Atlanta United take on the Montreal Impact at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on April 28th, 2018. (photo Jim Stapp)
Atlanta United down the Montreal Impact 4-1 at home before 45,039 in a sold-out Mercedes Benz Stadium. It took more than hour for Atlanta to get on the scoreboard, but when they did they poured it on with four goals in the last 20 minutes. Atlanta now has run their unbeaten streak to seven consecutive matches after the loss in the opener in Houston.
Montreal came in reeling from three straight losses. The visitors were able to grab an early goal and decided to bunker down with a very compressed and tight defensive formation with all eleven men behind the ball. This defensive approach has worked in the past against Atlanta United, particularly last year when D.C. United and Columbus had been able to get results through a very tight defensive strategy. It worked for more than an hour. Atlanta United defender Michael Parkhurst talked about the frustration during the first half, “Of course there’s a little frustration. It’s tough to play against a team that from minute one sits back like that, but that won’t be the last team that does it like that. We just need to be patient and learn how to deal with it, and I think that today will give us confidence for (the) next time(when)that occurs.”
Montreal Impact goalkeeper Evan Bush reflected on the team’s effort in the match, “I think the score is not indicative of the effort we put in. Atlanta is a good team. If you defend like that for too long, they are going to catch their breaks and they ended up catching two or three breaks. That’s what happens when the ball is at your end the whole time.”
Atlanta United improved its regular-season record at Mercedes-Benz Stadium to 4-0-1 this season. The club has continued to build on their success from week to week, and their confidence is growing. Atlanta goalkeeper Brad Guzan spoke to the confidence that the team has, “It’s high. We know that. We understand we’re in a good moment. We understand it’s a long season. It’s not easy to sustain this for long periods of time. That’s now the challenge. The challenge is how do we keep this thing going in a positive way, week in and week out. That’s what we want to do. It’s helpful when you get good results, but on top of that, we want to put together good performances and for most parts of the game, we did that.”
Atlanta United take on the Montreal Impact at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on April 28th, 2018. (photo Jim Stapp)
Scoring
For the first time in six matches Atlanta did not strike first, Montreal’s Saphir Taider header found the back of the next in the 13th minute. Impact defender Chris Duvall received a throw and dribbled from the right before hitting the touch line when he lofted a cross that Taider headed in. Guzan lamented the situation, “We were poor defensively. Between myself and the three defenders in the box, they had one guy in the box for the goal. We need to be able to deal with that better and deal with that situation, but we had a good response.”
Atlanta was able to level after a handball in the box on the header from Chris McCann. The situation was create by Darlington Nabge who sent a ball into the box for the Chris McCann header, however, Chris Duvall was called on a handball. In the 70th minute Miguel Almirón snuck the shot under Evan Bush’s left arm scoring his fourth penalty of the year and fifth goal of the season.
Miggy. Automatic. We're level. https://t.co/1m1XtNGBbc
— Atlanta United FC (@ATLUTD) April 28, 2018
Eight minutes later, the recently insert substitute Kevin Kratz showed his quality on a picture perfect free kick from 25 yards out. The German easily got the ball up-and-over the wall before drilling the upper left corner of the net. Impact keeper Bush, “[the]… free kick was in a close area, and if you can get it up and over the wall then there’s no way of saving that.”
Kratz. Country.
Watch every replay of this one ? https://t.co/9IlTttf4Kn
— Atlanta United FC (@ATLUTD) April 28, 2018
The flow of goals continued, this time through the counterattack when Almirón made it 3-1 just six minutes later. The Paraguayan started the play deep in the midfield driving past the Impact defense with pace. He passed to Josef Martinez, who used a back heel to return the ball to Almirón, who simply tapped it into the left corner.
He can't be contained.
Miggy electric on the counter to make it 3-1 ⚡️ https://t.co/XbOCzXoifs
— Atlanta United FC (@ATLUTD) April 28, 2018
Kevin Kratz closed out the scoring in extra time burying his second free kick from about 35 yards out. Kratz again drilled the ball up-and-over the wall and caught Bush leaning the opposite direction. His shot kissed the post and rippled the back of the net as Bush was left standing flat-footed and watching it go by.
Incredible.@KevinKratz32 drills his second free kick of the match from deeeeeep! https://t.co/YHKKg2Et3W
— Atlanta United FC (@ATLUTD) April 28, 2018
Personnel Details
Kevin Kratz came in as a substitute in the 74th minute for Greg Garza and made an immediate impact. Atlanta United head coach Gerardo “Tata” Martino spoke to the decision to play Kratz, “I put Kevin on because I thought we needed a little more order in the midfield, especially after taking Jeff(Larentowicz)off the field. Montreal was able to get a few counter attacks on us. We went back to having our original four guys at the back with Kevin helping in the midfield.”
Team captain Parkhurst also chimed in on Kevin Kratz, “We were just talking about it. The whole team knew he was going to score the first one. He’s just automatic. He bangs on Brad [Guzan] almost every day in training so it’s really no surprise. So, credit to him because he just doesn’t miss when he’s given the opportunity. It was pretty incredible what he did. It was big for us tonight. We needed it.”
Kevin Kratz from Atlanta United celebrates one of his two free kick goals in the match against the Montreal Impact at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on April 28th, 2018. (photo Jim Stapp)
Franco Escobar made his return to the pitch after suffering a concussion from Brad Guzan at the end of the Vancouver match six weeks ago. After the match, the 23 year Argentine spoke on how it feels to be back, “I was really excited to get back and get some minutes. I was out in Los Angeles, but (I) didn’tget the opportunity, so I am happy I was able to come back to the team and get some minutes today. I was a little bit anxious because it was like going back to the first day of putting on this shirt for the first time. I was just really excited to get back out there and help the team.”
Franco Escobar from Atlanta United prepares for the match against the Montreal Impact at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on April 28th, 2018. He returned to action after six weeks away. (photo Jim Stapp)
Line-ups
Atlanta United
- GK: Brad Guzan
- Defenders (3): Chris McCann, Michael Parkhurst, Leandro Gonzalez Pirez
- Midfielders (5): Greg Garza (Kevin Kratz – 74’), Jeff Larentowicz (Tito Villalba – HT), Darlington Nagbe, Miguel Almirón, Julian Gressel
- Forwards (2): Josef Martínez, Ezequiel Barco (Franco Escobar – 88’)
Unused Substitutes
- Alec Kann, Sal Zizzo, Brandon Vazquez, Romario Williams.
Montreal Impact
- GK: Evan Bush
- Defenders (4): Daniel Lovitz, Jukka Raitala, Rudy Camacho, Chris Duvall
- Midfielders (3): Saphir Taider, Samuel Piette, Ken Krolicki (Anthony Jackson-Hamel – 85’)
- Forwards (3): Jeisson Vargas (Michael Petrasso – 78’), Ignacio Piatti , Alejandro Silva (Dominic Oduro – 90’)
Unused Substitutes
- Clement Diop, Louis Beland-Goyette, Shamit Shome, Matteo Mancosu.
Up Next
Atlanta United travels to Chicago to face the Fire at Toyota Park. The match is Saturday, May 5 kickoff is scheduled for 8:30 p.m.
