Maddie's Version: Atlanta United's Real Problem Isn't the Defense
- Jason Longshore
- 3 hours ago
- 3 min read
A four-goal collapse against New England Revolution put Atlanta United's defense under the microscope again, but the real issue lives further up the field. A day later, Atlanta United 2 delivered exactly the kind of statement win this program needed.
That wasn't the result anyone wanted, and it stung more because of where this team had just been. Nashville and Charlotte were two different performances, but both were pointed in the right direction. You wanted the next step against New England. What Atlanta got instead was the same slow start that showed up against Charlotte, just with a much worse ending.
Atlanta controlled stretches of the first half. Had the ball. Created moments. Didn't finish them. New England didn't need many chances of its own. Carles Gil broke through, Dor Turgemon doubled it, and Atlanta walked into halftime down 2-0.
The second half needed a response, and this group has shown it can do it in these situations. We saw it against Charlotte, but unfortunately, it didn't show up. The start was sluggish, dragging instead of pushing, and that's what opened the door for the third goal and then the fourth. Once it started tumbling, it kept tumbling.
Atlanta did get something back. Cayman Togashi came on and combined with Alexey Miranchuk to find Miguel Almirón in the box, and Almirón finished it to make it 4-1. That matters to the players who scored it. It doesn't change what the match said.
Here's the conversation I think gets lost after a night like this. Everyone wants to talk about Atlanta's defense. I don't think that's actually the story. This defense has been solid for most of the season, more solid than it's getting credit for right now. The reason it's under so much scrutiny is that the attack isn't doing its job, and defending doesn't just happen between the two center backs. It happens across the whole field.
Look at what Inter Miami has done the last couple of years. They give up plenty of goals. They also score enough to cover for it. Atlanta doesn't have that safety net right now. You cannot keep going down a goal, two goals, three goals when there's no way built into the attack to climb back into a match.
That's been the real issue all season, finding something inside that attack. Atlanta has had genuine success this year playing through Alexey Miranchuk, and he's the one I keep coming back to in these moments. It just hasn't shown up nearly enough.
Atlanta is in last place now, and Philadelphia is next, on the road. This isn't a match to find something in eventually. It's a match to get three points in.
Sunday told a completely different story, and it deserves the space to tell it.
Atlanta United 2 played their first match at the training ground, where they'll finish out the rest of this MLS Next Pro season, nine matches still to come, and the response was total domination in the first half. Andrew Jardines curled a beautiful ball into the path of Arif Kovac, who volleyed it home to make it 1-0. Kovac added a second in the second half to complete the brace. The second half dipped a little as a whole, NYC found a way to make it interesting, and Atlanta held on for a 3-2 win anyway.
This is already the winningest team in Atlanta United 2 history, and every match left on the schedule is a chance to add to that, with a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference finally coming into view.
Andrew Jardines was the clearest sign of why that history is being built. He helped create the opener with that ball for Kovac, then spent the rest of the afternoon linking with Adrian Gill in midfield. About ten minutes from the end, his legs started cramping, and Atlanta had already used its last substitution. He didn't come off. He moved up top, got on the ball wide right, and rode out the cramp to hold it in Atlanta's attacking third long enough to keep NYC from breaking the other way.
He was the SDH player of the match, and it wasn't close.
(𝓶𝓪𝓭𝓭𝓲𝓮'𝓼 𝓿𝓮𝓻𝓼𝓲𝓸𝓷)
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