Here is a closer look at some of the numbers from the match between Atlanta United and Minnesota United.
1
Red card issued to Atlanta United center back Leandro González Pírez. It was the first time Atlanta had gone a man down this season and the first time since last season. Coincidentally, the first time was when Atlanta goal keeper Kyle Reynish was shown a red card in Mercedes Benz Stadium the 3rd of October 2017 against Minnesota United FC, the only regular season loss in Mercedes Benz Stadium. González Pírez has had a rough start of the season on the road. So far he has failed to finish a road match, in the opening weekend he had a tough match and ended up leaving with an injury. With the red card, the Atlanta back line will have to look elsewhere for help since he will be out this weekend against LAFC.
3
Minnesota United FC has just three shots on target the entire match. The first came from MNUCF Defender Tyrone Mears in the 2nd minute. The next shot on target did not come until the 68th minute from Ethan Finlay, more than an hour later. Minnesota was only able to strike one more shot on target which came from Sam Nicholson in the 87th minute, another twenty minutes later. This seems unremarkable, until you consider that Atlanta United was playing a man down from the 38th minute. Even with the advantage of an additional player, MNUFC was still only able to bring two shots on target, and the first was not until they had been playing a man up for thirty minutes.
71.2%
Minnesota possessed control of the ball for most of the match. They had possession 71.2% over the entire match, and in the second half it was even more dominant with possession of 79%, or almost 36 minutes, not including stoppage time. Going a man down is a huge factor in a match. Typically this kind of possession is the means for a mounting significant attack that can be converted into shots. As shown above, the MNUFC attack did not generate a high number of shots on target. Atlanta “parked the bus” and dared the Loons to break their defense, which they were unable to achieve.
60
Sixty defensive clearances. As part of the defensive effort from Atlanta United, was the sheer number of clearances they performed in keeping MNUFC out of the box. Eighteen of these clearances came from captain Michael Parkhurst and twelve more came from converted mid-fielder Chris McCann. These two really put in the bulk of the work keeping MNUFC out of goal, accounting for half of all the clearances. Defense is not what Atlanta United is known for. All the talk about Atlanta is always about the scoring power, the “tika-taka” possession style of play. Winning with defense is not pretty, but essential when these situations occur. Atlanta United may have just taken a step forward.
Atlanta United FC
