Atlanta United begins a three-match homestand this weekend when it hosts New York City FC at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Saturday night. The match will be the first time that head coach Ronny Deila faces the team he coached to an MLS Cup victory in his previous stint in the league. The 5-Stripes are coming off an encouraging 2-2 draw at FC Cincinnati last weekend, where they had chances to even snatch all three road points. NYCFC earned a 0-0 draw at Columbus last weekend and is unbeaten in its last three matches. Let’s take a look at the Tools to the Match presented by Home Depot against New York City FC.
Put New York under pressure from the opening whistle
One of the goals for this season, and every season, is to make Mercedes-Benz Stadium one of the toughest places to play in for a road team in MLS. Atlanta now has an opportunity with three consecutive home matches to turn MBS into a fortress once again. It starts with this weekend’s match against NYCFC. The 5-Stripes need to put their opponents under pressure from the opening whistle and capitalize on early momentum with scoring chances and goals scored. They have to get the crowd behind them and not give NYCFC the time and space to play out of the back. If Atlanta can dominate the match from the jump and put New York under pressure, it will have a great chance to keep three points at home this weekend.
Cut off the supply to New York’s attack
Unbeaten in its last three matches, New York will head into Atlanta with some confidence and momentum. After a couple of 2-1 wins, it earned a road draw at Columbus Crew last week. NYCFC features a very diverse attack, with Alonso Martínez the star man in the early going. The Costa Rica native has scored three goals in the early going and looks to have finally filled the No. 9 role that NYCFC has been missing the last couple of seasons.
But it’s not all Martínez in NYCFC’s attack. They also have a couple of wingers who have proven quality in Hannes Wolf and Julian Fernandez. The duo has combined for four goal contributions and seven key passes. Atlanta’s defense will need to be on high alert once NYCFC get into the attacking third and try to limit the supply that Martínez gets in the box.
Transition from back to front quickly
One of the points of emphasis in preseason was to have a clean and fast buildup out of the back to get the ball as quickly as possible to Atlanta’s most dangerous players, the front four in attack. At times, especially in most first halves this season, the 5-Stripes have shown the capability to play quickly, and decisively, from back to front and cause havoc in the opponent’s box. At other times, the team has slowed down the pace or made mistakes in the buildup and have given up goals.
When they get the ball into the attack, Latte Lath has already proven that he doesn’t need a lot of scoring chances to find the back of the net. If Atlanta can build out of the back and avoid the big mistakes, it has a good chance to earn a victory against NYCFC.
