Atlanta United Vs San Jose Earthquakes: 5 things we learned – Crazy, crazy night

Atlanta United stole three points from the San Jose Earthquakes on Wednesday night in a crazy come-from-behind 4-3 victory. See what we learned.

Atlanta United somehow won on Wednesday night over the San Jose Earthquakes in what was a wild game from start to finish, with the Five Stripes eventually running out 4-3 victors. Atlanta still sit atop the Supporters’ Shield standings, extending their lead over New York Red Bulls to four points.

There is a lot to unpack from this game, including eight goals, a VAR mishap, and some of the worst soccer in Atlanta United’s brief history.

Here are five things we learned.

5. New formation

It was a weird night from start to finish. That included a new formation rolled out by Tata Martino before the game even started. Atlanta elected to start in a 4-3-3. They normally play a 4-2-3-1, which is a variation of a 4-3-3, but this specific formation had players in new positions.

Miguel Almiron, who normally plays center attacking midfield, started out on the left wing. He started up top with Josef Martinez and Hector Villalba in their normal positions. As for the midfield, Jeff Larentowicz started in the middle, Eric Remedi started out wide left, and Julian Gressel started out wide right. The back four was normal, all things considered.

This formation made it seem like Martino’s attempt at fitting both Franco Escobar (at right back) and Gressel on the pitch at the same time. I think it can be chalked up to a failed experiment, with San Jose exploiting the spaces in Atlanta’s formation almost all night.