One of the consistent themes in the Atlanta United locker room this season has been to always look for new ways to improve. Not satisfied with last year’s impressive debut season, they built on that to become true Supporters’ Shield contenders in 2018. Win or lose, they’ve talked about at the positives and negatives, always honest about how they can be the best they can be. So after a disappointing day in New York this weekend, there were no excuses made.
“They did better,” Tata Martino said through a translator, with his usual candor. “Usually when one team triumphs over another it's because they did things better, especially in the first half. The second half was a little bit different but definitely in the first half.”
“They were a lot more intense than us,” added Julian Gressel. “Credit to them. They were very intense, they were fired up, and they had the edge in those 50/50 duels, those second balls.”
The players admitted after the match that their usual tenacity wasn’t there from the opening whistle, and that their usual slick passing wasn’t quite on point. But they insisted that it wasn’t their style of play that was to blame.
“We have a certain style that we want to play and that we want to show on the field,” Gressel told reporters after the match. “It didn’t really quite work today the way we wanted it to. I still thought that, maybe, if we moved the balls quicker and got into the right places we still could have played through their press. So, I don’t really know if we need to play long balls and just play for the second balls. That’s really not us.”
“It was a poor start,” added Brad Guzan. “We never got going and at that point we were chasing the game. It’s not one thing you can put your finger on, we all knew how big of a game it was, we all knew what to expect in the game, and we didn’t perform.”
There’s no doubt: the players knew what this game could have meant for their Supporters’ Shield campaign and were disappointed in the performance. But they’re not losing their cool over one result. When asked about the team’s results against the Red Bulls so far, Guzan showed the focus that this team has.
“I don’t think that’s our next game, our next game is at home against New England,” he said. “We’ve got to turn around and make sure we have a good week of training and get ready for New England. We’re not thinking about New York Red Bulls right now. The game is over, we turn our focus to New England.”
“Before this game we had a bigger advantage, now they have cut that advantage smaller,” Martino admitted. “But it still just depends on us."
The team isn’t ignoring the performance; often times players can learn more from a loss than from a win. But they’re also not dwelling on it, with their Supporters’ Shield destiny still firmly in their hands.
“We’ll just try to learn from this experience today and move on,” Gressel said.
After a week to regroup and hard work on the training ground, the red, black and gold will be back in action next week to take on the New England Revolution in front of the Five Stripe faithful at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Tickets to that match are still available, so make sure you’ve reserved yours here.
