The regular season home finale takes place on Saturday night at Mercedes-Benz Stadium when Atlanta United hosts the New York Red Bulls. With only two matches remaining in the regular season, the 5-Stripes have to secure three points and hope for some help from other scores around the league to stay alive in the playoff race until Decision Day on Oct. 19. Anything less than three points will likely cost the team a chance at the postseason. The Red Bulls have been a thorn in Atlanta’s side since the very beginning of the club and have maintained an excellent record against Atlanta throughout the years. It’s going to take an extraordinary effort for Atlanta to secure three points on Saturday night. Let’s take a look at the Tools to the Match presented by Home Depot against New York Red Bulls.
Score first to put pressure on New York
One of the biggest keys on Saturday will be for Atlanta to score first against New York. Over the last several matches, the 5-Stripes have fallen behind first and have struggled overcoming those deficits and turning them into victories. When it has scored first this year, the team is 7-3-2 (W-L-T), while Atlanta has only picked up one victory when allowing the first goal.
The Red Bulls have given up 12 goals in the opening 15 minutes of matches this season, one of the highest totals across the league in that time span. Atlanta has to take advantage of that and score early to put pressure on New York and on the other teams in and around them in the Eastern Conference standings.
Squash New York’s attacking momentum
New York is coming off an impressive 4-1 road win in midweek against Toronto FC. The team has now scored seven goals in its last three matches, including two against Atlanta United in the reverse fixture on Sept. 21. Swedish international Emil Forsberg was back on the score sheet against Toronto and he will be a player that Atlanta’s defense needs to key in on this weekend. He is one of the top game changers in the league when you allow him to dictate the action. Lewis Morgan is another dangerous attacker who leads the team in goals scored with 13 this year. They converted two penalties in Toronto, while Brad Guzan stopped a penalty late in the earlier meeting between the sides. Atlanta’s defense needs to be alert in its own box and mark the Red Bulls attackers without fouling.
Show urgency for the full 90+ minutes
The 5-Stripes have to come out and show urgency from the opening whistle of this match. With a loss, the team will be eliminated from playoff contention. The only way to stay alive is to come out and secure three points and hope that other results fall the team’s way. With the quick turnaround, the coaching staff won’t have a lot of time in training to implement new ideas. It will come down to the players executing, especially in both boxes. Atlanta’s xG number has remained high for most of the season (60.6 according to MLS’ official xG model). They need to find a way to convert multiple chances on Saturday and score goals to not only win the match vs. New York, but create a more favorable goal differential as that is the second tiebreaker to determine the final standings (total wins being the first tiebreaker). If it can score multiple goals on Saturday, the team will give itself the best possible chance to stay alive for Decision Day on Oct. 19.
Fans can tune in on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV on Saturday night at 7:30 pm ET when the action kicks off at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia. To hear the action on radio, tune into Sports Radio 92.9 The Game (English) or La Mejor – AM 1600 (Spanish).
