The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
United gear up for third game
In freezing snow, team still managed to finish quite well.
After a 6-1 victory in driving snow — including a hat trick from Josef Martinez — Atlanta United look to carry that momentum into Saturday’s game against the Chicago Fire at Bobby Dodd Stadium.
Atlanta United manager Gerardo Martino described his team’s 6-1 win over expansion side Minnesota United on Sunday as nothing special. But a look at Josef Martinez, shivering as he sat in his locker after scoring the first hat trick in franchise history, showed otherwise.
Playing in 19-degree temperatures at kickoff with snow falling throughout, Atlanta United dominated the game, save for a 15-minute spell at the end of the first half when the Five Stripes already had a 3-1 lead.
Martinez, Miguel Almiron (two goals), Yamil Asad and Hector Villalba exploited the huge gaps in the Loons’ defense throughout as Atlanta United became the first MLS expansion side to score six goals in a game during its inaugural season.
Atlanta United had focused on finishing during practices last week.
“I feel good with the work that the players did (Sunday),” Martino said. “Except for the last 15 minutes of the first half, we really didn’t give them a chance to get back into the game.”
As wasteful as the team was in last week’s 2-1 loss to the New York Red Bulls — necessitating the work done in training last week — it was that clinical against Minnesota United in front of more than 35,000 chilled supporters, in a game that featured the use of an orange ball and snowblowers to make lines visible.
Martinez had a man-ofthe-match performance with goals in the third, 27th and 75th minute.
He said he didn’t feel cold until after the game when he remained on the field to do a postmatch interview. He said all three goals were similar. For each, he ran onto a pass in space that split Minnesota United’s defenders.
“It’s always nice to score, even more so when it’s three, but the most important thing is that the team got the win tonight and it feels really good to get the first in team history,” Martinez said.
Martino said the team would concentrate on recovering Monday and then begin preparing for Saturday’s home game against Chicago.
The Fire earned their first three points in the standings with a 2-0 win over Real Salt Lake on Saturday. To beat Chicago, Atlanta United need to continue to attack offensively and sort out a defense that had a poor spell at the end of the first half in Minneapolis. That was when Minnesota United earned its goal on a penalty kick and hit the crossbar with another shot.
A similar poor stretch allowed the Red Bulls to score their two goals in Atlanta United’s inaugural game.
The good news is that Atlanta United weathered that poor stretch and then controlled the game throughout the second half.
The team changed tactics at halftime, switching from trying to control possession with short passes to longer passes down the field.
The change was made because the snow made short passes very difficult.
“We were able to find the goals early,” Almiron said. “After, we were able to control the game better than we did last week. That helped us to be more relaxed.”