Atlanta United ready for first of three important MLS playoff games in East

Atlanta United will play at Montreal on Saturday in the first of three very important games in determining the MLS Eastern Conference playoff race this weekend.

The Five Stripes, in sixth place, are one of four teams with 39 points. The others are fourth-place NYCFC, fifth-place Philadelphia and seventh-place Orlando. Montreal is in eighth with 37 points. Orlando on Saturday will host third-place D.C. United, which has 40 points. On Sunday, NYCFC will host Nashville, which is in second with 46 points, and Philadelphia will host Columbus, which is in ninth with 34 points.

Atlanta United manager Gonzalo Pineda said Friday that he doesn’t care if his team plays the first game, before other results are known, or the last, when they would know their situation, of these important games.

“As long as we get three points,” he said. “... Sometimes you’re the first one, you win and then you put more pressure on others. That happens. Sometimes, if you lose you’re just expecting something to happen, and that’s not good for us. So we prefer just to go and win at any moment.”

Pineda said he will be watching Sunday’s games while his assistants break down the film of Saturday’s game.

Centerback Alan Franco said he likely won’t watch the other games of importance. Midfielder Matheus Rossetto said he is paying attention to the table.

“We are aware that there are a bunch of games that can influence how we’re set on the table,” he said. “But at the end of the day, we all know that it all depends on us. So we have to just make sure we do our job so we don’t have to depend on any other results.”

Montreal will be tough. Pineda said the key against Montreal’s creative midfield will be which team maintains possession, which team dictates the tempo and who does more with the ball. He said it’s going to be a fun game to watch.

To win, Atlanta United must perform better than it did in its previous road game, at Philadelphia. Pineda said that performance, a 1-0 loss in which the team put only two shots on goal and created only four chances, he considers to be an outlier. That was followed by a first half against Miami in which the team again looked slightly lethargic, with few off-the-ball runs. Pineda said part of that was a lack of effort and part was because of Miami’s bunkering tactics. He felt the team played much better in the second half and feels the players are prepared to continue that improvement in Canada.

Part of the reason the team played better in the second half against Miami was a decision by Pineda to switch at halftime to two defensive midfielders, which helped the team’s shape and gave space to Luiz Araujo, Ezequiel Barco and Josef Martinez. To do that, Pineda subbed out Marcelino Moreno, who Pineda said played well in the first half, for Rossetto. To keep that attacking quartet on the field, along with Rossetto and Santiago Sosa at the double-pivots, would require Pineda to switch from three centerbacks to two. He did that later in the game against Miami to add another midfielder, Jake Mulraney.

Pineda wouldn’t tip his hand Friday as to whether he was planning to use a 4-2-3-1 formation, or the 5-2-2-1 the team has been using. Pineda said he makes that decision game-by-game and case-by-case. He did say that there likely would be a couple of changes in the starting lineup, which could signal a switch in formations.

“I need fresh legs,” he said. “But at the same time, I want to keep the momentum of the team. I think we played very, very good in the second half. So I want to kind of keep the momentum within range and just just try to manage limits.”

Among possible candidates to rotate: Centerback Anton Walkes leads the team in minutes (2,258). Moreno is second (2,226), wingback Brooks Lennon is third (2,090), Santiago Sosa is fifth (1,949) and wingback George Bello is sixth (1,803). Barco has played all 90 minutes in each of the past 11 games.

After Saturday, other than centerback Miles Robinson and Bello, who were called up to the U.S. men’s national team for its coming three World Cup qualifying games, Pineda is giving the rest of a team two days off. Then they will train for two days before a day off.

“Because I still think we need time to work on certain things that probably because of the timing of my arrival, we didn’t have time to work on,” he said. “So these two weeks that we have with the big part of the group, I’m going to use it to set a couple of more ideas on how we want to play.”

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Atlanta United’s 2021 MLS schedule

April 17 Atlanta United 0, Orlando 0

April 24 Atlanta United 3, Chicago 1

May 1 New England 2, Atlanta United 1

May 9 Atlanta United 1, Inter Miami 1,

May 15 Atlanta United 1, Montreal 0

May 23 Atlanta United 1, Seattle 1