Though neither scored nor had an assist, Pity Martinez and Ezequiel Barco played well in emergency roles as strikers in Atlanta United's 2-0 win against Orlando in the semifinals of the U.S. Open Cup, according to manager Frank de Boer.
“Pity and Barco had a good combination together,” de Boer said. “They made runs behind. One goes up high. The other drops deeper. They had a good understanding together.”
The two were forced into different positions because of the injury sustained by Josef Martinez on Monday. He will likely also miss Sunday's game against NYCFC at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
In the 3-5-2 formation, Pity Martinez typically plays as the striker underneath Josef Martinez. He sometimes also drops deeper into the formation as an attacking midfielder. He played as the lead striker most of the time on Tuesday. Barco typically plays as an attacking midfielder.
The two worked well together on Tuesday against Orlando’s bigger, more physical defenders. Martinez’s backheel pass started the sequence that led to Atlanta United’s first goal. He and Barco’s movement also opened the field for Eric Remedi to attack vertically, which isn’t something that he often does.
“When you lose a guy like (Josef) Martinez, he is a very important player, but as you saw tonight Pity and Barco are very creative players who helped open up that space,” Remedi said. “It seemed like they were worried about man-marking Pity and Barco, so that gave the midfielders a whole lot of space to run toward.”
Pity Martinez finished with three shots, one on goal. Barco had two and one. He was subbed after 50 minutes, five minutes more than de Boer told him he would play before the game. Barco is returning from an injury.
“Because of the two days rest, we couldn’t take the risk with Barco,” de Boer said. “He wanted to play more. You will get yourself a stump to the head if he is injured. We had already decided with the medical staff, I told him he would play 45 minutes. He played 47 at the end. We have him 2 minutes more. That’s reasonable. He didn’t play for 6 weeks. Especially when the games are so short behind each other. We have a four-day rest period. Now it’s better so hopefully he can make more minutes.”
De Boer said he was proud of the players for stepping up and filling roles, especially when they didn’t have a lot of time to prepare physically and mentally. It reinforced something he said last week about players winning games, but teams winning prizes.
“I said five days before the game or after the Galaxy, we are now with this team, with this roster, you have to be ready because in one day the whole thing can change,” de Boer said. “Somebody can get an injury or suspended, and you will have to step in. Unfortunately, it happened quite quickly and somebody had to step in. You know it’s like this in a tough season.
“You won’t play with 12-13 players. You need 17-18. When we have good depth they make the difference if you are going to be champions at the end of the season.”
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