Atlanta United beat New York City FC 1-0 on the road on Sunday night, taking a big advantage into the second leg of their MLS playoff series. The goal is a perfect summary of the way Atlanta won the game: Scrappy, ugly, scored by a defensive midfielder.
Atlanta United bust out a new trick, beat New York City FC ugly
If it’s hard to play on NYCFC’s crappy pitch... just don’t.
Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
Atlanta has a reputation as the league’s most attack-minded, wide-open team. They’re much more likely to win games 3-2 than they are 1-0. But that strategy usually doesn’t work on the road, and it never works for anyone away to NYCFC, the best home team in MLS. They’re really good at playing a narrow short passing game and using their dumb narrow pitch to their advantage.
So once Atlanta scored, they opted to play a pretty negative and defensive game, contrary to their usual style. It worked — partially because they executed it well, and probably because NYCFC wasn’t prepared for it.
Via the MLS Matchcenter, here’s NYCFC’s very bad shot chart.
No one does this to NYCFC on their home field. Except Atlanta, a team that is notoriously wide-open, just did.
If they can play like this in addition to their normal style, they should be favorites to win MLS Cup.
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