Atlanta United 2 draws with Sporting Kansas City II, misses chance to jump to top of Central Division

Atlanta United 2 and Sporting Kansas City II played to a back-and-forth 2-2 draw at Kennesaw’s Fifth-Third Bank Stadium Wednesday night to end Atlanta’s five-game home-stand. Goals from Bradley Kamden Fewo and Coleman Gannon brought Atlanta even with Kansas on two separate occasions to cancel out a brace from Enoch Mushagalusa.

After a rather passive 45-60 minutes, the match exploded and rained goals. Sporting Kansas City II’s Mushgulsa picked up the ball out wide, cut inside and fired the ball past the previously unbeatable Alec Kann into the side netting for the opening goal of the game.

Atlanta responded five minutes later through a set piece deep in Sporting’s half. 2s captain Bradley Kamdem Fewo put his body on the line to connect with Aiden McFadden’s cross to pull the 2s even with Sporting for the first time of the match.

Two minutes later, Mushagalusa produced another moment of magic to inject even more life into the game, putting Sporting ahead for the second time.

In the end, Coleman Gannon said “no”, and convincingly took a shot from the top of the penalty area to split the points between the two sides.

“I think we were a little bit sluggish...out of the blocks,” said head coach Jack Collison. “One thing the performance has shown is the character of this group. We know we can be better with the ball and we know we can improve.”

Despite conceding two goals, which were both admittedly well worked individual moments of brilliance from Sporting’s Mushagalusa, Alec Kann made four saves on the night to follow up his appearance in the USL Team of the Week.

In the 51st minute, Caleb Wiley carried the ball out of Atlanta’s defensive half to kickstart one of Atlanta’s best attacks of the match. However, like many of Atlanta’s attacking moves, the assistant referee raised the flag for offside when it it looked like Atlanta was going to create a clear cut chance for a shot on goal. Perhaps worryingly, Atlanta United 2 finished the match with nine (9) offside calls against them.

Caleb Wiley won’t want to see this one back though..

Had Atlanta won, the 2’s would have leapfrogged Central Division leader Birmingham Legion in the standings. Now, the 2’s will be eyeing the Legion’s result in its matchup against OKC Energy on Saturday.

The 2’s will get a week to rest and prepare for another matchup against Memphis 901 FC next Wednesday with kickoff scheduled for 8:30 p.m.