The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
ATLANTA UNITED
Brad Guzan blocks a shot attempt by Orlando City during the second half Saturday night. Atlanta United’s back four of Franco Escobar, Miles Robinson, Anton Walkes and George Bello stood out.
If Atlanta United goes on to compete for the MLS Cup, the season’s only remaining trophy, it may look back at Saturday as the turning point.
Minutes from losing to Orlando City for the second time in eight days, being shut out for the fifth time in seven games, played off the pitch for long stretches, Jake Mulraney floated a cross into the penalty box. Adam Jahn got across his defender, jumped and headed it down and into the goal to secure a 1-1 draw.
If Atlanta United can put together a streak, that one point will be worth so much more than just a point. Atlanta United will finish this block against the league’s two expansion teams, at Miami on Wednesday and at Nash- ville on Saturday.
“I think without getting too deep into it that 2020 has been a year with a lot of adversity,” co-captain Jeff Larentowicz said. “We’ve had a lot of stop-start. We’ve obviously had a coaching change. Now a player like Pity Martinez no longer in our team. We lost Josef (Mar- tinez) at the beginning of the year. I feel like we’ve taken a lot of punches this
Inter FC, year and it’s been tough. But I think we are learning about each other. I think we have shown that we are will- ing to fight for each other. I think we’ve had to regroup amidst all this adversity and we’ve done a pretty good job. I think we can abso- lutely get better and I think that there is still a level of belief that we need to get to but I think we can continue to build on it and tonight is a good step.”
Part of the puzzle that interim manager Stephen Glass must figure out to help his team take advantage of these few minutes of positive momentum is how to get his team to start play- ing like it finished. He said that was his simple state- ment to the team after the game.
“I think you will see a better Atlanta United when that happens,” Glass said. “That’s a pretty straightforward message for the group.”
Orlando ran through Atlanta United time after time in the first half. It was simi- lar to what it did eight days ago, which caused Larentowicz to say that you’d think the team would learn. But, unlike eight days ago when it gave up two goals in the first half, this time Atlanta United surrendered only one. That was mostly because of the heroics of Atlanta United’s back four of Franco Escobar, Miles Robinson, Anton Wal- kes and George Bello. The group made nine tackles in the first half alone. Quite a few were to prevent oneon-ones with goalkeeper Brad Guzan.
Orlando kept running toward its supporters’ sec- tion of Exploria because Atlanta United cou ldn’t string anything together on offense. Much like in each of its games since the tournament in Orlando, it lacked energy and ideas.
The team made adjust- ments at halftime. Glass said because he and the team are still learning each other, it’s difficult to make adjustments within the flow of the game but things are improving.
“Again tonight, second half, and second half against Orlando in first game, we were better,” Glass said. “We’ve been able to get clear messages into players on how to fix things, and then the play has looked a lot bet- ter. If that starts becoming more of an understanding from the players, and what we coaches what, then the results will come. It’s not an excuse. It will come, but hopefully it will come quicker and for longer.”
Glass played an important part in the team find- ing intensity. His substitu- tions, Jahn, Mulraney, Jurgen Damm, Matheus Rossetto and Jon Gallagher, helped the team gain control in the second half. The ball moved faster. There was width and speed on the wings.
“If you’re in a little bit of a rut, it’s hard to kind of fight out of it,” Jahn said. “I think we lost the best player in the league. And I think it makes so many differences — you realize it at first and then it permeates. It’s so hard to lose Josef and then Pity just left as well. So there’s a lot of turmoil going on. I’m not using those as excuses, we have to find a way to fight out of that and just keep the belief like Glassy has been telling us — and to be courageous. Because that’s the only way we’re going to fight out of it. No one is going to give it to us, no one is going to do it for us. It’s on us. I hope tonight is a big step forward in that.”
NEWYORK— Novak Djokovic was kicked out of the U.S. Open for accidentally hitting a line judge in the throat with a tennis ball after dropping a game in his fourth-round match Sunday, a stunning end to his 29-match winning streak and bid for an 18th Grand Slam title.
As he walked to the Arthur Ashe Stadium sideline for a changeover, trailing Pablo Carreno Busta 6-5 in the first set, Djokovic — who was seeded and ranked No. 1 and an overwhelming favorite for the championship — angrily smacked a ball behind him. The ball flew right at the line judge, who dropped to her knees at the back of the court and reached for her neck.
During a discussion of about 10 minutes near the net involving tournament referee Soeren Friemel, Grand Slam supervisor Andreas Egli and chair umpire Aure- lie Tourte, Djokovic pleaded his case.
“His point was that he didn’t hit the line umpire intentionally. He said, ‘Yes, I was angry. I hit the ball. I hit the line umpire. The facts are very clear. But it wasn’t my intent. I didn’t do it on purpose.’ So he said he shouldn’t be defaulted for it,” said Friemel, who made the decision to end the match. “And we all agree that he didn’t do it on purpose, but the facts are still that he hit the line umpire and the line umpire was clearly hurt.”
Friemel didn’t see what happened, and said he was not allowed to check a video replay, but was given a run- down by Egli and Tourte. Friemel said that even if Djokovic didn’t intend to hurt the line judge, she was hurt, and that was enough to merit the ruling.
Eventually, Djokovic walked over to shake hands with Carreno Busta. Tourte announced that Djokovic was defaulted, the tennis equivalent of an ejection.
“I was a little bit in shock, no?” Carreno Busta said later
United at Miami 8 p.m., FSSO
at a news conference done via video conference because of social-distancing rules at the U.S. Open, the first Grand Slam tournament staged amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Djokovic quickly left the tournament grounds without speaking to reporters, posting an apology on social media hours later.
“This whole situation has left me really sad and empty. I checked on the lines person and the tournament told me that thank God she is feeling ok. I‘m extremely sorry to have caused her such stress. So unintended. So wrong,” Djokovic wrote.
“As for the disqualification, I need to go back within and work on my disappointment and turn this all into a lesson for my growth and evolution as a player and human being,” he wrote. “I apologize to the @usopen tournament and everyone associated for my behavior.”
Asked whether he thought Djokovic should have been allowed to continue to play, Carreno Busta shrugged and replied: “Well, the rules are the rules. … The referee and the supervisor (did) the right thing, but it’s not easy to do it.”
Djokovic began the day 26-0 this season and with an unbeaten run that extended to his last three matches of 2019. He had won five of the past seven Grand Slam tournaments to raise his total to 17, closing in on rivals Roger Federer, who has a men’s-record 20, and Rafael Nadal, who has 19.
With reigning U.S. Open champion Nadal, who cited concerns about traveling amid the pandemic, and Federer, sidelined after two knee operations, not in the field, the 33-year-old from Serbia was expected to claim a fourth trophy in New York and gain on them.
His departure means there is no man left in the field who has won a Grand Slam singles title. Whoever emerges as champion will be the first first-time major trophy winner in men’s tennis since 2014.
“Now it gets interesting,“said Alexander Zverev, who beat Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 6-2, 6-2, 6-1.