MARIETTA, Ga. — Atlanta United’s victory over the New England Revolution in the first round of the MLS Cup playoffs stood out.
Atlanta 1, New England 0; Seattle Sounders 4, FC Dallas 3; Toronto FC 5, D.C. United 1; Real Salt Lake 2, Portland Timbers 1; Philadelphia Union 4, New York Red Bulls 3; LA Galaxy 2, Minnesota United 1 — one of these things is not like the others.
Frank de Boer’s team kept the only clean sheet of the first round, playing a one-goal game while the remaining fixtures averaged 5.2 goals per match. De Boer and his players took note of the wide-open contests.
“It was nice to see because it was quite enjoyable,” the manager said after Tuesday’s training session. “It was quite open of course, Seattle seven goals, Philadelphia seven goals. We played maybe a little bit more reserved and that’s why it was not so open game. You don’t want to come back from 2-0 [like Philadelphia did against New York].
“Of course you can recover, but I prefer to be up front. Also, how was our mental state was when we were 1-0 down [in games this season], especially away games, it didn’t help us a lot. So it’s good that we played like this against New England. I think we had the control and in the end we deserved to win.”
Atlanta has lined up in a 3-5-2 formation since July, but against the Revs, it played more as a 5-3-2, especially early in the game. Wingbacks Julian Gressel and Justin Meram were quick to drop deep along the back line, and they were cautious about venturing forward. Gressel’s first cross into the New England penalty area did not come until the 17th minute.
“Early on, I don’t want to go too high and leave too much space, because I knew they put in a pretty fast left back to get some more space to run into for them, so I tried to limit that offensively for them a bit,” Gressel said after the New England win. “At the same time, I thought I could get the balls a bit deeper, not so high, and be able to lift my head up a bit more, which happened a few times but not too often.”
De Boer has said he prefers when teams sit in a low block against Atlanta, because it allows his team to dominate possession in the attacking half and shrink the field. This eliminates opponents’ transition moments that might come from turnovers in the first or second phase of the buildup, in the defensive or middle third of the pitch when the Five Stripes are stretched. The manager figures whatever transition opportunities his team forgoes will be made up for by quality up front: Eventually, Atlanta will break down the opposition and create chances, as long as its players stay patient with good movement and quick passing.
“When a team plays a little bit negative, you hope that you’re going to score in the early minutes because then they have to open up, and then we get our best players in the best positions,” de Boer said Tuesday. “But sometimes you have to be patient and sometimes it will take an hour to open them up, and if that’s the case, we have to do it, we’re going to do it.”
De Boer may get what he desires Thursday night. Atlanta hosts the Philadelphia Union in the Eastern Conference semifinals. When the teams met at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in March, Philadelphia conceded 72 percent possession to the Five Stripes in a tepid 1-1 draw. The teams’ combined for five shots on target, and Philadelphia’s goal came off a big deflection that left Brad Guzan helpless. De Boer would like to see his players create more chances — and should expect that after seven more months of training — but otherwise, that game went according to plan.
Even if Philly does bunker again Thursday, there will be times when the Union advance possession into the attacking third. Atlanta’s forwards near the ball will press to slow down the counterattack, but the team will quickly retreat into its defensive shell when the ball is lost. And when the Five Stripes are able to win it back in their defensive third, they will not look to flood forward on the counter, instead building methodically to pin Philadelphia back and regain control.
This will require discipline from a group that naturally likes to play at a breakneck pace. Ahead of an away date at New England in April, Leandro González-Pírez said he likes when opponents try to open games up because “we can find more spaces than when teams are sitting back.”
Ezequiel Barco echoed that sentiment this week.
“I think the up and down, open games favor us because we have a lot of good attacking players who are good in those situations, but it’s a game and you still have to play the game,” Barco told reporters Tuesday. “You never know what’s going to happen, so we have to focus on ourselves and prepare so that we can move on to the next round.”
With Miles Robinson and Michael Parkhurst both out injured, de Boer is forced to field three center backs — Florentin Pogba, González-Pírez and Franco Escobar — who want to join the attack and who do not match the defensive prowess of Robinson or Parkhurst. The manager will see this as added reason to implement cautious tactics Thursday. Philadelphia has dangerous attacking players, even if center forward Kacper Przybyłko is unavailable due to a foot injury, and the Union scored 58 goals in the regular season, tied with Atlanta for third-most in Major League Soccer.
The Five Stripes won their playoff game against the Revolution by going against the MLS trend and staying in control. That is the plan going forward.
“The confidence level was the same as it was before the last game,” Pogba said Monday. “Nothing changes for us. We have to go in with a cool mind and not put too much pressure on ourselves. We have three games left to play and we’ve got to take it step by step. This team has experience from going through it last season. We’ve got to take it one game at a time.”