Atlanta United’s Rob Valentino doesn’t believe his team is unlucky.
Two siren-sounding mistakes were made and both were punished in Wednesday’s fall-from-ahead 2-2 draw against NYCFC at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Atlanta United had made many, many mistakes this year, otherwise it wouldn’t have had to fire a coach and wouldn’t be below the playoff line with 10 matches remaining.
What was galling to Valentino, the team’s interim manager, and players about Wednesday’s draw was the mistakes, one by Bartosz Slisz whose first touch let him down, and one by Brooks Lennon that resulted in a penalty kick, first-timers.
“There are some times when you have warning shots where it is like, ‘Hey, they warned us twice and this happened on a back-post cross,’ or something like that,” Valentino said. “What we got punished with tonight wasn’t anything that they had warned us with once or had happened already. As far as tonight, that wasn’t the case.”
Valentino and Derrick Williams didn’t blame Slisz or Lennon. Slisz’s mistake came when he dropped into a pocket of space near the 18-yard box to become a passing outlet to break NYCFC’s pressure. He received the ball, and his first touch resulted in the ball rolling away from him back toward Atlanta United’s goal. NYCFC’s Monsef Bakrar reached it, turned and beat Guzan in the 65th minute. Williams that Slisz has put himself in that position, which is tough because when he receives the ball he will be surrounded by opposing players, many times this season and he’s typically been able to play a pass.
Lennon said he thought he put his forearm on the NYCFC player, who responded by falling down for a penalty kick. Valentino wouldn’t say if he thought it was a penalty. He did say that the referee was made to make a decision.
Atlanta United might not have been in positions to give up the goals if not for a drop in intensity in the second half. Atlanta United started better than it ever has with a goal by Daniel Rios in 21 seconds. It was the earliest goal in team history. They followed that with another by Saba Lobjanidze just before halftime. Xande Silva also hit the post.
The second half saw NYCFC dominate possession. MLS tracks possession in five-minute segments. NYCFC had the majority of the ball in six of the first seven segments to start the second half. After its second goal, Atlanta United dominated the next segment and NYCFC took the last one. Atlanta United took three in the first half. Its two goals came during one of those segments.
“You have to work in defense and in offense if you want to win the game,” Lobjanidze said. “There are no excuses.”
While the mistakes by Slisz and Lennon were new, losing focus isn’t a new problem for Atlanta United. They have two days to solve it before hosting Columbus, the defending MLS champs.
“That’s certainly a key question, right?” Guzan said. “It’s a mental thing, it’s an approach thing. You can’t rest on your laurels. You go out there and you score two goals, you should have more in the first half. We still had chances in the second half, but yet we’re nowhere near the intensity and the aggressiveness that we needed over the course of 90 minutes. We let a team back in the game, and we did that tonight with New York City.”
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Atlanta United’s 2024 schedule
Feb. 24 Columbus 1, Atlanta United 0
March 9 Atlanta United 4, New England 1
March 17 Atlanta United 2, Orlando 0
March 23 Toronto 2, Atlanta United 0
March 31 Atlanta United 3, Chicago 0
April 6 Atlanta United 1, NYCFC 1
April 14 Atlanta United 2, Philadelphia 2
April 20 Cincinnati 2, Atlanta United 1
April 27 Atlanta United 1, Chicago 1
May 4 Minnesota 2, Atlanta United 1
May 7 Atlanta United 3, Charlotte Independence 0 in U.S. Open Cup
May 11 D.C. United 3, Atlanta United 2
May 15 Cincinnati 1, Atlanta United 0
May 18 Atlanta United 1, Nashville 1
May 21 Atlanta United 0 (5), Charleston 0 (4) in U.S. Open Cup
May 25 LAFC 1, Atlanta United 0
May 29 Atlanta United 3, Miami 1
June 2 Charlotte 3, Atlanta United 2
June 15 Atlanta United 2, Houston 2
June 19 Atlanta United 1, D.C. United 0
June 22 Atlanta United 1, St. Louis 1
June 29 Atlanta United 2, Toronto 1
July 3 New England 2, Atlanta United 1
July 6 Real Salt Lake 5, Atlanta United 2
July 9 vs. Indy Eleven 2, Atlanta United 1
July 13 Montreal 1, Atlanta United 0
July 17 Atlanta United 2, NYCFC 2
July 20 vs. Columbus, 7:30 p.m.
July 26 vs. D.C. United in Leagues Cup, 7:30 p.m.
Aug. 4 vs. Santos Laguna in Leagues Cup, 4 p.m.
Aug. 24 at L.A. Galaxy, 10:30 p.m.
Aug. 31 at Charlotte, 7:30 p.m.
Sept. 14 vs. Nashville, 7:30 p.m.
Sept. 18 vs. Miami, 7:30 p.m.
Sept. 21 at Red Bulls, 7:30 p.m.
Sept. 28 at Philadelphia, 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 2 vs. Montreal, 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 5 vs. Red Bulls, 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 19 at Orlando, 6 p.m.
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