Miguel Almirón of Atlanta United works to get past New England defender Andrew Farrell Wednesday night May 30, 2018 at Gillette Stadium. (photo Atlanta United)
The New England Revolution were able to frustrate the Atlanta United attack a clawed out a 1-1 draw in front of an announced crowd of 10,547 that felt like a lot less. Atlanta failed to pick-up a win on the road for the first time since their opening day loss to Houston, breaking a four game winning streak.
The New England high press disrupted the flow of the game for Atlanta. However, it did not limit their ability to attack as Atlanta took twelve shots, seven of which were on target. Atlanta held possession for 53% of the match but spent much of the time passing between the backline and back to goalkeeper Brad Guzan.
Darren Eales, the President of Atlanta United summed up how most felt after the match.
Well, that was a draw that felt like a loss…#UniteAndConquer
— Darren Eales (@DEalesATLUTD) May 31, 2018
After the match Atlanta United midfielder Jeff Larentowicz expanded on that thought, “Yeah, I know what he’s talking about. I think the season is long, the games even out, you have your ups, you have your downs. You have games that you win that you probably shouldn’t have, you have games that you lose that you probably should’ve won. If that’s one of those games tonight, then so be it. Again, like I said, we defended well as a team, we created chances, we did enough to win, but we just didn’t do it.”
Scoring
Atlanta jumped to the early lead in the 23rd minute when Josef Martinez beat New England goalkeeper Matt Turner. Darlington Nagbe played the ball wide right to Julian Gressel. Gressel sent the cross through the box where Martinez held up his run and drove the right-footed shot from 10 yards out into the back of the net.
Back on ?@JosefMartinez17 is your Golden Boot leader once again pic.twitter.com/M0WDJlgIUT
— Atlanta United FC (@ATLUTD) May 31, 2018
Personnel Details
Mikey Ambrose made his second start of the 2018 season, and put in a solid shift. He received high praise from Jeff Larentowicz:“I thought Mikey [Ambrose] did really, really well tonight.” He also was given high marks by Atlanta captain Michael Parkhurst, “I thought Chris [McCann] and Mikey [Ambrose] on the left were very strong and likewise in front. I think we played out of the left side a little bit more tonight, and I think that was just due to Miguel [Almiron] on that side of the field having a little bit more possession on that side, but defensively I thought everyone was solid. Mikey did great one-on-one defensively. Franco [Escobar] had some big tackles, especially in the second half. Guys played well. They showed that they wanted to be in the lineup, and it’s going to be some tough decisions for ‘Tata’ [Gerardo Martino].”
Line-ups
Atlanta United
- GK: Brad Guzan
- Defenders (3): Chris McCann, Michael Parkhurst, Franco Escobar
- Midfielders (5): Mikey Ambrose, Julian Gressel, Jeff Larentowicz, Darlington Nagbe, Miguel Almirón
- Forwards (2): Josef Martinez (Romario Williams 79’), Ezequiel Barco (Kevin Kratz 85’)
Unused Substitutes
- Alec Kann, Andrew Carleton, Miles Robinson, Brandon Vazquez, Sal Zizzo
New England Revolution
- GK: Matt Turner
- Defenders (4): Antonio Milnar Delamea, Chris Tierney (Gabriel Somi 45’), Jalil Anibaba, Andrew Farrell
- Defensive Midfielders (2): Diego Fagundez, Luis Caicedo
- Attaching Midfielders (3): , Scott Caldwell (Kelyn Rowe 81’), Wilfried Zahibo (Krisztian Németh 61’), Cristian Penilla
- Forwards (1): Teal Bunbury
Unused Substitutes
- Brandon Bye, Claude Dielna, Brian Wright, Brad Knighton
Up Next
Atlanta United returns to action at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Saturday, June, 2 against Philadelphia Union at 7:30 p.m.
