Why is Atlanta United’s defense suddenly good?
Citing sacrifice, communication and effort, Atlanta United — which had one of the worst defenses in MLS this season — has cobbled together a shutout streak of 199 minutes.
The back-to-back shutouts of Toronto on Aug. 24 and Nashville on Aug. 30 were only Atlanta United’s third and fourth this season. The 1-0 win against Nashville in its recent match was its first win this season when shutting out an opponent.
Sacrifice, communication and effort are words manager Ronny Deila has used all season to describe how the team needed, and most of the time failed, to play. They were curiously echoed by central defender Enea Mihaj on Tuesday when discussing why the team has performed better. He smiled when told those were the words typically used by his manager.
“The important part is always a team,” Mihaj said. “When we understand that even more that being a team, playing as a team, training hard every day, we will have good results in the future. So that’s the most important. It’s not about names, persons.”
The improved work is probably too little, too late to save Atlanta United’s season, but it is evidence that Sporting Director Chris Henderson, the scouts and Deila are capable of fixing the team’s weak areas. Before the back-to-back blankings, Atlanta United had allowed 49 goals in 26 matches.
Atlanta United will need to keep shutting out opponents because it is perilously close to being eliminated from the playoffs. The Five Stripes must beat Columbus and hope that Chicago loses to NYCFC on Saturday, or their final five matches will be meaningless.
That leads to the question of why now? What type of duct tape turned a wet paper towel of a defense into steel?
It wasn’t a formational change or a tactical change. As with most things in sports, it likely was a personnel change.
Whether by causation or coincidence, the team’s defensive work started to improve with the insertion of Mihaj, who was acquired in the summer transfer window, the return of central defender Stian Gregersen from injury and putting Jayden Hibbert into the goal in place of Brad Guzan.
Those moves were part of blizzard of activity by Henderson in the summer that also saw central defender Juan Berrocal and midfielder Steven Alzate added, central defenders Derrick Williams and Efrain Morales sold, and Noah Cobb sent on loan.
Mihaj’s acquisition seems pivotal.
Jonathan Spector, the head of Atlanta United’s international recruitment and development, described Mihaj as someone “that he really has just a pride in his defending and not wanting to concede. And then you see his leadership, his ability to progress the ball as well in possession. These were all things that we felt were going to help the team and benefit the group as a whole and help address some of those kinds of concerns that we have.”
Mihaj, who came to MLS after playing in Portugal, said he feels like the goal is his house. He doesn’t want the uninvited.
“The main thing is, I hate to lose,” Mihaj said. “Sometimes you can receive a goal, but winning always is a good thing.”
Mihaj said he has a good partnership with Gregersen because they understand each other, communicate well and both are “a little crazy.” He described it as a good mix.
In addition to the sacrifice, effort and communication, Deila after the Nashville match credited the consistency of being able to play Mihaj, Gregersen and Hibbert together for several matches as another reason for the improvements. Gregersen and Mihaj have started the past four matches. Hibbert has started the past two.
“That’s the first time this year that we have two centerbacks that have been playing for four, five games in a row,” Deila said. “And now with Juan coming on, then you see that we can build something there that we need when we’re playing away. The other teams, when they come to our stadium, they are defending a lot and taking a lot of pressure, and we need to do the same, and we did that today. So those three, four together were really, really powerful today.”
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