Atlanta United suffered a tough home loss to Minnesota United at Mercedes-Benz Stadium falling 2-0 to The Loons. Atlanta United earned a late consolation goal from Saba Lobjanidze while Minnesota United’s Kervin Arriaga and Tani Oluwaseyi managed to score in the second half to guarantee a hard-fought three points on the road.
Atlanta struggled to find their footing for most of the match. The visitors played about as good of a game as one could play when visiting the fortress that is Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The Loons eventually hit paydirt in the second half.
In the 54th minute, Minnesota had earned themselves a corner kick. As the kick was curling into the box, Kervin Arriaga leaped over the back of Tristan Muyumba and sent a header past a diving Brad Guzan. Six minutes later, the Loons began to mount an attack. Tani Oluwaseyi calmly approached the ball and fired a rocket past the keeper. The Loons were cruising at this point.
[On changes Minnesota made] I think (the players) didn’t see the visual cues, because (Minnesota) made an adjustment in their shape and how they were pressing at halftime, so maybe they didn’t see that, but I thought we had some opportunities to play those long passes in behind.
Atlanta United Head Coach Gonzalo Pineda after the match
Atlanta United finally found a decent chance in the 76th minute. As Atlanta was building up play in the final third, Giorgos Giakoumakis received a cross at the top of the box. As he squared his boots, he fired a rocket that would’ve beat the goalkeeper but it went wide of the post.
In the 82nd minute, a flick-on from Giakoumakis reached the feet of Daniel Ríos. Ríos unselfishly laid the ball off to a sprinting Saba Lobjanidze who beat the keeper to his far side. With the five stripes finally on the board, they pressed relentlessly for the final eight minutes plus stoppage time. That aggression resulted in multiple corner kicks and a shot off the crossbar but ultimately failed to beat the keeper. A late foul gave the home team a free kick just outside the 18. Thiago Almada stepped up and sent a soft effort around the wall and easily into the keeper’s hands.
Atlanta has had a shadow hanging over them for years now. A consistent showing of not being able to finish out a match strong and/or conceding late. The second half is where the match unraveled and Brooks Lennon shared his thoughts on the matter post-match.
“Yeah, I think the first (goal) came off a defensive set piece, which is frustrating because we worked so hard in training on set pieces offensively and defensively, so to concede on a defensive set piece was frustrating. And when you can see the first goal in a game like this it kind of changes a little bit of the momentum. But to be honest with you guys, this isn’t a time where we need to panic and go against each other and have a big ordeal. I think we need to stick together, we need to get back on the training field, work even harder. We’ve been putting in so much effort into the preparation for each and every game, the coaching staff does such a fantastic job of getting us ready for each and every game so it’s just taking it that one step further, and I think the results will come eventually.”
Atlanta out-shot Minnesota 20-12 (Minn. landed more on target 5-4) and out-possessed the visitors 64%-36%.
Atlanta United will try to pick up the pieces and improve things before their U.S. Open Cup match on Tuesday, May 7, against Charlotte Independence.
-Jon Jones
Photo: Courtesy of ATL UTD
[…] is coming off of a home loss from Saturday which saw them lose to Minnesota […]