COLUMBUS, Ohio — Atlanta United failed to do many of the things that it trained to do in the first half Wednesday’s match at Columbus. The punishment was a 3-1 loss, stretching its winless streak to three.
Atlanta United trained to defend the middle of the pitch and not let the Crew play through them.
“Played through us all night,” captain Brad Guzan said.
The Five Stripes trained to play a lower defensive line to limit the space that Columbus could try to play into.
“We had line a little bit too high, and we get played out in 1-2s, movements that they are good at,” manager Ronny Deila said.
They talked about having a willingness to run, tackle and pressure.
“We didn’t do any of that,” Guzan said.
Those weaknesses have been exploited most of the season and are why Atlanta United, despite having the third-largest payroll in MLS and players called into their national teams in every window, is eight points below the playoff line and showing no signs of gaining traction on offense or defense.
“Forget about the mistakes,” Guzan said. “Mistakes are always going to happen, but you can control the willingness to run, your desire to compete, your desire to close guys down, tackle, and that wasn’t there in the first half. And so that’s extremely frustrating.”
The three goals allowed marked the 12th time it has given up at least two goals. Its goal difference stretched to minus-15.
“I don’t know if it’s nervousness, I don’t know if it’s a lack of confidence when the lights come on, I don’t know,” Guzan said. “If we knew the answer, I don’t think we’d be asking the question, or certainly be answering the question. I mean, the first half, I don’t think we got out of our half for 45 minutes.”
Deila said fixing the team starts with fixing the defense. Columbus killed it with 1-2 passes throughout. The passes were there because Atlanta United’s players too often didn’t get close enough to Columbus’ to affect them.
Guzan said it’s called “shadow defending,” saying it’s a training exercise.
“We had 10 guys are under the ball, behind the ball, and … when you don’t bump a runner, when you don’t track a runner, when you don’t get pressure to the guy with the ball, when you’re 2 yards off him, that’s not close enough,” Guzan said. “You need to be a half a yard. You need to be able to tackle, you need to be able to get his head down and put him under pressure.”
Some of Wednesday’s issues could be attributed to the inexperience within Atlanta United’s three centerbacks.
Efrain Morales, whom Deila said showed heart, made his first start. Matthew Edwards, like Morales, is a Homegrown signee who is naturally a fullback. Both were forced into the lineup because of injuries to Stian Gregersen and Derrick Williams. But the midfield consisted of veterans Bartosz Slisz, Mateusz Klich and Alexey Miranchuk.
Improving the fundamentals of the defense should help the offense, Deila said, which has scored one goal over the past three matches.
Brooks Lennon scored Atlanta United’s goal against Columbus. Emmanuel Latte Lath and Miguel Almiron again failed to score, stretching their streaks to 12 and eight matches. Neither put a shot on goal.
“In the end you go away (for road games), you get three, four chances,” Deila said. “You cannot expect so much more away. I don’t know of other teams, a couple of teams, came to us and had more than that in chances. So you have to take your chances when you get them.”
The positives were Atlanta United kept Columbus from scoring in the second half, but the Crew having a three-goal lead may have been a cause. So, for 45 minutes Atlanta United played well.
“But the game’s not 45 minutes, the game’s 90 minutes, and if you play the way you did in the first half, regardless of how you play in the second half, it’s gonna be really, really difficult,” Guzan said.
Atlanta United won’t play again until it goes to D.C. United on July 5.
Guzan has served as a studio analyst during the Club World Cup. Asked if he were watching Atlanta United from a TV soundstage rather than playing for the team, what diagnoses would he provide for its struggles, he said, “We’ve got to get back to training. There’s no shortcuts. There’s no switch. There’s no magic button in the press. We need to get back to working, training. We need to be better.”
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to remove a sentence that did not reflect the final score of the match.
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