The mental lapses that at times have affected Atlanta United this season – against LAFC, Toronto, Chicago, NYCFC, to name a few results – must now be overcome – by sports psychologist, concentration, memories, belief, to name a few solutions – or the MLS Cup won last year likely will not reside in Marietta much longer.
This year’s playoffs are one-and-done games, starting with the Oct. 19 game against New England at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. There is no chance, should Atlanta United give up a flurry of goals in a few minutes like it did at LAFC, to get a second game to overcome the mistakes and possibly rally to the next round.
Atlanta United’s players know it. Now, can they do it?
“Times this year we’ve taken some punches,” goalkeeper Brad Guzan said before a win against New England on Oct. 6. “Certain times we’ve responded and gotten back up. Other times, we’ve crumbled a little bit. Come the playoffs, you better stand up and keep fighting. Otherwise, it’s going to be a short postseason.”
Defeating New England 3-1 in the regular season’s last game was a positive step toward a positive mentality.
Atlanta United scored first on a Darlington Nagbe goal in the third minute. New England responded with a goal in the eighth minute.
There have been times this season when that quick response by the opponent would have rattled Atlanta United into losing all three points. It scored first against LAFC, only to see them score four goals in less than 20 minutes. At Toronto, they scored first, Atlanta United responded with two goals only to see Toronto score its second five minutes after Julian Gressel tied the score at 2-2. Atlanta United would lose that one 3-2. The Chicago game was over in the first seven minutes after the Fire scored two goals in the opening seven minutes.
But Atlanta United held firm against New England, survived a period in the first half when the Revs created the better chances, and eventually won.
“I thought today – you can see the maturity of the team that’s there going into the playoffs,” Gressel said. “I think early in the year, going down – them equalizing one-one – after just a short amount of time after we go up 1-0, sometimes, we had games before where we didn’t really play well again after that. Today, I think we really came out at the half and played well in the second half. The will to win, make sure that we won the game, no doubts about that with the performance. I think that shows the maturity level of the team and where we’re at headed into the playoffs.”
If New England scores first in the playoff game, it’s a bad sign for Atlanta United’s psyche and for the result because the team is 0-9-1 when the opponent scores first. That draw came in the second league game of the season against Philadelphia.
Adding to the importance of Atlanta United scoring first: New England is 1-9-5 this season when its opponent scores first.
“It’s no secret that we struggle when the other team scores first,” captain Michael Parkhurst said after the victory against New England. “We haven’t done well in that area and today to score the first goal early was big, and then they come right back and very quickly tie it up, it could have deflated us, but we hung in there and played a very good second half. … Definitely important just for the psyche of knowing that not everything goes perfectly, and if it doesn’t in the playoffs, you have to bounce back really, really quick, because if you don’t, you’re out.”
Atlanta United has shown in its short history that it can bounce back.
Guzan said that he doesn’t think the team would have won the MLS Cup last season had it not lost at Toronto to lose the Supporters’ Shield in the final game of the regular season. He described it as a “slap in the face.”
“You may be the best team, but ultimately you aren’t going to walk away with the trophy if you play like this in the playoffs,” he said.
Guzan said before last week’s game that he’s not sure if the team has faced a “slap-in-the-face” moment this season. To be fair, it has also succeeded in a few important games, notably in winning the Campeones Cup and U.S. Open Cup.
The memories are there to be drawn from by those players who were there last year at Toronto, through the MLS Cup and through this season.
“The guys … need to think back to the amount of work you do throughout an entire season and how quickly it can vanish,” Jeff Larentowicz said. “We had a hiccup at the end of last season, and it brought back those memories of ‘we can’t throw this away.’ The mentality going into the playoffs now, especially with the single-elimination, is you have to be ready to go. That doesn’t mean ready to go on game day, that means ready to go three days before game day. You have that mentality.
“After the first round and the second round, those midweek games come quick. I’ve said it before, you can blink and be hosting the final again, so there’s plenty on the line.”
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