Miguel Almiron’s three goals and Andrew Carleton’s debut were two of the talking points following Atlanta United’s 4-1 win over Houston on Saturday.
But it was midfielder Yamil Asad’s work that helped to pave the way for the team’s second win in the past two months.
“That’s what the coach wants,” Asad said. “He wants his midfielders to come back and help out when we’re needed. Luckily, we were able to turn it into goals.”
To this point, Asad was better known for two singular incidents: scoring the first goal in franchise history, against the New York Red Bulls, and the elbow he attempted to throw at D.C. United’s Lloyd Sam that resulted in a suspension.
But after Saturday’s win, in which he had assists on two of Almiron’s three goals, and played tenacious defense, it may help improve how the 22-year-old Argentinian is thought of.
On the first, Asad prevented a Houston player from stealing an Almiron pass by boxing him out like a basketball player, and then tapped a pass to Almiron as he crossed the penalty box. Almiron took one touch and hammered a left-footed shot into the goal’s upper left corner.
On the second, Asad outmuscled a Houston player near midfield, knocking him off the ball. Asad dribbled across the field before completing a short pass to Almiron. He continued the left-to-right movement by finding rookie midfielder Julian Gressel steaming down the right side of the field. Gressel ran onto Almiron’s pass, rounded his defender and hit a cross just before the ball reached the end line. Asad trapped Gressel’s cross to Almiron, who eluded a defender and slammed another left-footed shot, this time into the goal’s upper right corner.
Asad has a team-high five assists this season and his ability to be a two-way player that manager Gerardo Martino said makes him important within the system.
“He’s very good when he gets the ball as well,” Martino said. “He doesn’t lose it. He’s always able to track back and collaborate with his teammates and defend.
“It’s something that we work on in training as a group is defending, but it’s also something that’s very natural for Yamil.”
Though midfielders are supposed to be two-way players, they do sometimes switch off and forget their defensive duties.
Asad and Gressel, starting on the right for the second consecutive week, were tenacious the past two weeks on their respective flanks.
There were moments that Houston couldn’t get the ball out of its corners because of the work being done by Asad and Gressel. Asad had two tackles in the offensive third of the field in the first half.
Portland rarely was able to get down its flanks becuase of their work, as well as that being done by the fullbacks.
Asad said he doesn’t mind doing the less-glamorous parts of the job as a midfielder in Martino’s system.
“You can look at European football like Bayern Munich’s players (Franck) Ribéry and (Arjen) Robben — they’re two players who attack, but they’re also two of the first guys to be defending so if they can do it, why can’t we?” Asad said.
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