The Daily Dirt February 19, 2018: Chucktown meltdown

Yeah, ok - it wasn’t a meltdown and that headline was a little... clicky. But this is a daily post and if you’re reading it you probably frequent the site anyway, so let me have my fun. That was not a pretty performance from Atlanta United over the weekend. It wasn’t really that bad, but it was lacking in good moments aside from a goal and Andrew Carleton looking like he took a big step forward.

My overall take aways are: you can’t take too much away from a performance where presumably (and that word is doing A LOT of heavy lifting in this sentence) three backups start in defense because this happens:

That’s McCann and Larentowcz and Ambrose all trying to step to Frederico Higuain while Gyasi Zardes and Pedro Santos make runs into the box. Presumably (I did it again), the starters to begin the year will be Franco Escobar, Michael Parkhurst, Leandro Gonzalez-Pirez, and Greg Garza, but it’d be nice to see the four of them start a game before March gets here.

The other take away is that something has to happen in the midfield. Darlington Nagbe is clearly playing more of a shuttling/holding role while Chris McCann has been asked to shield the backline. So far, McCann hasn’t been up for the task and there have been huge

gaps in between the backline and center of the pitch. Some of that may be due to LGP not feeling as confident playing next to Jeff Larentowicz, but a capable defensive midfielder needs to be found by the time the season starts.

Anyway, onto the Dirt...

Domestic

In case you don’t know, the LV Lights basically make up for the lack of flamboyant owners in soccer in the US just by having hired a rebellious teenager in the body of a middle aged coach to lead the team.

Toronto FC has upgraded the seating capacity at BMO Field as recently as 2016, but with the upcoming bid to host the 2026 World Cup, the team is again looking to add more capacity to its stadium. The team will have to balance that desire to grow with the potential that they have more supply than demand.

The Colorado Rapids seem determined to put together a disjointed group of players and hope that something good happens. Now they’re adding forward Joe Mason from Wolverhampton Wanders - they clearly have a plan and know what they’re doing though.

International

Spurs only managed a 2-2 draw to League One relegation fodder Rochdale thanks to a late goal. Rochdale will get a chance to be giant killers when they play Tottenham at Wembley in the re-match.

There was a big ole’ brawl in Brazil after Bahia perhaps over-celebrated a goal that Vitoria keeper Fernando Miguel took umbrage with.

Here are the LigaMX scores from the weekend:

So far though 8 games, Club America is undefeated and sits atop the table.

Finally, if Atlanta United ever plays a friendly in South Korea, let’s hope it’s here:

Apparently, it isn’t the best venue for home side Gangwon FC according to the Guardian.

Goals of the weekend

Alphonso Davies going the full length of the field against the aforementioned LV Lights

Pssst, Tata - show the club how to do a short corner

Finally, here’s a completely brutal own goal