WHO:

Atlanta United II, 1-0-2, 5 points, 9th place, Eastern Conference

WHAT:

A USL regular season match

WHEN:

Saturday, April 21, 2018, 7:00 p.m. EDT

WHERE:

Coolray Field, 2500 Buford Drive Northeast, Lawrenceville, GA 30043

WATCH:

TV: WBNA 21

Radio: 790 WKRD

Stream: ESPN+

WHO, AGAIN?

Atlanta Twonited. What do we really know about them? Not much. They’ve got 19 players who have seen at least 70 minutes in the span of three games. There are 29 players on their roster. Jon Gallagher leads the team in goals with three. A different goalkeeper has started each game. There’s some real good young talent on the squad aside from Gallagher, including USMNT hopefuls Chris Goslin, Andrew Carleton, and George Bello. There’s some experience, including A.J. Cochran and Devon Sandoval. There’s a former very good UK player named Kevin Barajas on the roster.

How do they play? Well, they like the short passing game, averaging about 450 attempts per contest. They don’t cross the ball in a whole lot, which tells me they try to either beat defenders one on one off the dribble or otherwise play through the middle of the field. I’m not sure how well it works, though. ATL2 likes to keep the ball, but it seems like most of their touches are in their own half of the field. Penn FC managed to limit The Lil’ Five Stripes to just ten touches in their 18 for the entire game last week, which can’t be good.

Atlanta supposedly plays a 4-2-3-1, but they haven’t been holding that shape particularly well. Yes, there’s a four man back line, and it appears there’s a double-pivot in the defensive midfield. After that, though, it kind of looks like a mess. Oliver Shannon’s gotten the start in all three games as a d-mid. Yosef Samuel’s done a decent job maintaining his position as lone striker. The attacking midfield is all over the place, though. In a couple of games, they’re incredibly narrow. In another, they tilt really far to the right side of the field. In another, they’re almost stacked on one another. The best conclusion I can draw about them is they haven’t figured out how to play together yet. That makes sense, since this is their first year as a team and the lineups change quite a bit.

So, again, what do we know? We know these guys are mostly young, they attack pretty narrow, and they don’t quite have it all together. Sounds like a fun time for Morados, IMO.

VAMOS MORADOS, VAMOS A GANAR!