Atlanta United at New England Revolution: Illustrated boxscore

That was a game that wasn’t much for highlights, still Atlanta went on the road with little rest and held together for a draw against a team with 11 wins at home. They didn’t look that great doing it and will welcome a chance to play Minnesota United at home on Tuesday.

There was another 0-0 draw yesterday as Orlando City managed to keep FC Dallas off the board while failing to score themselves. The game featured 90 minutes of Orlando failing to score against a team with 11 players on the field and mostly not even trying until injury time. The game came alive but in the end City failed to score. The result pushed Orlando out of the playoff race but at least they can’t mathematically finish in the last spot the Eastern Conference this year.

As far as Atlanta United goes, the highlights of the game were how many players were rocking the Continental look (wearing gloves with short sleeves). It’s one of the most satisfying fashion statements this side of the ‘94 denim kits and it was on full display against New England.

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Aside from some really nice defensive work from the entire backline, Anton Walkes and Leandro Gonzalez Pirez in particular, and Brad Guzan’s mistakes turning into saves and not goals, Atlanta endured in the match. New England wasn’t much better. They broke up Atlanta’s counter attacks and forced the Five Stripes to make some plays on defense, but could never put everything together and get a goal in the match. In the end a draw seemed like a fair result.

Anyway, here’s what it looked like:

Yeah, so New England is better at home than on the road and that distinction is costing them a trip to the playoffs. Also, their field is an embarrassment. On the home broadcast the announcers muttered some remarks about weather and football and a game tomorrow, but with soccer cathedrals being built in this country and Canada there’s no excuse for the way the field looked yesterday.

So Atlanta United might not have won, but the team did manage to keep its sixth cleansheet in the last seven games, which is a pretty impressive achievement.

The Five Stripes will have another re-match with a team they dumped goals on when the Loons flock south (sorry) on Tuesday.