Its roster missing several players and facing a hot team in a hostile environment means Atlanta United may be happy to earn a draw against Motagua in the first leg of its Champions League series on Tuesday in Honduras, manager Frank de Boer said on Monday.
De Boer said afterward, depending upon how the game went, the feeling may be different. But as of now...
“What I saw from them, the difficulty of the circumstances, a draw isn’t a bad result and we can finish it here on our home ground,” he said. Atlanta United will host the return leg on Feb. 25 at Kennesaw State.
It can’t help the injuries, which will result in the absences of at least two likely starters, but Atlanta United has done everything it can to put itself in position to earn at least a point on Tuesday.
“At the end of this game, it’s only halftime,” Atlanta United goalkeeper Brad Guzan said. “We want to make sure we put ourselves in a position to come back to Kennesaw and get a result.”
After being surprised by the conditions of the turf, the lights, etc. in last year’s Champions League opener at Herediano in Costa Rica, and subsequently losing 3-1 in the first game, the team took a preparatory trip to play a Mexican second-division side last week. De Boer said the trip was done to help the players’ bodies adjust to the flights, the time change, the routines, etc.
“All the little things that you can’t necessarily control ... it’s nice to have a bit of a trial run,” Guzan said. “Gave some of our newer faces a taste of what to expect.”
Atlanta United did rebound in the second leg of last year’s Champions League game to win 4-0 at Kennesaw State and advance.
Motagua, with 17 league titles in its history, is a better club than Herediano. The Blue Cyclone, as the club is called, is in first in the Apertura section of the Honduran first-division schedule with a 6-1-1 record with four consecutive wins. The team has scored 18 goals while allowing six.
The Honduran team figures to test a defense that will be without centerback Miles Robinson and fullbacks George Bello and Edgar Castillo, and as a result will feature a group of starters that haven’t yet played together in the preseason.
Guzan said it will be important for he and the defenders in front of him to communicate and stay organized so that they aren’t allowing Motagua to cut through them with ease.
When the defense wins the ball, Guzan said it’s also going to be important that Atlanta United’s players aren’t left isolated with the ball.
Atlanta United’s offense hasn’t exactly sparkled in its past three preseason friendlies. In games against Leones Negros in Mexico, Birmingham (USL) and Swedish side Elfsborg, the players who will likely compose the starting 11 on Tuesday have scored just two goals in slightly more than 180 minutes.
De Boer said he wasn’t worried about the lack of goals. He pointed out the starters have only played 90 minutes as a group once, and that was in the recent friendly in Mexico.
“For me, it’s not important,” he said. “It’s just a matter of time that the goals will come.”
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