Atlanta United loses 2-1 to New England Revolution

Atlanta United struggled and lost 2-1 to the New England Revolution at Gillette Stadium Saturday night.

Atlanta United suffered its first MLS loss of the season under Gabriel Heinze as Bruce Arena’s New England Revolution

The result moves the Revolution to the top of the Eastern Conference with 2 wins and one draw, while Atlanta United has a 1-1-1 record.

The Revolution’s Brandon Bye nodded home Carles Gil’s cross in the 18th minute, a situation that Jurgen Damm and the backline failed to deal with.

In the 43rd minute, Marcelino Moreno converted an against-the-run-of-play penalty kick to tie the game at 1-1. Moreno is now third on Atlanta’s list of penalty kick goal scorers (3), behind Miguel Almiron (5) and Josef Martinez (16) in MLS play.

Carles Gil put away a penalty kick for the Revolution in the 52nd minute to put New England ahead again.

Gabriel Heinze’s starting lineup featured a handful of changes. Mulraney started as the left wingback, Cubo Torres started up top and Alan Franco replaced Miles Robinson as one of the two center backs.

Jurgen Damm started, but he suffered an apparent injury in the 25th minute. Substitute Ezequiel Barco also sustained an apparent injury and left the game in the 80th minute. Heinze had not yet received an update from the club’s medical staff when he spoke with media.

Carles Gil ran the show for the Revolution, setting up the opening goal for Bye and scoring a solid penalty kick to win the game for New England. With one goal and one assist, he accumulated an xG+xA of 1.16 and amassed five key passes.

“There’s a few things we know we should have done better,” said Anton Walkes postgame. “The fixtures are coming very quick and we have to take what we can out of this game and make sure we improve [for] Tuesday.”

Atlanta will travel to Subaru Park on Tuesday to play the Philadelphia Union and attempt to turn around a 3-0 deficit in the Concacaf Champions League quarterfinals.