Atlanta United 2 Answers a Halftime Letdown With a Record-Setting 5-1 Win Over Orlando City B
- Jason Longshore
- 23 hours ago
- 7 min read
Arif Kovac broke the club's single-season scoring record twice, academy product Gonzalo Riveras logged his first professional assist, and four unanswered goals turned a tight Eastern Conference six-pointer into a franchise record for points in a season.
Atlanta United 2 didn't allow Orlando City B a shot on target for 45 minutes on Saturday, and it still wasn't enough to walk into the locker room ahead.
Arif Kovac had the two best chances of that opening half, a header that sailed over the bar in the 20th minute and another saved by Orlando goalkeeper Tristan Himes in the 42nd, before Atlanta finally broke through in the second minute of first-half stoppage time. Andrew Jardines worked a give-and-go with Santiago Pita, made his run into the box, and cut the return ball back for Cameron Dunbar to finish at the near post for a 1-0 lead. Five minutes later, in that same stretch of stoppage time, a corner kick Atlanta didn't fully clear bounced through a chain of deflections, off Pedro Leão, Justin Hylton, Issah Haruna and finally Dominik Chong Qui, and trickled past goalkeeper Jonathan Ransom to level it at 1-1.
"We felt like we had a pretty good 45 minutes leading up to that goal, just a little lapse in concentration right at the end," Dunbar said afterward. "But aside from that, they did not really have much." The halftime message reflected that. "It was mostly just to be calm," he said. "We knew that if we stayed solid in the back line in the second half and continued to push and play our game, the rest would take care of itself."
It was the kind of result that could have rattled a team with a lot on the line. Atlanta came into the match seventh in the Eastern Conference on 37 points, with Orlando sitting two points back and capable of jumping Atlanta with a win of its own. Instead, the response after the break turned a tense playoff six-pointer into a rout, and a record-setting one.
The Response
Head coach José Silva made a personnel change at the break, sending on Ignacio Suarez-Couri for DD Sibrian, but the bigger shift was tactical. Orlando had built its half around two forwards, one dropping short and the other pushing into the space behind Atlanta's midfield, and Silva wanted his team pressing higher to shut that down.
"One of the keys was that we were a little more aggressive in the press," Silva said. "They were playing with two false nines, trying to draw us to one side, one coming short and the other between the lines. What we tried to fix was going more man to man. Once the ball went to one side, the opposite winger and the opposite holding midfielder would shift over to help the center back, so they couldn't find a second option between the lines. I think that cut off some of the sequences Orlando was aiming for, and it allowed us to have more of the ball."
It showed almost immediately. In the 52nd minute, Jardines found Dunbar in the middle of the attacking third, and Dunbar needed just one touch to set himself before ripping a 25-yard strike past Himes' dive for a 2-1 lead, his second goal of the match. Atlanta held that lead by the way Dunbar described it: staying connected, staying organized, absorbing what Orlando had left to give in the heat. "There are going to be moments when we have to sit back in a mid block or low block," he said. "I think we did a good job of that today."
Atlanta didn't stop at protecting the margin. In the 74th minute, Ignacio Suarez-Couri won a duel at the midfield stripe and carried a three-on-three break forward alongside Gonzalo Riveras and Kovac. Riveras found Kovac with a first-time pass, and Kovac took a touch to settle before finishing into the bottom-left corner. It was his 17th goal of the season, a new Atlanta United 2 single-season scoring record.
Riveras' Moment
The assist was Riveras' first as a professional, and it capped a pathway that started six years ago, when he joined the Atlanta United academy at 11 or 12 years old.
"Since I've been here, it's all about development, and the teammates around you," Riveras said. "It's all like a family. Through the years you get new teammates, you lose some teammates. It's all about connecting with people, becoming better. The end goal is obviously to get with the first team, or at least go pro, and that's been my main goal."
He credited his run with his age group in the academy, which reached back-to-back national finals, with preparing him for a moment like Saturday's. "That's my team, so I gave 110 percent for them," he said. "Going to the finals back-to-back years means everything. Unfortunately we couldn't win them, but this year we're looking to win it too. Coming into this game, I just treated it like any other game, like the finals: give all my effort, put in all the hard work, and play with confidence, play with no fear."
Silva said preparing academy players for exactly that kind of pressure is part of the plan. "That's one of the objectives, to prepare players so that when they go to a stadium like Mercedes-Benz, or play with the first team, they've already experienced that kind of pressure," he said. "That 2010 group is really strong." He singled out Riveras specifically for how he played the position. "He's a proper winger," Silva said. "I really like how he played, because he can play in tight spaces like that. Kind of a Spanish winger, like they develop in Spain." Before kickoff, Riveras said the message from the staff was simple. "They told me, work, play your game," he said. "They know what I'm capable of, and they trust me enough to go do that on the field. That gives me a lot of confidence to go in, play my game and not be scared."
A Record-Setting Finish
Atlanta kept pushing rather than protect a two-goal cushion, and two goals in second-half stoppage time turned the record chase into a party. In the 92nd minute, Suarez-Couri drove at the Orlando defense again. His first pass toward Patrick Weah was cut out by Nicolas Bobea Torres, but the loose ball came right back to Suarez-Couri, who found Weah a second time. Weah rolled past his marker and finished left-footed for his first goal of the season, seven minutes after coming on as a substitute for Jardines.
Kovac put a bow on it two minutes later, running onto a Dunbar through ball and arcing a first-time finish into the bottom-right corner for his 18th goal of the season, extending his new franchise record. Dunbar finished the day with two goals and an assist, his first multi-goal game of the season, and could have had more. Asked about repeatedly setting up teammates late with the game well in hand and on a hat trick himself, he shrugged it off as habit. "It's just the way that I play," he said. "Always looking to create, whether it be for myself or for others. It's a big part of my game. I just play what I see."
Jardines picked up two assists of his own, his fourth and fifth on the season, giving him three in his last two matches. Josh Kwon made his professional debut off the Atlanta bench.
Next Man Up
Both goals, and much of the second-half response, came from a lineup Silva had to piece together without two of his usual central midfield options: Adrian Gill, who has started the last two matches with the first team, and Adyn Torres, who is now out on loan. Silva called it the trade-off of running a true pipeline between the academy and the first team.
"It's probably the most exciting part of the second team, because it's the connection between the academy and the first team," Silva said. "We're really happy that Adrian is with the first team now, because our first objective is to develop players who can help the first team win games, not just be there. Now it's the moment for other guys to show what they can do. We always adapt the structure to the players and the profile we have."
Dunbar, one of the older players in that setup, said the job with a lineup full of first-time contributors is mostly about steadiness. "It's mostly just keeping guys accountable and positive," he said. "It's a tough moment, and they're kind of getting thrown into the fire, but they're there for a reason. They have the quality and the ability to help us in those moments. As older players, we just have to help them, whether it's doing a little extra running or communicating extra to put them in the right spots, and know that they'll get the job done."
By the Numbers
Atlanta outshot Orlando 17-6 overall and 7-3 on shots on target, though Orlando finished with the sharper passing accuracy, 88 percent to Atlanta's 85. The five goals gave Atlanta United 2 the most in a single season in team history, and the win pushed the club to 40 points on the year, a new franchise record that broke the previous mark of 38.
At 12-8-4 through 24 matches, Atlanta moved into fifth place in the Eastern Conference with a plus-14 goal differential. Orlando sat at 35 points and 10th. Dunbar put the stretch in context afterward.
"This past three games we've had in the last eight days have felt like three finals for us," he said. "We can't afford to slip up at this crucial moment in the season. These were a big six points, against Chicago and Orlando, to put us in a good position in these last four games."
Four of those games remain, starting Friday at Inter Miami CF II. "Just keep the hunger," Silva said. "This is not done. This league, how even it is this year, is mental. Let's hope some results go our way this weekend, and we keep getting points and points and points."
Dunbar's answer, when asked what matters most heading into Fort Lauderdale, was almost identical. "Rest, recover, and keep our focus and our sights set on our goal, which is to push for the playoffs and achieve as high a spot as we can," he said. "That's our goal, so everybody's working toward that every day."
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