Five Takes On The Five Stripes

The one where the kids are alright

1: Well, we certainly looked more up for it then our previous 3 matches. It does suck that we are at the point of being happy that we’re at least trying. Tho to be fair we’ve never faced this many absences and injuries. I’m not sure any club has in MLS. We applied the press in Nashville’s final third and actually did more than just stand there. We actually pressed, and we actually had some success in winning the ball hack a few times. This is something the 2’s have actually been doing pretty effectively. When the ball is turned over we have to win it back immediately or we are going to keep getting burned in Heinze’s system. It was better against Nashville. 

 

2: Undone by our old friend set pieces. I kind of expected them to be a problem with Miles and Guz out. I thought Alec Kann had a great game  but he might not have communicated as effectively as Guz does. Nashville players were left unmarked all night especially on the goal that was thankfully chalked off for offsides. There was 5 yards of space in each direction of Sapong. 

 

3: We showed heart and fight last night while also showing a Lack of quality with cross field balls, errant passes and missed timed runs. That’s to be expected when we are missing enough players from injury and call-ups to literally field an entire team. Looks like we can add Mo Adam’s to the trainers overwhelmed schedule too. We’ll also be missing Sosa due to yellow card accumulation and possibly Mulraney if that ridiculous red is not overturned. I was happy to at least see the team respond to adversity because adversity isn’t going way any time soon and we’re gonna have to find ways to grind out more than just draws. 

 

4: It takes a hand of god moment to sub out Cubo and low and behold, Conway scored minutes after coming on. The kids are alright. This should settle it going forward. Jackson should get the nod and Cubo should come in if both of Jackson’s legs are broken. Thank god Cubo didn’t get a touch on Walkes’ headed goal in the 5th minute because he was offside and it would have been taken away. 

 

5: The referee’s a wanker. Dickerson gave the explanation for the red that Mulraney committed a foul denying Leal a goal scoring opportunity. You’re damn right he denied him a goal scoring opportunity but it wasn’t a foul, it was just a well timed tackle. Mulraney gets to the ball first, wins it (WITHOUT GOING THROUGH THE PLAYER MIND YOU) and then Leal goes over the top of Mulraney. Look, even if you wanted to call it a foul, it’s not DOGSO because Sosa had caught up to the play. PRO should be ashamed of themselves. Can’t wait to hear them explain this one away. Undoubtedly Atlanta will appeal and most likely win. Again. 

The one where we go out for ice cream

 

1: I’m not even going to bother calling out individual player performances here. I mean yes in the 19th minute Cubo had a great touch and turn and then once again, once he’s in the box he’s utterly useless and that continued throughout the match, as it does with Cubo. But this was an utter and total team collapse. Tho I will say Cubo continues to be employed with this club as a striker whose job it is to score goals and he continues to not fulfill those duties. In concept and on paper Cubo is great, in practice and on the pitch, not even close. 

 

2: Atlanta United right now are the case study in Murphy’s law. If it can go wrong, it will. Everything is working against us. I mean even Bello got injured towards the end which might put his Gold Cup call up into question. I guess you call that payback on Greggggggg for injuring Miles in 2019 😆. HonestlyI I absolutely hate it for him and I hope it’s just a light knock. If he can’t get success here I’d like to see him have a chance with the national team. Both for him personally and for us as a club when we eventually sell him. Player call ups, injuries, and lack of minutes from bench players are KILLING us. None of those things are really going to improve over the next month accept I guess minutes for bench players out of absolute necessity. The team is disjointed and out of sync. I mean my god, Miles Robinson didn’t step to Ignacio on the 2nd goal. He just let him shoot. It really does feel like the belief has gone out. 

 

3: We miss Hyndman like the city of Atlanta misses championships. We got beat centrally where dangerous attacking plays develop and caught us out. Neither Mo nor Tyler have seen any minutes this season so they can’t be expected to step in step so much that we don’t feel his absence. 

 

4: The introduction of Machop Chol was the most positive thing we saw all night. At least he was making dangerous runs into the box and even bringing a ball or two down and under control. He didn’t get anything on frame, but sheeeeit, he was doin more than Cubo. He certainly looked more threatening anyhow. He might actually be the man of the match. 

 

5: The transfer window won’t solve all the problems we have. This Heinze project just isn’t coming together. It’s really frustrating because it’s not entirely Heinze’s fault. To a certain degree he can only be as good as his available roster right? Yeah we were at full strength at the beginning of the season and yeah even the wins/results back then we would have liked to have been more dominate but at that early stage, the players were still learning the system. We just did not hire a coach that’s going to change the system, or simplify things because of circumstances, like at all. It’s just now, we have reached a point of seeing neither results nor performance and that’s a really big problem. The higher the expectation, the harder the fall. The goals and aspirations for this club were set high from the start, and they were met. We are experiencing back to back years of not meeting those standards. At some point, the people at the top, Carlos and Darren, are going to have to be held accountable for our shortcomings. 

The one where we have more draws than a Spaghetti Western

1: 20 East at 5:00 in the afternoon has more going forward than we do. It’s not that we look afraid to go forward it’s that we know we have nothing and have sort of accepted it. It wasn’t until the 41st minute that we can crossed a dangerous ball into the box. Truly our best chances came from just lobbing in a couple dangerous balls into the box and creating a bit of chaos. There wasn’t much to speak of from the build up or creative play. 

2: You know when the biggest cheer of the first half comes from a deflected free kick that we have problems. I’m all for “trust the process”but results have got to come or else of course the process is going to get questioned. Missing key players hurts a lot but find me a season where a team isn’t missing players. You have to problem solve and play through it. Hopefully some of that problem solving comes in the transfer window. 

3: Cubo emotes strong “You’re doing great honey” vibes. That’s it. That’s the take. 

4: At some point Jackson Conway, and other bench players, have to start seeing minutes. How are we supposed to have a deep roster if they don’t. Look, we’re not seeing training day in and day out but Heinze’s comments about Conway have been largely positive so what’s the hesitation? Give him a 20 minute run out. I understand not subbing him in the dying minutes because from about 78th on, we actually came alive, but damn. Sub out Cubo and bring him on in the 70th and see what he can do. At the same time, outside of Conway, there’s no one really on the bench who can come in and even have the potential to change things in any meaningful attacking way. 

5: The summer transfer window is coming and we’ve got to make some moves. Without knowing where exactly we stand with our budget/cap here is what I’d like to see 

Cubo-move on

Damm-move on

Barco-move on

fill Lisandro’s spot

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.