The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Early goal too little vs. tough competitor
Higuain’s two goals hand expansion team its first loss.
DANIEL ISLAND, S.C. — A highlight-worthy goal by Atlanta United’s Josef Martinez was cancelled by two goals from Columbus’ Federico Higuain — the first bizarre and the second solid — to hand the MLS expansion squad a 2-1 loss in the opening game of the Carolina Challenge Cup on Saturday.
Though Atlanta United created plenty of chances, manager Gerardo Martino will have some things to consider before Wednesday’s game against Seattle, the defending MLS champion.
Columbus was able to control possession for long stretches, its press was as effective as Atlanta United’s and it had as many counterattacks as Atlanta United, though the speed of the players in its midfield isn’t comparable.
“The main thing we are learning is the quality of the opponent that we will play,” Martino said. “We will take that into account when we do our formations.”
The starting 11. There were two changes to the starting 11 from last week’s victory at Chattanooga.
The back six remained the same, with Decatur’s Alec Kann in goal, Tyrone Mears at right fullback, captain Michael Parkhurst and Leandro Pirez as the center halves, Greg Garza as left fullback, and Jeff Larentowicz and Chris McCann as defensive midfielders.
From there, Martino made a few changes. Miguel Almiron moved from a central midfielder to the left, with Josef Martinez, who didn’t start last week, moving into the 11 as a forward with Kenwyne Jones.
Hector Villalba resumed his place as a starting midfielder. Yamil Asad didn’t start. He picked up a minor injury in training earlier in the week.
The team ended up starting with a 4-4-2 formation, something that Martino hadn’t mentioned as possible in his interviews. He has said the team likely would use a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1.
Among the inactives for Atlanta United, midfielder Andrew Wheeler-Omiunu, goalkeeper Alex Tambakis, fullback Mikey Ambrose, midfielder Chris Goslin and forward Brandon Vazquez were on Charleston’s roster for the second game against Seattle.
That decision was for Saturday’s game only and not for the tournament.
Unlike last week, Atlanta United rolled out the same 11 for the start of the second half, an indication that this may be the starting 11 for the season-opening game against the New York Red Bulls on March 5 at Georgia Tech’s Bobby Dodd Stadium.
The press. Parkhurst said Thursday that Atlanta United would get a good idea of how effective its press might be against its fellow MLS side. It worked early. McCann stole a pass up the middle about 50 yards from goal. He quickly split the defense with a pass to Martinez. He laid it off to the right to Villalba, who crossed it back into the penalty box, where Martinez headed it across the goal and into the net in the sixth minute.
But then Columbus began to break it with Higuain and Justin Meram getting into pockets of space and smoothly transitioning with the ball into Atlanta’s half of the field.
“The first 15 minutes we pressed well,” Martino said. “We had good pressure on the ball. We had chances to score in the first 15 minutes and then the game changed.
“When we couldn’t press as much and win the ball we had to fall back because of how they were playing.”
The opponent. Columbus definitely wasn’t Chattanooga. The MLS side had several chances after Atlanta United opened the scoring, but were unable to capitalize either because of Kann, bad luck or poor execution.
All of that changed early in the second half.
The Crew tied the game in the 58th minute when Higuain jumped in front of an attempted clearance by Kann. The ball ricocheted off Higuain and into the open net to tie the score at 1-1.
Kann said he was trying to pass the ball to Mears, who was open down the right. He said Higuain came up from his blindside. Parkhurst, the captain, said he should have told him to just clear the ball.
“Things like that happen,” Kann said. “Thankfully, it was a preseason game. It was a bonehead move on my part.”
Martino said it was just an unfortunate play. The mistake erased an otherwise solid game by Kann, who made several saves.
Higuain gave Columbus a 2-1 lead with a headed goal in the 62nd minute. The play started with a turnover by Atlanta United.
The effort. Atlanta United began to look tired toward the end of the first half. With so many players loaned to the Battery, even if Martino wanted to make wholesale changes he couldn’t.
The team wasn’t helped by its bus breaking down in Atlanta last week. Instead of flying to Charleston and arriving around 5 p.m., the team missed its flight and was forced to take a bus that didn’t arrive until 10:30 p.m.
Parkhurst said he didn’t think the travel affected the team. What affected them was playing their first 90-minute game.
The support. A few thousand attended the game, and the red-and-black striped home jersey of Atlanta United could be seen throughout the stadium.
“It was awesome to look over there and see the red and hear them throughout the game,” Parkhurst said. “We are really looking forward to that first game. We know it’s going to be a huge crowd.”
The team announced it has sold more than 40,000 tickets to the opening game.