Stripes’ late goal forges tie vs. Union

CHESTER, PA. — An Atlanta United road trip that seemed to hold the promise of six possible points and a climb up the MLS Eastern Conference standings was saved from crashing into the nearby Delaware River by Tyrone Mears, whose goal in the 91st minute fi finalized a 2-2 tie with Philadelphia on Saturday night.

After falling to D.C. United 1-0 on Wednesday, Atlanta United showed energy against Philadelphia.

But despite playing with a man advantage for the fifinal 38minutes, the Five Stripes couldn’t find a tying goal until Mears hit a looping header for his fifirst goal this season. Yamil Asad scored in the fifirst half.

The tying goal started with a cross by Greg Garza that Philadelphia goalkeeper Andre Blake punched away. Mears ranin front of his man and headed the ball back across the goal and in.

“It was valuable, especially since we started the game down 2-0. But we never stopped going for it, wenever stopped trying to get the goal,” Atlanta United manager Gerardo Martino said. “It is true that we were not precise at times, but even when (Philadelphia) went down to 10 men, we kept fi fighting for it and I think we deserved the draw.”

Here are four observations about the game:

The value of the point. Winning on the road in MLS is difficult. Just one team, Toronto, has posted asmany wins as losses away from home.

Atlanta United (10-8-6) moved into a tie with Montreal for the sixth and fifinal playoff spot in the East. Atlanta United’s road record improved to 4-6-5.

“It was massive,” said midfi fielder Chris McCann, who was making his second start this season.

Tactics to expect. Atlanta United assumed that Philadelphia would try to play similarly to D.C. United, the same tactics the Five Stripes are likely to see in most of their remaining 10 games: keeping compact defensive ly, with nomore than 30 yards between the back line.

Philadelphia’s strategy worked for most of thegame, even when it went down to 10 men for the fifinal 38 minutes after Joshua Yaro received a red card for pulling down Josef Martinez on a clear goal-scoring opportunity.

A possible problem on defense. For the second consecutive game, it appeared a decision made by midfifielder Hector Villalba resulted in a goal for an opponent.

Against D.C. United on Wednesday, Villalba watched Russel Cano use run by him to score on a header.

Against Philadelphia, Villalba failed to properly clear a ball. But instead of fi fighting to win the second ball, Villalba stood a few yards away and watched Giliano Wijnaldum hit a volley into the penalty box from 25 yards away. Roland Al berg ran onto the volley, chested it and beat Brad Guzan.

Fighting spirit. In four of the past fifive games, Atlanta United scored in the final minutes to tie or win. In four of the past fifi veg ames, Atlanta United failed to score more than two goals. In three of the four, the team has scored just once.

“It just shows how mentally tough we are that for 90 minutes we keep going and teams will take note of that,” McCann said.