Atlanta United’s 90-minute problem continued in Sunday’s 1-1 draw at Miami.
For 45 minutes, Atlanta United looked mostly solid, taking a lead on a 1-0 goal by Josef Martinez in the ninth minute.
Then, in the second half, the cracks that appeared a few times in the first half became fissures, culminating with Lewis Morgan’s tying goal in the 77th minute. Two previous handball claims were denied. A possible penalty against Brad Guzan in the final minutes was denied.
While Atlanta United did enough to earn one point, which is no easy feat on the road in MLS, it wasn’t a confidence-inspiring performance. It continued a trend set in the previous seven games of minutes of solid performances followed by longer periods of questionable play.
“The first half, we were good,” goalkeeper Brad Guzan said. “We exploited space, we followed what we wanted to do in terms of the game plan. The second half, we turn the ball over unnecessarily, silly turnovers in bad spaces, in bad places. When you look at their chances today, two or three in the first half where we gifted the ball to them. We need to be sharper with the ball regardless of if we are tired. That comes from mentally being sharp, physically, of course, being sharp and making sure we are secure with it.”
Miami’s goal came as a result of one of those errors.
Atlanta United won a free kick near midfield. Alex de John, who came on in the 73rd minute, passed it to a teammate about 5 yards further down the field and standing in the middle of the pitch. Miami intercepted and started a counterattack.
Morgan began dribbling at Atlanta United’s defense. A teammate, Federico Higuain, ran behind Morgan in an overlap. George Bello, who was marking Morgan, picked up Higuain. Santiago Sosa was supposed to pick up Morgan. Sosa didn’t commit and Morgan had enough space to shoot and score.
Credit: MLS
“I think after the water break, we then made the change in terms of personnel and I think you started to see a little bit of disjointedness and that is on us as a group to make sure that when guys come on and we change things on the field that we have an understanding of what is happening,” Guzan said.
It was true throughout the game. Despite having just 38.5 percent of the possession, Miami had 17 shots, seven on goal. Some were the result of the poor passes hit by Atlanta United players in its third of the field that led to quick Miami attacks.
Flipping that around, despite dominating possession, Atlanta United took three fewer shots than Miami. Contributing to that, as noted by Matthew Doyle on MLSSoccer.com, for 53 teams in across 2020 and 2021, the Five Stripes are 32nd in off-ball attacking runs per 90 minutes and 45th in the average max speed of those runs. That’s not the verve that makes defenders make decisions and can open up gaps that can be exploited.
It’s not a one-off.
Against Philadelphia in the first leg of the Champions League, Atlanta dominated the first half in Mercedes-Benz Stadium and were burned by the Union’s counterattack to the tune of three goals in the second half.
Atlanta United tied New England 1-1 and gave up a goal in the second half of a 2-1 loss on the road. The team was dominated for most of the game.
The team was fortunate to earn a 0-0 draw at Orlando because, like Miami, the Lions created the better scoring chances but couldn’t take advantage.
It could be argued that the team’s only complete game this season came in a 3-1 victory against Chicago at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. That’s one in its first eight games.
Atlanta United has legitimate reasons for its inconsistency and offered them on Sunday. First, it was hot in south Florida. When its early in the season and teams are building chemistry and endurance, the heat can be debilitating. Second, it played on Tuesday in the second leg of the Champions League at Philadelphia. The team had tired legs. It has already played eight games in slightly more than a month. Miami has played four. Thirdly, and this wasn’t offered by manager Gabriel Heinze an excuse on Sunday but is true, the team was without Ezequiel Barco and Jurgen Damm, who are injured possibly because of the schedule congestion, Heinze said on Friday.
“You look at some of the CCL teams in terms of coming off of their performances midweek, it has been a bit of a rough go,” Guzan said. “Although we’re not over the moon with the draw today, you look at the big picture and now it is down to us to turn our focus and attention to getting fresh legs, making sure that we clean up any injuries ... With that going on, you then give yourself extra days to be on the training pitch to understand the concepts of what we want to do.”
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