Even coming off its best game of season, Atlanta United feels fresh after only three days of rest and knows it can play better when it hosts New England on Wednesday.
Atlanta United demolished Dallas 3-0 on Sunday in the first soccer game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The Five Stripes move on for the second of six consecutive home games in a quick turnaround.
“It’s a lot easier to recover coming off a 3-0 win than it is basically any other result,” Atlanta United captain Michael Parkhurst said Tuesday. “We’ve had two pretty easy days to get the body right. We will be ready for tomorrow. It’s typically the toughest training session of the week anyway. The team will be prepared.”
Manager Gerardo Martino was very pleased with how his team defeated Dallas. He said the players managed every situation, worked intensely to recover the ball, circulated the ball well and knew when to press and when to stay back.
“We managed every phase of the game that we had to,” he said.
The Five Stripes (11-8-6) posted their sixth shutout this season, neutralizing Dallas’ playmakers and speed on the wings. On offense, they had a season-high 12 shots on goal, but failed to put away several goal-scoring chances, including two in the final minutes.
That kind of wastefulness isn’t what’s needed in a playoff chase. The team is in sixth place in the East, with 39 points. New England has 35 points and is in eighth. The top six teams in each conference will advance to the playoffs.
“We talked about how it was important to get a good result -- a good positive performance -- in the first game to start things off, and we were able to do that, so hopefully, we can just build on it from there,” Parkhurst said. “We are looking forward to playing games. We have had a crazy schedule since the end of June where we haven’t played a ton of games. It’s been crazy sporadic, so we think that if we can get into a rhythm and build off performances, hopefully, we can rattle off a few wins in a row.”
Rattling off a few wins may mean rest and recovery, lots and lots of rest and recovery.
Martino said he doesn’t expect a lot of player rotation for Wednesday. He doesn’t think fatigue may be an issue until Saturday’s game against Orlando City, at the earliest.
Parkhurst, 33 years old, and Jeff Larentowicz, 34, each played 90 minutes against Dallas, and both said they felt mostly good Tuesday.
Martino was able to sub out three of the younger players on offense Sunday. Striker Josef Martinez, 24, was out after 80 minutes and a goal. Midfielder Hector Villalba, 23, was out after 72 minutes and two assists. Miguel Almiron, 23, was out after 89 minutes and two assists.
“The training staff has done everything we can yesterday and today to make sure the guys recover as best they can,” Martino said.
Atlanta United may be need to be at full strength to try to get three points against New England.
The Revolution are very dangerous in the midfield and in attack, according to Martino. Midfielder Lee Nguyen is having a career year, with nine goals and 14 assists, with forwards Juan Agudelo (eight goals), Teal Bunbury (six goals) and Kei Kamara (11 goals) to feed.
Larentowicz said the Revs play differently than any team in MLS because they can play crosses into the box or play through the lines with passes.
“We will have to be on point the whole time because you’re not really sure how they are going to come at you,” Larentowicz said.
Martino said the Revs are comfortable even when they are divided with 4-5 players on offense and 4-5 on defense, saying it turns into separate games.
As such, Atlanta United must be careful in transition, according to Parkhurst.
“If we can’t take advantage offensively then we have to be careful of how many numbers we put forward and making sure they can’t get the ball and run at us,” he said.
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