Atlanta United manager Gonzalo Pineda attempted Tuesday to clarify comments he made regarding the level of fight his team showed in Saturday’s 3-0 loss to Austin at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The team will host Real Salt Lake on Wednesday in the second of three consecutive home games. The Five Stripes need to win the next two or risk falling too far behind in the seven-team playoff race.
“I feel like we go into games trying to be too pretty in our football,” he said Tuesday. “But then when the opponent presents that type of fight to us, like, we are not up to that intensity. And because when you’re watching the game, I mean, the guys never quit. Even with 3-0, they never quit. So it’s not like we quit or we didn’t fight, I can see the fight individually. I need more collectively to come to those points where we all work together in every phase of the game.”
After the dismal loss to Austin, which was the team’s seventh loss or draw in its past eight games, Pineda said, “I think it’s not only about tactics anymore. Yes, we still want to play good football, but today I felt we weren’t ready to fight in the game that they presented to us. I felt that I didn’t prepare the team properly.”
Matheus Rossetto said he is going to focus on continuing to try to motivate his teammates to show what Pineda wants to see.
“I think that they’re (supporters) going to see a team that’s going to try and go after the game, a team that’s going to try to attack, try to score just like we always do,” he said. “Wherever we’re playing, I think they’ll see a motivated team. We’re going to go and work hard and try to put in a good performance and hopefully get results in these next games.”
Pineda re-addressed several of the topics he discussed Saturday.
First, he said the team may change its formation to a back five to try to help improve a defense that has given up nine goals in the past four games. Many of those goals were the result of individual mistakes. Pineda said he wants to help clean up those by the entire team working together on defense, instead of sometimes trying to rely on winning one-on-one battles.
“Because at times we look disjointed,” he said. “So that’s more rather than just a specific change of formation or personnel, it’s more understanding of we’re defending as a unit. And we have to do that.”
Pineda said there will be at least one lineup change because of the yellow-card accumulation suspension of Luiz Araujo, but also mentioned there may be two more. He said he is thinking through what he wants. Wednesday’s game will be third the team has played in seven days. There will be some considerations for load management to try to keep players fresh for Sunday’s game. On Saturday, Pineda said that he was going to make better choices in the lineup to make sure that every player fights.
Pineda said he’s had a conversation with Josef Martinez about his postgame comments, which included him saying that some players don’t appreciate the jersey. Pineda declined to discuss what was said, other than he and Martinez have a relationship built on honest conversations.
As for the 70-minute postgame meeting Saturday in which the team addressed many small issues that were being ignored, Pineda said he doesn’t regret not having those conversations earlier in the season because doing so doesn’t provide a positive feeling.
“I truly think that we are a little bit relieved,” he said. “And I think now we will see the reaction because everything comes to 90 minutes always. That’s it. That’s the beautiful thing about football is nothing works the same way twice. And what you see or you feel that can work, we will see tomorrow, if it’s going to be better.”
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Atlanta United’s 2022 MLS schedule
Feb. 27 Atlanta United 3, Sporting KC 1
March 5 Colorado 3, Atlanta United 0
March 13 Atlanta United 2, Charlotte 1
March 19 Atlanta United 3, Montreal 3
April 2 Atlanta United 1, D.C. United 0
April 10 Charlotte 1, Atlanta United 0
April 16 Atlanta United 0, Cincinnati 0
April 24 Miami 2, Atlanta United 1
April 30 Montreal 2, Atlanta United 1
May 7 Atlanta United 4, Chicago 1
May 15 Atlanta United 2, New England 2
May 21 Atlanta United 2, Nashville 2
May 28 Columbus 2, Atlanta United 1
June 19 Atlanta United 2, Miami 0
June 25 Toronto 2, Atlanta United 1
June 30 New York Red Bulls 2, Atlanta United 1
July 3 Atlanta United 2, NYCFC 2
July 9 Austin 3, Atlanta United 0
July 13 vs. Real Salt Lake, 7:30 p.m., BSSO/BSSE
July 17 vs. Orlando, 3 p.m., ABC
July 24 at L.A. Galaxy, 9:30 p.m., FS1
July 30 at Chicago, 5 p.m., BSSO/BSSE
August 6 vs. Seattle, 3 p.m., ABC
August 13 at Cincinnati, 7:30 p.m. BSSO/BSSE
August 17 vs. New York Red Bulls, 7:30 p.m., BSSO/BSSE
August 21 at Columbus, 5:30 p.m., FS1
August 28 vs. D.C. United, 4 p.m., UNIV
August 31 at Philadelphia, 7 p.m., FS1
Sept. 4 at Portland, 5:30 p.m., FOX
Sept. 10 vs. Toronto, 7:30 p.m., BSSO/BSSE
Sept. 14 at Orlando, 6 p.m., BSSO/BSSE
Sept 17 vs. Philadelphia, 3:30 p.m., UniMas
Oct. 1 at New England, 1 p.m., UniMas
Oct. 9 vs. NYCFC, TBD, BSSO/BSSE
