Editor’s note: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution opted not to attend the resumption of the MLS season in Orlando amid the COVID-19 pandemic. League safety precautions severely limit the AJC’s in-depth coverage of Atlanta United. The following report has been compiled from television broadcast and video conference interviews.
Atlanta United manager Frank de Boer questioned the decision by MLS to schedule its tournament games at 9 a.m. following his team’s 1-0 loss to Cincinnati on Thursday.
“If you see this game at 9 a.m., for everybody it’s not worth it to play in these conditions,” he said. “The tempo was really slow. Even 11 against 10 it’s really slow. There’s no benefit for supporters to watch or for the players. Circumstances were really tough.
“If you want to entertain people, of course to win and see good games, I can’t imagine that for the supporters they think this is a game that you will want to watch back.”
The temperature at kickoff in central Florida was 82 degrees with a “feels like” index of 100 and humidity of 79 percent.
This was the first time that de Boer said he can ever remember playing at 9 a.m. The league scheduled eight games during the tournament to start at 9. The time was decided upon to try to minimize the effects of weather conditions. The other start times are 8 and 10:30 p.m. Atlanta United’s first game was at 8 and it’s third game against Columbus on Tuesday will be at 8.
De Boer said the team met for breakfast at 6 a.m., which Jeff Larentowicz said he forced down.
“One of the more difficult games I’ve experienced,” Larentowicz said.
Larentowicz and teammate Fernando Meza said many times during their postgame interviews that the conditions were challenging but weren’t reasons why the team lost.
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