Earning points on the road will go a long way toward helping Atlanta United secure a playoff berth in its first season in MLS.
Heading into Saturday’s game at Columbus, the Five Stripes have earned one point out of a possible 15 in their past five league road games.
After starting the season with a win at Minnesota and draws at Seattle and at Toronto, the team’s road record is now 2-5-3. Its seven points are tied for third-most among teams in the Eastern Conference, but it’s not where the team could be.
“I think we could be higher in the table,” Atlanta United manager Gerardo Martino said. “We’ve left points on the table and we could probably be two spots higher in the standings.”
Atlanta United’s form has been odd to watch because the team was poor at home earlier in the season — losing two of its first three — and strong on the road, and now the team is strong at home (five consecutive wins) and poor on the road.
The good news for Atlanta United supporters is its team will play 10 of its final 17 games at either Georgia Tech’s Bobby Dodd Stadium or Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
The bad news for Atlanta United supporters is no one seems quite sure why it is playing so poorly on the road, and five of its next seven will be away from home.
“The truth is I don’t have the answer yet,” midfielder Hector Villalba said earlier this week before the team lost at Miami 3-2 in the U.S. Open Cup. “It’s something we will talk to the coaching staff about, about how to best we can take on these road games. That’s how we will move up in the standings: getting point on the road.”
Martino and the players have acknowledged there is a huge difference in playing before more than 45,000 at home, and then seeing typically 20,000 or less on the road. Martino even joked he would pay for Atlanta United’s fans to travel if it would make a difference. But he said the team needs the same consistency away as at home.
Really, other than in the loss at Miami, some of the team’s worst performances this season have come in recent road games. The team typically starts well by scoring first, only to concede soon thereafter. It happened at Miami, at D.C. United and at Vancouver, to name a few.
Though Atlanta United did lose 2-1 at Montreal in the fourth road game, it played well. It followed with a 3-1 win at Real Salt Lake, which is one of the league’s worst teams this season.
The poor form started in the next road game, a 3-1 loss at NYCFC that wasn’t as close as the final score indicated.
Atlanta United re-tooled its approach and ground out a 1-1 draw at Portland before dropping a 3-1 decision at middling Vancouver, a 2-0 decision at surging Chicago and a 2-1 loss at struggling D.C. United.
Throw in Wednesday’s loss to NASL side Miami in which Atlanta United used several inexperienced players, and the team could get a complex.
Kidding.
There is one huge difference in the team that lost those games and the team going into Saturday’s game at Columbus: Josef Martinez.
He has yet to start a road game in MLS since suffering his injury in March. He came off the bench at Chicago and at D.C.
He is healthy and the team plays much differently, and typically gets better results, when he is in the starting lineup.
He doesn’t lack motivation to help the team its pursuit of a playoff spot.
“We are a very dangerous team and I think we’ve shown that up until this point,” Martinez said. “We are able to take advantage of our chances when we’re presented with them. We’re a young team but we also have a lot of motivation and we want to defend this crest.”
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