By Robyn Saghini // @robynsaghini
Sunday, March 11: 3-1 Win
After a miserable season opener at Houston last week, Atlanta United FC redeemed itself by breaking the “raccoon witch curse” and the fans proved once again that soccer is thriving in Georgia.
In 2017, ATLUTD could not manage to scrape together a draw against DC United, let alone a win and the “raccoon witch curse” was born. Those raccoons at RFK Stadium obviously performed some unholy magic that somehow allowed the second-worst team in the league last year to defeat ATLUTD all three times they met.
In our home opener for 2018, though, the tables turned. Coach Tata Martino made some adjustments to the formation (more on that in a bit) and ATLUTD wins 3-1, with goals from Josef Martinez, Miguel Almiron, and Tito Villalba. My friend (and Mouths of the South podcaster), Jay Riddle had a theory:
Tata: “You were the key, Asad. I told you by sending you to DC United we’d break the curse of the Raccoon Witch together. Your sacrifice is everything. They suspect nothing.” https://t.co/KVIPVcGr7a
— Jay W. Riddle (@jay_riddle) March 12, 2018
ATLUTD played in a 3-5-2 formation this week (different from the usual 4-2-3-1) and Tata put Jeff Larentowicz (aka “Larry”) back as a defensive midfielder, Miggy back in at CM, and moved Greg Garza to left wing and Julian Gressel to right wing.
#ATLUTD‘s Starting XI against @DCUnited pic.twitter.com/Jnlu6aRqzv
— Atlanta United FC (@ATLUTD) March 11, 2018
I’m usually a bit leery when Tata starts changing things around, but it was easy to see the guys had much better control this week. I was still nervous with only a 1-0 lead at the half, but then Miggy scored. And not even two minutes later, Tito scored (and I missed it because I was posting a picture of T.I. on the supporters stage to the MLSFemale IG story, which is how I got caught on ESPN, so there’s that).
An EPIC day in The 🅰️ pic.twitter.com/aobP9GC4Ba
— Atlanta United FC (@ATLUTD) March 13, 2018
Our old pal Yamil Asad may have scored DCU’s first goal of the season, but he wasn’t much help to them this weekend. Asad got some applause from the early fans when he walked into the stadium and hugged all of his former teammates when DCU came out for warmups, which nearly made me cry. However, he did have some trouble getting past Gressel and Franco Escobar on the right. The only goal for DCU was scored by Darren Mattocks, who slipped by Leandro Gonzalez Pirez and somehow managed to get a shot by Brad Guzan.
For a third time, ATLUTD broke the MLS single-game attendance record with 72,035 in Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Sunday. The club also announced on Monday that they will open the full stadium for a fifth game (Oct 21 vs Chicago Fire, the final regular season game) this season. A friend of mine did the math and said this will bring us to just over 900,000 people at ATLUTD games in 2018. I’d like to see them open it up two more times (for a total of seven full-stadium games) so we can go over 1,000,000!
We set the bar high. But the 5-Stripes don’t stop.
Another attendance record broken! #UniteAndConquer pic.twitter.com/9Ia1ioIFs0
— Atlanta United FC (@ATLUTD) March 11, 2018
In other news this week, Julian Gressel made the MLS Team of the Week (with Almiron on the bench), and Miggy’s goal is up for Goal of the Week. I think ATL fans broke MLS’s system last year, so now you can only vote once (instead of once per hour like last year).
A stellar performance from @JulianGressel!
Congrats on MLS Team of the Week honors 👏
📝: https://t.co/g2GaeixIzq pic.twitter.com/KzuokV2UXQ
— Atlanta United FC (@ATLUTD) March 12, 2018
This coming Saturday, 3/17, ATLUTD host the Vancouver Whitecaps, who have an impressive streak of 18 road games undefeated. Vancouver got the best of our boys last year, but so did DCU – until they came to the Benz, so we’ll see what Tata and the boys do this week. I’m not betting against my boys and the home crowd, though. 😉
Featured image courtesy: atlutd.com
Follow and chat with me on Twitter // @robynsaghini
Check us out on Instagram @mlsfemale
