Atlanta United is 8-0 in knockout games this season, spanning four tournaments.
It is one victory away from a chance to defend its MLS Cup.
It is succeeding despite playing for a new manager with new ideas and new injuries to players that seem to pop up week after week.
That new manager, Frank de Boer, explains the turnaround from a team that was hammered at D.C. United in its league opener and followed that with a draw to Cincinnati, one of the worst teams in MLS history, as a combination of time with better discipline and decision-making on defense.
“We are recognizing those moments without the ball, when to press or when to drop deeper,” he said. “I think we are growing in our strength and hopefully, I still think we can do better, playing 90 minutes of total domination, but I’m very happy with the progress that I’m seeing over the course of the season.”
Brad Guzan and Jeff Larentowicz have a slightly different take: It’s the pursuit of trophies. Atlanta United has already won two this season, the Campeones Cup against Club America and the U.S. Open Cup, which required five wins, the last being against Minnesota United.
“We need to start talking during the regular season about there being trophies every other day,” Guzan said. “I do not know. I have told you guys a million times. We talk about wanting to be a big club, a winning club, a club that wins things, and we are still in the hunt to win MLS Cup, so that is the most important thing.”
Larentowicz said he thinks there are times that regular-season games may not have meant as much as games in the Champions League, Campeones Cup or U.S. Open Cup might have. But the team does know how to find its focus when needed.
“It’s the mentality, it’s the champions mentality that a lot of these guys have that come from other places, and I think the guys that have been around this league know what it takes and try and pull it all together,” he said.
Previous Atlanta United manager Gerardo Martino would sometimes talk about how learning to compete in tournaments is a process. Atlanta United learned lessons in losses at Miami in the U.S. Open Cup in its inaugural season, to Columbus in its first playoff game and to Chicago in the U.S. Open Cup the next season. Since, it adapted a grittier, more pragmatic approach to win last year’s MLS Cup, turning itself from a free-flowing attacking side into a defense-first, opportunistic scoring side.
It tried to do that in the Champions League this season. Though it lost at Herediano in its first game, it routed the Costa Ricans in the return leg at Kennesaw State. It trailed powerful Monterrey 1-0 until the final 15 or so minutes in the first leg of the next round until capitulating 3-0 on tired legs in Mexico. That next game, which Atlanta United won 1-0, might have been different had Atlanta United left BBVA Compass Stadium with only a one-goal deficit. Still, the lesson about finishing games was there to be learned. It wasn’t always applied during league games (last-minute losses at Real Salt Lake and Toronto come to mind), but was for the next tournament games, which is why Atlanta United’s season is ongoing.
“There’s something going on within us that we’re just here to play for those big trophies,” midfielder Julian Gressel said. “You know, obviously we had to clean some things up throughout the year to be able to get through those games, as well, but especially come this time, it’s definitely something that’s very dangerous for opponents, but very good for us. We’re just going to not stop until we … have the trophy.”
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