Atlanta United was back in front of more than 40,000 fans at Mercedes-Benz Stadium Saturday evening, and this fans got the winning goal they deserved thanks to a stoppage time header from Marcelino Moreno.
Player Ratings
GK Brad Guzan 6: It’s clean sheet! But Guzan didn’t have a ton to do in the shot-stopping department, so eh. His long distribution was really poor (to be expected), but to his credit was composed playing the ball short out of the back.
LWB George Bello 7: Bello was fine, but didn’t seem to have any sort of rhythm with Moreno going forward on the left. He was able to break in behind Montreal’s back line and create some danger at times. I’m ticking Bello up to a 7 thanks to those last few minutes where he was superb.
CB Miles Robinson 7 Man of the Match: Just gonna put this out there: Miles at striker. Because he appears to be good at everything. (I’m joking.) (Sort of.)
CB Santiago Sosa 6: It was basically the fine , acceptable performance we’ve come to expect from Sosa, except he’s getting docked a bit for one too many errant passes
CB Alan Franco 5: Subbed off at halftime after a very meh performance. Didn’t really do much on the ball to push the play forward, and defensively was a little sloppy in picking up an early booking.
RWB Brooks Lennon 7: High marks for Lennon on sheer determination alone, but it’s not a great sign for a team when it’s RB/RWB is consistently one of its better performers. Stil, Lennon was aggressive getting forward and put in some dangerous balls — one of which was teed up perfectly for Marcelino Moreno who scuffed the shot.
CM Franco Ibarra 5: Did his job in taking relatively clean touches, keeping the ball moving, and helped control the middle of the field. But not much dynamism.
CM Emerson Hyndman 6: Had a little more freedom in his role and was more lively going forward than most of Atlanta’s players on the night. Scored a goal that was disallowed, and ran forward toward the goal when he could. That’s nice. I like it when players do that
W Marcelino Moreno 6: Moreno was hacked down constantly on the night, but overall he failed to execute in his role as the team’s primary offensive creator. Missed in embarrassing fashion in the first half, and didn’t look confident moving into the final third on the ball. But then he scored the winning goal that takes one’s rating from a 4 to a 6.
W Erik Lopez 5: I’m between a 4 and a 5 here (and I don’t do halves, that’s cheating. Pick one.) and but I gave hi a 4 last week and today was slightly better, if still not great. Like Moreno, looks short of confidence in the final third and perhaps all these players in the attack would be improved by the presence of Ezequiel Barco.
ST Josef Martinez 6: Am I being nice here because of my affinity for Josef Martinez? Yes. Like, honestly, I’m not sure if I could pick out moments where he could’ve done better because there were hardly any moments. He missed a pretty open header in the 78th minute, but those are difficult chances to score. Maybe he could’ve done more to involve himself in the game, but I’m not going to blame him for that.
SUB Anton Walkes: Was fine, if not better than fine and Atlanta looked more composed at the back in the second half. Very clean performance on the ball, and he was an upgrade.
SUB Jake Mulraney: Was effective late in the game going direct at goal, which is what the team needed.
