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Atlanta United: Analyzing their seven losses from the 2018 season

By Josh Bouland

HARRISON, NJ - SEPTEMBER 30: Atlanta United head coach Gerardo "Tata" Martino prior to the Major League Soccer game between the New York Red Bulls and Atlanta United on September 30, 2018 at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, NJ. (Photo by Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
HARRISON, NJ - SEPTEMBER 30: Atlanta United head coach Gerardo "Tata" Martino prior to the Major League Soccer game between the New York Red Bulls and Atlanta United on September 30, 2018 at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, NJ. (Photo by Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /
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ATLANTA, GA JULY 15: Atlanta’s Josef Martinez (7) looks on during the match between Atlanta and Seattle on July 15th, 2018 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, GA. Atlanta United FC and Seattle Sounders FC played to a 1 1 draw. (Photo by Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
ATLANTA, GA JULY 15: Atlanta’s Josef Martinez (7) looks on during the match between Atlanta and Seattle on July 15th, 2018 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, GA. Atlanta United FC and Seattle Sounders FC played to a 1 1 draw. (Photo by Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

July 4 @ FC Dallas

Atlanta hadn’t lost a game in a month and a half. They collected 12 of 18 points since losing to Red Bulls in May and things were going well. Even this game itself was going well until the final ten minutes. Atlanta held a 2-1 lead but Dallas stormed back to win 3-2. It was a crushing collapse for an Atlanta squad that was playing well up to that point.

How FC Dallas Won: Reto Zeigler opened the scoring in the 22nd minute to lead 1-0 before Dallas conceded two goals to Atlanta over the following 60 minutes. It wasn’t until the 86th minute that Tesho Akindele brought the game level before scoring the game winner just two minutes later.

What went wrong: Well, just about everything. It was bad enough that Atlanta had to come back, but it was even worse that they blew the game in its final moments. The defense completely collapsed in the last ten minutes and gave the game away to Dallas. Tata Martino also shoulders some of the blame. His substitutions signaled that Atlanta was playing to not lose the game instead of playing to win the game.

The bright spot: Josef Martinez scored a brace and Hector Villalba absolutely schooled the Dallas defense. This was the second consecutive game Martinez scored a goal, beginning his historic run of nine games with a goal scored.

The takeaway: At the time this loss seemed pretty awful. Collapsing in the final few minutes of the game was not a good look, especially considering Dallas were top of the Western conference. Losing in that fashion made Atlanta look like they couldn’t handle real competition and couldn’t beat a good team. Their six game undefeated streak was snapped as well.

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