The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Rough week can’t stifle Five Stripes’ belief they can make MLS playoffs
Atlanta United has a chance to wrap up a week to forget on a positive note if it can defeat Toronto today at Mercedes-benz Stadium.
The team lost to Portland 2-1 on Sunday in one of its meeker performances this MLS season. That was followed by the news that cen- terback Miles Robinson was arrested for an alleged misdemeanor. And that was followed by the club suspending Josef Martínez for a week for what it described as “conduct detrimental to the team” but is now known to have been a shouting argument between him and manager Gonzalo Pineda after the loss to the Timbers.
This on top of all the inju- ries, as well as club President Darren Eales leaving midseason to join Newcastle.
Still ... the team hasn’t lost hope that, despite being six points behind seventh-place Cincinnati for the final playoff spot with five games remaining, it can work some magic.
“I think the focus has been pretty good,” fullback Andrew Gutman said. “The biggest thing for us is we’re still in it. I think we’re five points out of playoffs, so we have five games left. So, for us, we’re just focusing on Toronto and getting three points and kind of hoping just to get on a run and go into playoffs on a real high.”
The players have spoken to each other, as well as indi- vidually to Pineda, about the goings-on of the past few days. Midfielder Thiago Almada said he doesn’t feel as though the season has slipped away.
“I think we still have a chance,” he said. “We’ve got four or five games left. We’ve got to try to win every game and try to make the playoffs.”
Gutman said the team believes it will score without Martinez, who leads Atlanta United with eight goals. Gutman said the team has so many attacking options that someone will step up.
Defeating Toronto won’t be easy. It is 4-2-3 in its past nine games. Its offense, because of the additions of Italian nationals Lorenzo Insigne and Federico Bernardeschi, has scored 21 goals in that span. Toronto also is one of six teams below the play- off line that has a chance to make the postseason.
“Their attack is amaz- ing,” Gutman said. “They brought in a couple players, and it’s completely changed the dynamic of their attack.
So I want to make sure that they don’t get any chances, don’t get any space going forward. But at the same time, if I can get forward and make them defend, that kind of tires them out as well. So it’s kind of like a cat-and-mouse game.”
Pineda said he is proud of his team’s resilience and that United has a chance to keep showing it today, despite everything.
“We have faced enormous challenges, enormous challenges throughout the season,” he said. “And we’re still here with possibilities to make playoffs, and we will try to fight until the end for that.
“I think if there’s some- thing I can tell you, I’m very proud of the fight at the end of the games, even though when things are not going well, they always fight, they always come back.”