just need it to continue. Besides set pieces, it’s what we need to work on the most. 

5: Terrible time to get a draw to the kings of the draw. Definitely feels like a loss. We had control. We got the 2nd goal, finally. We were going into the break with a big result against the best team in the league and a solid home win and we switched off for 5 minutes. Results like this worry me. They can get into players heads because now it’s like, well we know 1 goal sure as hell isn’t enough but then we get the second and we lose it at the end. Hopefully we shake it off and this doesn’t linger. 

The one where it's difficult to think of a Tie-tle

1: That’s it. Set piece clinic. We need it. We are abysmal at defending them. I’m tired of conceding goals off of corners and free kicks. Not letting your man get in front of you should not be something  professional players of this caliber need to work on but clearly we do. It’s unacceptable and cheap goals can be game changing for a team that’s just probably not going to be scoring a ton of goals. 

2: Emotions got the better of us in the first 15. We were knocked off our game. Teams getting in our heads early on, where we absolutely need to be creating chances and converting those chances, is no bueno. That being said, we solidified our defensive shape and Seattle, who is known for creating chances, didn’t have much to say afterwards. It is our defense that is keeping us in games and giving us these chances to go on and get a result late on. 

3: Eric Lopez is a kid and he showed it. He was consistently reckless with his challenges. Making a hard tackle in the opponents final third is not necessary and when he’s on a yellow, he has to make better choices. For all the people hyping Lopez, he's still a kid. He got bossed by Nouhou tonight and subbing him out at the half was the right decision. 

4: We are still not doing enough with our possession in terms of the attack. For the most part teams that have less possession are doing more with it than we are with more. We need to be quicker especially in transition. We need to see more quick 1-2 touch passing and instead of playing back when we are pressed let’s take some chances and go forward. It is that willingness to get forward and take a couple risks that lead to our late equalizer. 

5: So, I guess we  are now the new “Goonies never say die”? Look, we definitely can’t keep leaving it so late but let’s also take stock of what happened. We limited the best team in the league to two shots on goal and one goal and we got a road point. We looked much better and much more willing to get forward and take chances in the second half and that’s what lead to Josef doing what Josef does. To quote Rafiki “the king has returned”. 

 

 

 

The one where late is still great

1: Moreno can probably dribble anyone off the pitch but he absolutely cannot shoot. He had a sitter of a shot in the 15th thanks to a lovely cutback ball from Lennon and he just whiffed. You CANNOT miss those. Forget putting it on frame, you gotta at least make contact with the ball. He doesn’t have his confidence and I don’t know how he gets it. 

 

2: Sossa showing just a little immaturity and that’s not a slight. It’s expected. He’s a skilled intelligent player but he has to avoid the cheap easy early yellows. 

 

3: We saw an Atlanta United that had a clear and effective plan and style of play.....for the first 20 minutes. After that it totally broke down. Montreal grew into the game and knocked us off of ours. This might start to develop into a pattern. We can’t be a team that is dependent on getting a goal early in the first half because we can’t be be consistent for 90. 

 

4: Passing was accurate. Also slow and meaningless. Moving the ball around and having a 85%+ passing success rate is great but it doesn’t mean a lot if the majority of those passes are safe and don’t lead to any chances or even a whiff of them. 

 

5: This was the first match Where we felt truly and continually disappointed. The disappointment is probably magnified because it was the first home match at the Benz at full capacity. It was the first match where the team and overall play felt unrecognizable . It felt like FDB was coaching over Zoom. But then we get the win at the last possible second from a player that I think a lot of us were screaming to have subbed off so honestly, we don’t know what the fuck to say now. 😝 Take the three points, and have some perspective that we are still learning and growing with new players, a new system and a new coach and we beat a side that is still top of the east. We should however expect and demand better than what we saw tonight for sure. 

The one where we can draw a lot from a draw

1: Little surprised by the aggression from the Union. They were trying to put this thing to bed from the word go. And then it didn’t stop. Even after our goal. They never really took up a more defensive posture. They expanded a ton of energy which in terms of the CONCACAF tournament won’t let mean much since the next match for the union is months away but they’re gonna be cooked for league play. 

 

2: The book is out on Atlanta United and it is apparently well read. Philadelphia did another great job, particularly in the first half, of stifling our attack and exploiting the spaces we were leaving. Don’t get it twisted tho, we do like this style of play. We do prefer this style of play. It does have to yield results. It will take more time than I think anyone is hoping and probably more than most are comfortable with. The same holds true with Josef. It’s there. He’s there. All that is required is minutes and reps. He knows this more than anyone as was evident by his acceptance of being taken off before the 80th minute. A fully fit and scoring Josef is angry as hell being taken. Off. Time. Just need time. 

 

3: We were, once again, happy with what we saw. Look, it’s fair to say that what we saw tonight is not exactly how we are going to play in every match. We’re down 3 goals, that immediately dictates how the team is going to play. Of course it’s going to look frenetic, of course there’s going be space in behind. We were going for it. The goal we conceded is a direct result of that. We were gassed after a crazy passage of play where we were knocking on the door so hard our knuckles were bleeding. 

 

4: Sosa is So So good. Hard to believe that was his first professional goal and professional  is exactly how best to describe it. Beautiful bending ball hit low and hard on the ground. The man was every where and involved in everything. At one point in the second half John Strong (play by play) said “Is that Sosa again?!”. Look, he’s gonna have a hell of a season and it’s going to be hell for him in some matches. Every team in the league will be gunning for him trying to shut him down because he’s going to be a key to our success. 

 

5: This was a good match and showed us more of why we want. We were down Barco, Lisandro, Rossetto, Chop and we still gave them hell. The boys gave us everything tonight and if that’s not good enough for you right now, this probably ain’t the club for you. GET IN. 

 

 

 

 

The one where 🥱

1: Cubo Torres should be in his prime and he just hasn’t produced. Currently he’s little more than a reserve player who can step in when we really don’t have anyone. A striker for the sake of having a striker. Honestly I was surprised to see him resigned. But, with Lisandro still out because of the death of his father, he was really the only option tonight. He didn’t get much service tonight but even when he does, it doesn’t come off. He skied another ball of the bottom of his shin in the box around the 12th minute. He doesn’t have to produce double digit goals. He doesn’t even have to find the net all that regularly but you have to, bare minimum, put shots on frame especially when they sit up nicely for you. 

 

2: The first half did not look good. The team looked and felt like how I look and feel which is to say tired and low on energy. We had no pressure on the ball and no control of the game. We could not find a way to build out of the back. All we had were long hopeful balls. Low percentage passes. We looked like we were trying to find the game and instead the game found us. Basically it didn’t look like anything we’ve seen so far. I did like Heinze’s reaction immediately after full time. He was out on the pitch consoling and encouraging the boys. This is a process and I do like that energy, we just didn’t have it on the pitch tonight. 

 

3: Lazy defending. 3 yellow cards from sloppy late tackles in the first half alone, ugh. Also, and I hate to quote Alexi but......set pieces, set pieces, set pieces. We have go to get better at restarts and corners. Balls are starting to find the net and when we aren’t playing well they’re an even bigger problem. 

 

4: For the first time Sosa was so-so. He was taken off the ball too many times. He couldn’t win the ball back. Successful tackle % was low. Some of that is due to the revs shutting him down. Word might be getting out on what we have in Sosa. Bruce Arena and the Revs were certainly alert and aware to why he brings. 

 

5: The boat has sprung a leak. Whatever happened to Barco hopefully is not serious. We’ve been “On a boat!” since the start of competition but we know this story all too well. A stretch of good games, followed by an injury. It appeared to happen off the ball too and non contact injuries can often be even more serious and long lasting. 

 

 

 

 

 

The one where momma said there'd be games like this

1: Hyndman with a great extended tackle in the 18th. Tremendous half volley strike in the 32nd.

Tremendous defensive work. Tremendous offensive work. Hyndman was everyone tonight and was surprisingly our most threatening player on the ball. He was tremendous. 

 

2: Damm was not having success with the dribble. I’d rather see him play the ball out in front and sprint after it to the end line and then either cross it in or cut in for the dribble towards goal as opposed to trying to penetrate the box towards center. 

 

3: This was the most dominant 1st half we have seen so far. Philly created nothing. Surprisingly possession was only 65%. I mean that’s good but it really felt like more. We absolutely controlled the game and dominated the ball. Any possession #nosteppy had was mostly in their own end. It was really only gifts from us that lead anything threatening from the union and those gifts were few and far between. They did not look at all ready to play a team that wanted the ball. If not for Andre Blake standing on his head, we’re up 2. Unfortunately Philly was able to absorb and survive and capitalized on their few chances. 

 

4: I did like the Cubo sub after going down. I liked Heinze going for it. It’s risky trying to push for that goal because a 2nd or 3rd away goal changes everything. But I think Heinze said in a previous presser that we don’t play to draw. Unfortunately tonight we were undone but I still agree with the decision and style of play even tho it did not go our way tonight. 

 

5: Momma said there’d be games like this. Of course I’m disappointed with the result. Of course it’s worse because it’s champions league and from within our own leaguein our own house. This was the first time we lost at the benz by 3. But I thought our response after each goal was good. We just couldn’t finish. It does happen. We found the spaces. We created the spaces. Sometimes it just doesn’t come off. I just don’t know what else we could have done to bag a goal. 

The one where pink is already the love we've discovered

4-24 Chicago Fire

 

1: Barco out there working on that transfer fee. It’s a ridiculous goal and one that goes sailing over the bar in previous iterations of Barco. For the first time we are seeing real consistency out of little boat. He’s still getting chopped down like a tree in the Amazon, but we’re not seeing his frustrations with that take over. Goals will do that for a player. 

 

2: Heinze has figured out something that FDB was never able to do, how to be a threat without Josef. Grant it, we have different players and there’s also fans in the stands but still, the attack is very encouraging. God help the league when the Salmon King starts producing goals consistently. 

 

3: The Chicago goal is an embarrassing one to give away. Fortunately we were able to rally and continue to assert dominance and control. Switching off in silly moments can be a game killer but there’s something different about this team this year. There’s a joy, a freedom and a ton of confidence on display. We are already seeing a collective understanding in the squad. They understand each other. They understand the coach and the coach understands them. 2020 was a damn fluke. This is the Atlanta United we recognize. 

 

4: There should be ZERO concerns about Josef. He was up for it tonight and it was the most active we have seen him in his kill zone. I saw no hesitation from him and he very nearly had a brace if not for some last ditch defending from the fire. For the 25 mins he was on I thought he contributed a lot and he hit a great long ball. 

5: Heinze! He’s becoming the 13th man. He’s showing his passion and his intensity. It’s crucial to our success. He’s on the field with them! The wins and losses are as much on him as it is the players. I think he’s our kind of coach. Loved the leap into the air after the 3rd goal. 

The one where father is kind to his kids

1: Barco even putting in tackles now to win the ball back. I continue to be really happy with pretty much everything he is doing. When Josef is fully back I think lil boat is gonna be even more of a handful for teams as they all Josef watch. 

 

2: Heinze with a bit of gamesmanship after that no foul on Pato in the box. The ball went out of play and he quickly grabbed it and tossed into the arms of an Orlando player to try to expedite the throw in to hopefully prevent a review form happening. Like I said, there was no foul and that probably seems like a small thing but what it shows me is a coach who is 100% dialed into the entirety of the game and is looking for any advantage. I just really really like the level of engagement we are getting from Heinze. I feel much more comfortable with him Heinze even if we’re not clicking in a game. I trust him to always be working to solve the problem. 

 

3: Lennon has satellite guided accuracy. Great first touch. Great control. He needs Lisandro in space. I think he can be even better than what Gressel was for us if he can sync up Pacific Rim style with Lisandro/Josef. He’s more athletic than Gressel and his fitness level is other worldly. He can do full 90 shifts twice a week for weeks on end if necessary. 

 

4: Sosa the enforcer. He is aggressive in winning the ball back and clean and calm with it at his feet. He’s been featured in each pod so far and that’s probably gonna continue to be the case. Besides Josef coming back and hopefully having somewhere around a 20 goal season, he’s gonna be the talking point of the season. 

 

5: Overall pretty happy with the performance and a draw is probably a fair result. Statistically it was split nearly dead even in terms of possession, shots, shots on target, and chances created. There are things we need to improve on. Corners continue to be a problem for us. They seemingly always have been despite the roster or the coach. We give away far too many free headers. The final pass/goal isn’t quite there. I’m not concerned about our finishing because that’s just going to get sharper and come with reps. Defensively, i think we’re seeing good things. We haven’t conceded a goal and we are not just sitting in a low block and bunkering. We’re getting forward, we are exposed at the back at times, but we recover well most of the time. It can’t be perfect all the time. The opposition is always going to have a couple chances but they’ve been limited and mostly snuffed out. 

 

Good to have fans. Can’t wait to be home next weekend. 

The one where our boat is not stuck

 

1: We started off the match on the front foot. We were lively and creating chances straight away but I feel like Ala lolled us to sleep a bit because after about the 15th minute they really came alive. Full credit to them too. They’re down 6 key starters due to COVID restrictions and they still acquitted themselves very well. Maybe it motivated them. This was not an easy match. I saw some score predictions on Twitter of a multi goal win for Atlanta tonight and I just didn’t think we were ever gonna run away with this thing, even with Ala’s roster issues. They’re still a top club in their league and anyone who plays for them is a talented professional capable of playing good football. It wasn’t like they were gonna not show up and get totally run over. 

 

2: Games like these, where you kind of have to grind out a win or a result can in some ways be even more important and impressive than the flashy wins where the goals are just flowing like the suez canal with coherent boat captains. We were not in sync tonight in going forward. There’s gonna be games where it’s just not clicking fully, but being able to find a way through anyhow is extremely important. We had to find a way through in the last match too. It was different circumstances sure, but the mentality is the same. You gotta be like life in Jurassic park and find a a way. We did. 

 

3: I know our defensive numbers looked good and Ala only had one real shot on goal but I still found myself nervous at times especially on the left with Bello. He had his hands full all night and he just seemed to get beat a number of times. Still, he had like 4 tackles on the night and ultimately nothing he was maybe a step behind on lead to anything meaningful. Fortunately we’ve also got Walkes on the left and he has been absolutely outstanding. He had a 100% passing completion rate. #NotATypo. 82/82 is ridiculous. He has and continues to make the case for himself. His time across the pond has served him well.

 

4: #ThatsMyBarquito. Barco out there DOIN WORK. You can just tell by his effort and output how much this year means to him. He knows what’s riding on it and he’s really showing up so far. He’s dynamic on and off the ball, he’s been involved in both goals and plenty of chances created. In short, little boat is steaming along. 

 

5: Damn it’s good to see and hear fans again. I got a little emotional as I was listening to and watching the game as I could on set. I know it was limited capacity but you could hear all the chants loud and clear. When soccer left us last year it left a massive void. I didn’t realize just how much of my life revolves around the beautiful game until it was gone. I know it’s like Jürgen Klopp said “Football is the most important least important thing” but damn it’s good to have it back and with fans because without fans, the game is nothing. Football for me has never been about the actual game but about the friends you make and the memories you create together. That’s the beauty of the game for me. So To making memories through football. Long may it continue. Cheers.