Barco may be coming into his own with Atlanta United

It has taken longer than expected, but Ezequiel Barco may finally be finding his groove with Atlanta United.

The playmaker scored two goals, put four of his five shots on goal, created four chances and completed 90.6 percent of his passes in Saturday’s 3-2 win against Columbus to go along with an assist and quality performance in Wednesday’s 2-2 draw at Montreal.

It’s the Barco everyone has been waiting far.

Now, interim manager Rob Valentino wants him to keep it going.

“My relationship with all the guys is that if I give them something and see it’s not being done then I say something,” he said. “If that becomes repetitive, then we will do something about it. But it’s been two games. The challenge is to keep doing it. The past two games have been great, now kick on. Marcelino Moreno is doing it, Josef Martinez is doing it. Everyone needs to play their part, and Barco is no different.”

Inconsistency and injuries have been the knock on Barco since he joined Atlanta United before the 2018 season. Expected to be an all-around threat on offense, he eventually lost his starting spot in the lineup. In subsequent seasons, every time it seemed that he was ready to fulfill his transfer fee of almost $14 million, he would either be the victim of poor decisions, sometimes his own, an unfortunate injury, or be called up by Argentina for international duty and miss chunks of the season.

Before Wednesday, his totals of 11 goals and 10 assists in 64 appearances were less than the 13 and 11 produced by in one season by Hector Villalba, whose Designated Player slot Barco took.

But Barco has looked a different, more confident player in the past two games since returning from playing in the Olympics with Argentina in Tokyo.

For starters, Barco is on his fifth manager since joining the club. While he was in Japan, the team fired Gabriel Heinze and promoted Valentino. He is the fifth manager to try to unlock Barco’s potential since he joined from Independiente in Argentina.

Credit: Atlanta United

Credit: Atlanta United

Whatever Valentino is doing it seems to be working. Or perhaps Barco is maturing and applying what he’s learning from his experiences.

Valentino said he coaches Barco like this: He asks him to do certain things on defense. If he does those things, Barco can do what he wants to do on offense, within reason.

Barco said that he’s not the only player who is asked to do things on defense, but the freedom the players are given on offense is why the team scored two goals against Montreal to rally from 2-0 down, and three at Columbus with 14 chances created.

Two examples of this Barco compared to the Barco of past seasons:

His long run down the middle of the field against Montreal set up a goal scored by Josef Martinez.

He replicated that against Columbus, finishing the play with a goal after a nice pass from George Bello. He followed with a penalty kick, which was won by Marcelino Moreno.

In the past, Barco might have held onto the ball until he was fouled, or made the wrong choice with a pass. Now, he’s running away from defenders and making the right pass.

“I did challenge him yesterday that he had one good game, he created two goals but you need to keep doing this,” Valentino said. “This is your job. He has a gift that I can’t teach or coach. That gift, he needs to go on and produce with his creativity and taking guys on the dribble. Tonight, he put in a serious shift.”

It’s a different Barco.

The one many have been waiting for.

“I think it was a win that we really deserved,” he said. “Everyone from the players, the coaching staff, the directors, medical staff, club staff.

“It’s a win we’ve been searching for.”

Southern Fried Soccer

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