United regroup after defeat

Atlanta United will face a much better Chicago Fire team on Saturday than the one they defeated 4-0 in the third week of the season.

The good bits of news for Atlanta United following its 3-1 loss at Vancouver on Saturday: The team will not have to travel to the West Coast for the rest of the regular season and likely won’t face another player as big as the Whitecaps’ Kendall Waston, who had a hand in all three goals.

The bad news: The Five Stripes must next play a Chicago team that is much, much better than the one they defeated 4-0 in the season’s third game. Oh, and Chicago will likely be highly motivated because of that loss. Oh, and the team has added Bastian Schweinsteiger, one of the best players in Germany’s famed history. Oh, and the team had a four-game winning streak heading into its game Sunday night at Orlando. Oh, and Vancouver showed how to negate some of Atlanta United’s Miguel Almiron’s influence. Oh, and ... never mind.

“They’re a confident group and Schweinsteiger has brought that with him and it’ll be a tough intra-conference battle,” Atlanta United captain Michael Parkhurst said. “But we’ll be ready for it.”

Being ready will likely involve more work in training this week on defending set pieces. Atlanta United has allowed 20 goals this season, including four from indirect kicks.

Despite watching at least 15 videos and focusing on set pieces last week, the Whitecaps were able to score two goals directly off corner kicks.

Waston, a 6-foot-5, 195pound centerhalf, had an active day. He scored the first goal in the 31st minute when, Parkhurst said, Atlanta United’s defense failed to stay organized as it started to move up the field following a corner kick.

Waston scored the second on a header in the 44th minute. Atlanta United’s Leandro Gonzalez Pirez seemed to be watching the incoming cross, rather than making sure to jump with Waston. Those were Waston’s first goals this season.

“Waston is a beast in the air on the headers. We try to have a guy in the zone marking him but he’s very good,” Parkhurst said. “Obviously, we paid the price.”

Waston’s header on another corner led to Fredy Montero’s goal in the 68th minute.

“There aren’t many players like Waston in the league,” Atlanta United manager Gerardo Martino said. “Waston is a player that causes problems for a lot of teams, not just Atlanta.”

Another thing Atlanta United must solve is to how to get Almiron involved, or how to take advantage when the opponent is focusing as many as three players on him. In Vancouver’s 4-1-4-1 setup, Martino said Almiron was typically surrounded by three players, at least one of which was paying strict attention to him.

Almiron still finished with 69 touches and completed 56 passes, but he had just one shot on target after scoring five goals the previous two games.

“We didn’t do a good enough job of getting him in the game,” Parkhurst said. “That being said, he almost scored a goal in the second half on a good chance. For us in the back, it was difficult for us to get him the ball from the back line because of the dry turf. We need to do a better job.”