It turns out that beating a minor-league team in penalty kicks wasn’t the momentum boost that Atlanta United had hoped.
Instead, the Five Stripes extended their MLS winless streak to nine games in a 1-0 loss to Los Angeles FC at Mercedes-Benz Stadium Saturday night.
Facing a strong club, Atlanta United was an underdog. Regardless, the number of goals scored by the home team had to be roughly the same as the number of people surprised at the result.
Atlanta United posed less of a threat, whiffed on arguably the best scoring opportunity either team had in the entire game and didn’t start to play with urgency until after it fell behind midway through the second half.
While Atlanta United central defender Stian Gregersen stood out in an overall solid defensive performance, the continued offensive torpor didn’t offer much evidence that a return to the win column is anywhere in the neighborhood, at least until the lineup is at full strength.
Manager Gonzalo Pineda has been dealt a lineup that has often been decimated by injury to key players. Regardless, he was unable to come up with a solution that could even net a draw at home. This might not be the lowest point in franchise history, but it’s nudging closer to the center of the picture. Injuries have reduced Atlanta United’s hopes of advancing in the MLS Cup playoffs for the first time since 2019, but how the team has responded to those setbacks has reduced it even further.
The boost that the team had hoped to gain momentum from its U.S. Open Cup win over United Soccer League opponent Charleston Battery on Tuesday, a victory gained in penalty kicks after a scoreless 120 minutes. It proved a poorly founded aspiration.
Not counting the penalty-kick scores against the Battery, Atlanta United has scored one goal in its past four games.
“It’s like in life,” midfielder Xande Silva said. “In life, you need to find the solution to be better. That’s what we need to do.”
Silva spoke of trying to find positives.
“To be honest, I’ve seen worse,” he said.
Better days may come with the return of gifted striker Giorgos Giakoumakis, who missed his second consecutive game with a hamstring injury, and the full health of star midfielder Thiago Almada, who came on Saturday for the final 28 minutes as he recovers from a calf injury. Pineda, whose club is now 3-7-4, surely hopes so.
“We’re creating chances,” he said. “We just need to be a little more clinical, and maybe Thiago and G.G. can help.”
But you’d like to think that playing without them would not condemn Atlanta United to defeat by shutout.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Atlanta United controlled the ball for the majority of the 90 minutes, but that didn’t translate into legitimate scoring chances. LAFC played balls ahead more aggressively and skillfully, one of which led to the only score of the game.
Making a play on a long pass to LAFC’s offensive third midway through the second half, Atlanta United goalkeeper Brad Guzan had to leave the 18-yard box to head the ball forward, but it struck Los Angeles midfielder Mateusz Bogusz squarely in the head, dropping him to the turf. But Guzan appeared to swing out his legs to trip up Bogusz, which resulted in a red card for Guzan and left Atlanta United a man down.
Bogusz’s ensuing free kick in the 63rd minute deflected off the wall, its path to the goal redirected, way too much of a play to make for goalkeeper Josh Cohen (Guzan’s replacement) in his first-ever action in an MLS league game.
Down 1-0, Atlanta United’s play picked up – Almada entered the game as a sub after the goal, although Pineda had been planning to send him in even before the sequence – but to no avail. The late charge enabled Atlanta United to finish the game with a 16-14 advantage in shots, but LAFC’s victory seemed assured as soon as Bogusz scored given the Five Stripes’ scoring woes.
It didn’t have to be that way. In the 35th minute, midfielder Saba Lobjanidze lifted a pass towards the goal line from near the corner of the box to fullback Brooks Lennon, who one-touched it back in front of the goal to wide-open forward Daniel Rios.
It could have been a 1-0 advantage for Atlanta United and charged the crowd.
But from about eight yards out, Rios failed to make solid contact with his right foot and the ball squirted wide of the goal. It was a brutal mishit; even Lobjanidze put his hands on his head in seeming disbelief.
When Pineda spoke of being “a little more clinical” with Almada and Giakoumakis back, this would be one of those times where it would have helped.
Certainly, it’s a ball that Giakoumakis likely would have buried in the back of the net. But it’s not a play that any MLS striker should botch so completely.
For his sake, hopefully Rios will get another chance that he can make good on. But Saturday, his misplay was just one more missed opportunity for a team that is collecting them by the barrel.
Next up comes Inter Miami and Lionel Messi Wednesday in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Miami is in first place in the Eastern Conference and leads MLS in goals scored.
Maybe the winless streak in league play improbably ends. Or maybe it reaches double digits.
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