After Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Toronto, a result because of a goal allowed in the 88th minute, Atlanta United has allowed 10 goals this season in the final 10 minutes of games.
Atlanta United’s record in those games is 2-2-4. Four of those goals changed games, resulting in the Five Stripes dropping eight points from winning positions.
Those late capitulations may be the difference between Atlanta United making the playoffs or missing them for the second consecutive season.
The team controls its fate with two games remaining. If it wins Wednesday at the Red Bulls, which is a team it has never beaten during the regular season, it is in. If it doesn’t, it will have to win at Cincinnati on Decision Day. After giving up late leads twice in the past three games, it’s more difficult to assume victory, even against the league’s worst team.
“It’s, how do you close out the game in a better way?” manager Gonzalo Pineda said after Saturday’s debacle. “I think scoring goals is the best way. When we are not able to do that because we are just not clinical, it is really hard. Today we created many chances, but it wasn’t a typical day for our forwards to miss so many chances. Not too much to say. We lost two points again at home, and I’m very disappointed.”
Though there were some obvious examples of wastefulness on offense and poor decisions on defense against Toronto, there isn’t one player or manager to blame. The frailty has happened across three managers this season. That a team with more than $30 million in transfer fees spent in attacking talent and three national team players on its backline can’t put away games is difficult to understand.
But it needs to get things sorted because if the team makes the playoffs, there are no second chances after not closing out those games.
“It’s about playing the simplest pass, connecting passes, being aggressive when you have to be, picking the right pass in the final third, the right move and then being clinical,” Pineda said. “Because, yes, at the end of the game, when you miss so many chances, the opposition is going to have some momentum because they feel the opportunity. It’s about us controlling those moments, and I felt that we were doing it. It’s just the case of little mistakes, little soft fouls that are hurting us in that part of the field.”
Pineda and Ezequiel Barco dismissed concerns about the team’s mentality, but there is history.
Last year, in the MLS is Back tournament in Orlando, Atlanta United was the only team that failed to score in its three games. Even after it struggled in its first two, it had a chance to advance but couldn’t generate a result. At the end of the season, when the team had a chance to earn results and make the playoffs, it again failed to do so. Now, two times in the past three games it has missed on points that would have secured a playoff spot.
“We have two finals left to play,” Barco said. “Those are six points. A lot of teams are fighting for those last playoff spots. We are going to play two finals and try to get those six points and try to make the playoffs.”
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