Wow. The game saw a lot of ups and downs including a ridiculous five minutes for Thiago Almada, a penalty miss for Luiz Araujo, and some defensive mistakes. In the first half the game was fairly balanced with Atlanta not being able to create many chances and San Jose converting their only chance, a clinical cut back from the right wing after a long ball into lots of space for the right winger to get onto.
Player Ratings:
Brad Guzan (8/10)- Some very good saves including some ridiculous reactions which bode well for his recovery. He couldn’t do anything about the one goal he conceded.
Andrew Gutman (7/10)- He was nowhere to be found out wide on the Quakes’ goal. There will need to be better communication with the winger in the future. Good attacking, though, and improved defensively.
Miles Robinson (7/10)- Not tested much in the first half but when he was he owned Cade Cowell and was able to track back and cover well in multiple situations.
Juan Jose Purata (5/10)- Needed to communicate better as he didn’t always cover correctly, he also missed a few headers he would normally be expected to make. No major mistakes though.
Brooks Lennon (7/10)- Got up and down the wing well and put in the pass for the first Thiago Almada goal. Nothing outstanding but filled his role.
Franco Ibarra (7/10)- Played well and was a defensive presence in the midfield. He also played a couple really good long balls, that is something we will hopefully see more of in the future.
Matheus Rossetto (5/10)- Fully ghosted for a lot of the game and at times looked lost in the midfield. His only saving grace was a ridiculous 6/6 long balls.
Luiz Araujo (5/10)- You have to score your penalty. Looked dangerous coming infield at times but was lacking the extra touch or two that made him successful in the preseason.
Thiago Almada (9/10)- Holy shit. Coming into the ninetieth minute he was no higher than a six. While clearly given free reign to move around he wasn’t as lethal as one would hope but you can’t blame him, nothing really working around him. In extra time, however, he played out of his mind. Two absolutely obscene goals.
Caleb Wiley (8/10)- He was my man of the first half. He got into lots of attacking positions and tracked back to stop a few counter attacks masterfully. Outside of a few miscommunications early in the game with Gutman he played as well as you could hope, he definitely earned his starting spot and will be very good in a few years.
Jackson Conway (5/10)- Looked absolutely lost and barely touched the ball, you can’t really expect much more of him, though.
Subs:
Derrick Etienne Jr. (6/10)- Didn’t know what to do when he got the ball at his feet at times, but also made some important veteran plays and was constantly open on the wing.
Miguel Berry (5/10)- Barely touched the ball and didn’t offer any more of an attacking threat than Jackson Conway did.
Luis Abram (N.A.)- Came on late in the game and didn’t concede any? Didn’t have any real impact on the game.
Amar Sejdic (N.A.)- Didn’t do much in the final minutes. Wasn’t amazing with what he did do, though.
Gonzalo Pineda (6/10)- A solid tactical setup which fixed a lot of the defensive issues in the past.
Agree Araujo had a tough night out. He played so well during preseason (from what we could see and hear about), but I’m worried that old bad habits of letting it rip from Pity Martinez land and send it into the 32nd row are coming back (did he send that first half shot into Molly B’s?). We need him to be a dependable threat if we’re going to dominate this season. Not the best opening night, but fun as hell and I’ll take the W!