Because every game now is a must-win if Atlanta United wants the Supporters’ Shield, and because the team is coming off one of its worst performances this season, goalkeeper Brad Guzan said it should be pretty clear pretty quickly if the Five Stripes have learned lessons when they hoss New England on Saturday.
“From the first minute to the last it’s on us to show that we can put together a performance that not only allows us to be proud of it but gets us three points,” he said.
To recap, and look away if you are already painfully familiar: Atlanta United had a chance last week to turn a four-point lead over the New York Red Bulls into at least a five-point lead in the race for the Shield. Even a draw would have siphoned most of the drama out of the remaining three games.
Instead, the Red Bulls came out as if they were let out of a pen, to paraphrase Atlanta United’s Jeff Larentowicz, and smothered the Five Stripes 2-0 in a way not seen since the Five Stripes’ season-opening loss at Houston.
The points lead was cut to one. The drama heightened. That’s great for MLS and TV executives. But it wasn’t great for Atlanta United’s players and supporters.
Now, the team must assume that New York will win its remaining three games. So, Atlanta United must try to win its final three games. There won’t be room to coast.
While the Red Bulls will play at San Jose on Saturday, Atlanta United will host New England. The Revs are in eighth place in the East, five points behind sixth-place Montreal for the final playoff spot. Three different Atlanta United players compared the Revs with animals backed into corners this week.
“We are playing against a team that is fighting for its last chance to make the playoffs, so that it is going to make it a very complicated game,” Atlanta United manager Gerardo Martino said. “We are also coming off a defeat, and we need to do everything we can to maintain the spot we are in.”
Martino disagreed that his team lacked intensity in last week’s pivotal loss. Instead, he said the team was intense. It just couldn’t match the Red Bulls’ intensity.
Some of Atlanta United’s players didn’t seem worried about the team facing what it amounts to a series of must-win games because they said it has felt that way since its road trip to Colorado and San Jose. The team won both of those games.
“In a lot of our recent games they’ve felt like finals because we’re trying to win every game,” Miguel Almiron said. “We know from here on out the games are going to be tough and we are going to try to get victories.”
Perhaps because of those reasons, Martino said he didn’t do anything different with training this week. The team continued to do what it has done this season in helping it to a 19-6-6 record. It needs only seven points from its remaining games against New England, vs. Chicago and at Toronto to set the league’s single-season record for points.
The only lineup change that will be guaranteed from last week’s game will be the absence of left wingback Chris McCann, who is ineligible because of yellow-card accumulation.
“I think we have to be concentrated on every line because New England is a good team and they are fighting for the playoffs,” Almiron said.
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