The Silverbacks hope to use Saturday’s 2-1 victory against MLS side Real Salt Lake as a starting point to a strong finish to the rest of the season.
Goals from Junior Burgos and a stoppage-time winner from Kwadwo Poku saw Atlanta eliminate RSL in the fourth round of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup at Silverbacks Park. Atlanta will play the winner of the upcoming game between Colorado, which features two former Silverbacks, and USL Pro side Orlando City FC in the fifth round on June 24 or 25.
The excitement and results were a long way from the Silverbacks’ results during the NASL’s Spring season, in which they finished eighth out of 10 teams, including posting two wins in its past five games.
“It’s been a hard go,” coach Eric Wynalda said. “We’ve let ourselves down a lot of times in front of the net. The other part of tonight was believing you can win. As the season goes on, we’ve stopped believing. But the opportunity was so big, and everybody wanted it so bad. And they didn’t stop believing. I just quoted a Journey song.”
Real Salt Lake was missing goalie Nick Rimando, midfielder Kyle Beckerman and forward Alvaro Saborio, who were called up by their national teams for World Cup duty. Still, it was a victory Atlanta deserved after dominating the last 80 minutes of the game and forcing Real Salt Lake to make several goal-line clearances to keep the game tight.
Atlanta exploited Real Salt Lake’s defense in a variety of ways. Long passes into the penalty box gave Jaime Chavez several chances to score. Alex Harlley was a terror in the second half down the right side, with runs that led to several corner kicks. Poku was able to shed defenders down the middle of the field.
“We’ve been a team that’s been looking for an identity and tonight we found it,” said Burgos, whose goal came on a left-footed shot from 20 yards out into the corner. “We knew we were really unfortunate on a lot of results during the season. This will help us.”
Will they be able to carry it over the NASL’s fall season, which will begin July 12, and will Wynalda still be in charge?
After Wynalda agreed to take over managing the club earlier this year his other job as an analyst with Fox Sports changed. As a result, he wasn’t able to spend as much time with the Silverbacks as he hoped.
He, president Andy Smith and the team’s owners will meet to discuss Wynalda’s future. A date hasn’t been set. Wynalda said he is considering several scenarios.
“I know he loves coaching,” co-owner Boris Jerkunica said. “Wins like this definitely make him want to do it some more. I hope that he can stay and we can work through the conflicts. You see the results when he’s here.”
