Atlanta Silverbacks vs. Minnesota United 2015: Final score 1-2, early red card haunts Silverbacks

The Atlanta Silverbacks lost to Minnesota United on Tuesday night by the score of 2-1. It was a very rough night for the home faithful as a few controversial refereeing decisions came back to doom the Silverbacks in the end. A fifth minute red card to Atlanta defender Rashaun McKenzie would see the home team play with ten men for the majority of the match.

Silverbacks lineup

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Silverbacks?src=hash">#Silverbacks</a> Starting XI and bench to match up with <a href="https://twitter.com/MNUnitedFC">@MNUnitedFC</a> tonight in The Jungle. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ATLvMNU?src=hash">#ATLvMNU</a> <a href="http://t.co/J8VYjn2aOm">pic.twitter.com/J8VYjn2aOm</a></p>&mdash; Silverbacks Live (@SilverbacksLive) <a href="https://twitter.com/SilverbacksLive/status/643918500730269696">September 15, 2015</a></blockquote>

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What happened

The Silverbacks would not be deterred by the disadvantage early on as star striker Pedro Mendes put them in front just four minutes after the sending off.

Atlanta would sit on that lead for as long as they could, but 20 minutes later, Minnesota United found an equalizer through their main goal threat Christian Ramirez. It was the striker's 10th tally of the season.

The sides went into the halftime break level, but being down a man for such a long period of time started to take its toll on the Silverbacks. Finally, just seven minutes before full time, United pulled ahead thanks to a blistering long range strike by J.C. Banks.

Try as they might, the Silverbacks just couldn't find an equalizer in the dying minutes and ended up dropping a tough one. Overall it was an extremely frustrating night for both the team and the supporters as an early refereeing decision ruined what could've been a very entertaining match.

Atlanta takes the home field again on Saturday as they host the Carolina Railhawks at 7:30 p.m ET.