There’s something about playing the black and red of D.C. United that doesn’t agree with the red and black of Atlanta United.
For the second time this season, D.C. United defeated Atlanta United. After knocking them off 3-1 at Bobby Dodd Stadium in April, D.C. United beat Atlanta United 2-1 on Wednesday at RFK Stadium in heat and humidity better suited for a sauna than a soccer game.
“We made many mistakes tonight, especially individual marking mistakes and against D.C., it’s obvious that those mistakes have cost us in both games,” Atlanta United manager Gerardo Martino said. They were individual mistakes and I think you’ve seen in the games we’ve played that we dominated possession again, but D.C. is able to take advantage of the errors.”
D.C. United has scored 12 goals this season. Five have come against Atlanta United.
Julian Gressel's goal to open the scoring in the 17th minute was offset by a mistake from Alec Kann that led to Luciano Acosta's tying goal in the 23rd minute, and the winning goal by Patrick Nyarko, who had already come close at least two times earlier in the game.
D.C. United put in cross after cross into Atlanta United’s penalty box throughout the game with players consistently finding space to exploit.
“They’re good crosses of the ball, the ball gets thrown up and it’s a 50-50 ball and the guy goes up and wins it, but I don’t think it’s anything that we can’t handle and it’s something that they do well and if we see them again, obviously we’ll have to handle it better,” Atlanta United midfielder Jeff Larentowicz said.
The loss snapped Atlanta United’s (6-7-3) two-game winning streak in all competitions. They will host Colorado on Saturday at Georgia Tech’s Bobby Dodd Stadium.
Here are five observations:
First goal. Atlanta United took a 1-0 lead on a goal by Gressel on a pass across the face of the goal from Miguel Almiron in the 17th minute. Yamil Asad deserved an assist, though. He chased down a wayward D.C. United that its players seem to give up on, even though it was in their half. Asad then released Almiron into space down the left side. He squared the ball to Gressel to tap in. It was his third goal and Almiron's fifth assist. Asad was also given an assist, his league-leading ninth this season.
“We were able to go up 1-0 on another pressing situations for us,” Gressel said.
Two of Atlanta United’s three goals in last week’s win against Columbus came from creating turnovers.
Second goal. It took D.C. United six minutes to tie the game and the equalizer was almost comical. As they are instructed to do, Atlanta United's defenders were passing the ball around. A pass was made to goalkeeper Kann, who took a heavy touch as Jose Gullermo Ortiz applied pressure.
As Kann went to make a pass, he slipped on the turf – something that had already happened several times to different players — sending the ball right to Acosta just a few yards away. He created enough space to put his shot off the left post and in.
It was D.C. United’s first goal in the run of play, in league play, in 688 minutes.
Kann hurt, but recovers. Kann took a knee to the cheek in the 50th minute after he went down low to stop a header. He couldn't control the shot. Nyarko jumped in to try to capitalize on the rebound. His knee his Kann in the cheek. Kann was able to remain in the game.
Kann has played every minute of every Atlanta United game this season.
The team currently has Kyle Reynish and Alex Tambakis as its other two goalkeepers.
Of course, Brad Guzan is waiting in the wings. Though he can’t play until the secondary transfer window opens, he travelled with the team for Wednesday’s game.
After the game, Kann said he was glad to discuss the loss or Saturday’s game, but wouldn’t discuss competition as the position.
Third goal. D.C. United increased its lead to 2-1 on a goal by Nyarko in the 60th minute. D.C. United had sent in cross after cross, coming close to scoring several times, including a headed shot of the bar by Nyarko a few minutes earlier. This time, Chris Corb's cross came across the top of the penalty box, untouched by an Atlanta United player. Nyarko chested it and hammered a volley into the lower right corner. Tyrone Mears didn't close Nyarko as he waited on the ball to drop.
“They were good crosses, but not all crosses are the same, so they played in some good balls and we missed our individual marks on those crosses,” Martino said.
Dropping points. Atlanta United entered the game in seventh in the Eastern Conference with a chance to move up to as high as fifth and into a playoff spot with the three points that come from a win.
However, with the loss, depending upon other results, it can fall to eighth and see the sixth-place and fifth-place teams extend their leads to more than three points.
Additionally, dropping three points to D.C. United for the second time this season could be considered dropping as many as 12 points because not only did Atlanta United not pick up six points by winning the first two meetings, but some of their competitors did.
“I don’t want to say dropped because it is what it is,” Gressel. “You look at the table and you have the points you actually won. Season’s long and hopefully we can make the opportunity up somewhere down the road.”
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