New York Red Bulls Vs Atlanta United: Tyler Adams the key to everything

The New York Red Bulls travel to Atlanta United on Sunday in one of the most hotly anticipated games of the season. The key to everything is Tyler Adams and his ability to stifle the creative brilliance of one Miguel Almiron.

It’s always a wonderful occasion when two of the best teams in MLS come together for a real clash-of-the-titan epic. It is even more exciting when those teams meet one another in good form, health, and confidence.

That is precisely what will happen this Sunday evening, when the New York Red Bulls travel to the Mercedez Benz stadium to face with the blistering league-leaders, Atlanta United. It is sure to be a rip-roaring affair.

At the Red Bulls have quite the test on their hands.

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Atlanta are, even with their loss to Sporting Kansas City a few weeks prior, the best team in the league, with perhaps only Toronto FC able to match their offensive firepower, and they have been in excellent form, not just winning games, but searing through their opposition with little resistance. Only Kansas City have been able to slow them down and even then it came thanks to a rather fortunate disallowed goal and red card in the first half.

But if there is a team that can challenge the might of Atlanta, especially in their own building, then it is the Red Bulls. First and foremost, they have experience littered throughout the team. They have featured in these high-pressure games. They know how to win them. They also have one of the greatest goalscorers in the history of MLS. They have a brilliant coach who implements a high-pressing scheme that could suffocate the Atlanta play. And they have a burgeoning midfielder by the name of Tyler Adams, who might just be the key to everything.

Stopping Atlanta is no easy task. Almost every different approach has been attempted and found to be futile this season, from pressing them high up the pitch to sitting extremely deep and looking to soak up the pressure and break with pace in the wide channels. But even in games where Atlanta have ultimately won, during the periods that they have struggled, there has been one running theme: disrupting the rhythm of Miguel Almiron.

This will be the task of Adams. In the Hudson River derby, a 4-0 win for the Red Bulls that catapulted them into the MLS elite, Adams was tasked with tracking New York City’s resident creator, Maxi Moralez, shutting him out of the game, suffocating the service into him, and diminishing his influence on proceedings. He must now do the same against Almiron at the weekend.

That is no easy task. Adams is a wonderful, blossoming talent, establishing himself as one of brightest midfield prospects in the whole league. But Almiron is a remarkable player, capable of slipping even the most concentrated of attention. He has an outstanding ability to find space, from which he can then dictate the play, with a deceptive turn of speed, directness in his dribbling, and eye for goal. Just because Adams is tasked with shutting Almiron down, does not mean that Almiron will be shut down.

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But this is the key individual battle that will determine this fixture. If Adams can wrestle Almiron under control, then the Red Bulls have a chance. If Almiron is allowed to roam free, Atlanta could run riot as they have done so many times before. What a brilliant tie this is set up to be.

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