Atlanta United’s Valentino embracing this comparison

It is a script that may seem familiar, particularly Friday when the first episode of the second season of a very popular soccer-esque show debuted.

A club is on the ropes.

A kind, thoughtful person is given the task of turning around its fortunes.

But this isn’t Richmond. And Ted Lasso isn’t flying to England.

This is Atlanta United, and Rob Valentino is the man with the task of trying to keep the team going forward long enough until whoever will replace him is hired.

Valentino has been in charge for less than six days, but he’s heard the numerous comparisons between himself and the lovable, mustachioed, biscuit-baking, eat-anything-once character played by Jason Sudeikis.

Valentino’s OK with it. Better than OK, actually.

“If people look back and say he didn’t know much about soccer, but he’s an all right guy, I’ll be happy with that,” said Valentino, he likes the show on Apple TV. “When I leave this earth, I hope someone can say something nice about me as a person because that’s who I am.”

Yes, like Lasso, Valentino is that positive.

He may need to be because he’s in a situation that, like Lasso’s, is unfamiliar and challenging.

Having never before managed a team, Valentino was thrust into the manager’s role when club President Darren Eales and Vice President Carlos Bocanegra fired manager Gabriel Heinze and most of his staff last week for a variety of reasons.

The team was winless in eight games. It hadn’t scored in four of its past five. It was four points out of a playoff berth with 21 games remaining.

The team responded to its new manager and its situation with a 1-1 draw at Cincinnati on Wednesday. The team looked much livelier on offense than in most of its minutes under Heinze. It set season highs for shots (22) and shots on goal (nine).

The next challenge comes Saturday and, even with an expected announced attendance near 70,000, is going to be much more difficult than playing at Cincinnati, one of the worst teams in MLS. Saturday brings Columbus, the reigning MLS champions and the most people’s predicted champion again this year.

Atlanta United needs three points. It trails the seventh-place team, NYCFC, for the final playoff spot by six points. If NYCFC wins this weekend, and the Five Stripes don’t, they will be adrift by nine points. It’s not insurmountable, but it’s a challenging margin in what is proving to be a deeper Eastern Conference than anticipated.

So, listen to Valentino as he talks, or talks too much as he said Friday, to what he can do better Saturday than he did Wednesday.

“As you can hear by my voice, I probably need to shut up,” he said. “I’m going to keep trying to shout and scream and encourage them. I want to help them with the game. Not that they need my help, I want to be there. I want to be in the mix. I want to feel like I’m a part of it.

“When and if I go back to whatever position that might be, I don’t want this to damage it, and it might and I’ll have to live with that. I’m going to do what’s best for the club and what’s best for them as players in the games and set them up to be successful. When it’s finished, I hope I can help them as a human being as well.”

Valentino acknowledges he sounds corny -- “I sound like a move quote all the time” -- but he said it’s what he feels and what he believes.

One of the things that finds himself saying a lot is “Thank you” to everyone he encounters at the club. Just because he is the interim manager he doesn’t want anything to change. He said, while noting that he was still talking, he had to take the trash and recycling out in the rain Monday. His kids don’t care that he’s trying to lead one of the league’s highest-profile teams.

“No one cared what I said before, but now I’m in this position, and they think it’s important,” he said.

Valentino’s parents, James and Barbara, were at Wednesday’s game. Part of Valentino’s gratitude and honesty, are products of his parents. His dad worked in the restaurant business. He worked a lot of hours every week. Valentino said he can remember his dad coming home at 6 or 7 p.m. and he would run up and hug his leg.

The players seem to be buying in. Sitting behind Valentino on the bench Wednesday was Josef Martinez. He could be seen leaning forward from time to time talking to Valentino, who didn’t share much of what they discussed in Wednesday’s postgame interviews but shared a part of it Friday.

“He didn’t talk to me about the game,” he said. “He talked to me about the opportunity on hand. To enjoy it. Who cares if we win or lose? Do your best.”

Centerback Alan Franco said Valentino’s work is going to serve the team well, but they must focus quickly on Columbus.

A difference between Valentino’s situation and Lasso’s is that his is temporary and Atlanta United can’t be relegated.

But Valentino’s focus would probably remain the same.

“Everyone’s doing their best, and that’s all we can ask of everybody,” he said. “It’s the same with the players. Do your best, and we will see where we fall from there. We’ve got nothing to lose.”

Southern Fried Soccer

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