In a match that won’t be remembered in Leagues Cup lore, Atlanta United was beaten 6-5 in penalty kicks after the match ended 3-3 in regulation on Friday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Bartosz Slisz’s penalty kick in the seventh round was hit right at Alex Bono to seal the defeat. It was the second penalty kick by Slisz that was saved by Bono in the match.
“I (expletive) up,” Slisz said. “It’s a very tough situation for me today but I think it will be the big lesson for me. I have to stand up and I would like to just apologize to my whole team, everyone in the stands, in front of TV, because I was never in this situation so it’s really hard.”
The group stage match, the first for both teams, saw two goals from Daniel Rios with another by Saba Lobjanidze as Atlanta United rallied from trailing 1-0 and 3-1.
The match also saw a penalty kick in regulation saved, a goalkeeper make two mistakes that resulted in one goal and a mistimed header that resulted in another D.C. United goal.
“I’m angry,” Atlanta United interim manager Rob Valentino said. “There’s no reason to be in a position like that. We should have never been in that spot. Scoring goals is great. It’s awesome. But the way we work, we shouldn’t have to do that. That doesn’t come from them and unwinding and taking us apart and all those things. It was almost giving the goals.”
In penalty kicks, attempts by Brooks Lennon and Slisz were saved. D.C. United’s Mateusz Klich’s first penalty kick in round 1 was saved by Josh Cohen.
Atlanta United earned one point from the match because it went to penalty kicks. D.C. United won two points. Atlanta United must defeat Santos Laguna in regulation or a penalty-kick shootout on Aug. 4 in its next match or it will be eliminated from the group stage for the second consecutive year.
Valentino’s lineup was composed of Rios at striker, Lobjanidze and Xande Silva on the wings, Jay Fortune, Slisz and Tristan Muyumba in the midfield, Lennon and Ronald Hernandez as the fullbacks, Stian Gregersen and Derrick Williams as the centerbacks, and Cohen replacing Brad Guzan in goal.
Two Cohen mistakes resulted in D.C. United taking a 1-0 lead in the fourth minute. The first mistake was a shanked pass by Cohen when he was under no pressure. The ball went straight up into the air. Dom Badji headed to Christian Benteke. Cohen’s second mistake was not closing down Benteke quickly enough, who toe-poked a shot over him. There was a lengthy video review because Benteke was initially ruled offside. However, the review ruled that Williams kept Benteke onside.
“I tried to clear the ball, just didn’t come off my foot right,” Cohen said.
Atlanta United tied the match at 1 on a header by Rios from a cross by Lennon in the 20th minute. Fortune got the attack started with a left-footed pass into space behind D.C. United’s backline that Lobjanidze ran onto. His cross was blocked. The ball came to Lennon, who hit a low, hard cross to Rios, who held off his defender long enough to put the ball into the lower right corner.
D.C. United took a 2-1 lead in the 25th minute on a comical goal. An Atlanta United shot was saved by Bono. He saw Jared Stroud streaking downfield. Running back toward his goal, Silva started pointing at Stroud, as Lennon, who was the only defender back, began to move toward him. Bono launched a pass. Lennon got into position to head it but mistimed his jump. The ball went off the back off his head and into space toward Atlanta United’s goal, where the only player remaining was Cohen. Stroud ran onto the loose ball and beat Cohen.
“It’s frustrating when you dig yourself into a hole,” Cohen said. “I thought we did well to work out of it, but it’s not the start you want to have or need before going to be successful. So, very frustrating.”
D.C. United increased its lead to 3-1 in the 32nd minute on a volley by Stroud into the upper right corner. With a nice bit of skill, Stroud trapped a cleared corner kick with the inside of his right foot and struck the ball again with the same foot before the ball hit the ground.
Lobjanidze’s curling right-footed shot cut D.C. United’s lead to 3-2 in the 38th minute. He celebrated by making a gesture toward the camera to honor his daughter, Alessua, who was born two days ago.
Dax McCarty and Jamal Thiare subbed on for Fortune and Silva to start the second half. The subs resulted in Atlanta United moving from a 4-3-3 to a 3-5-2 formation. The team ended the first half in a version of the 3-5-2 as a modification to deal with D.C. United’s formation, which is one that surprised Atlanta United.
Thiare was tackled from behind by Chris McVey on a breakaway in the 47th minute and stayed down for several minutes in the mouth of D.C. United’s goal before he stood up and limped back up the field.
Rios was horsecollar tackled by Lucas Bartlett in the 60th minute attempting to reach a Lennon cross but no foul was called by referee Fernando Ramirez. The play was reviewed, which again took several minutes. After watching the play on a monitor, Ramirez changed his mind and called for a penalty kick. Slisz’s poor penalty kick, low and barely to his left, was stopped by Bono. Slisz said he was selected to take the kick by the coaching staff. He said he wanted to shoot down the middle but it went a little too far to the left.
“The only thing you can say to a guy in this scenario is that look, penalties can sometimes be cruel,” McCarty said. “And it’s a little bit of a crapshoot. And on this night, you have to give credit to Alex Bono, he got the best of us. And it’s not just one player, right? It’s everyone. It’s a collective. So there’s no pointing fingers.”
Pedro Amador made his debut in the 75th minute, replacing Muyumba.
Thiare won Atlanta United’s second penalty kick when he was tackled by Aaron Herrera in the 79th minute. Thiare had played a nice give-and-go with Lobjanidze when Herrera took him out with his right leg. Thiare and Lobjanidze were able to attack D.C. United’s defense because of a cross-field pass by McCarty into space.
Rios took the penalty and slammed it into the left corner to tie the match at 3 in the 81st minute. Rios subbed out just before the end of the match because he said he was cramping all over. Valentino said he didn’t know if Rios would have been one of the five penalty-takers because he wasn’t on the field.
In the penalty kicks, McCarty went first and was successful. Lennon went second and it was saved. Nic Firmino, Lobjanidze, Thiare and Williams went next and converted. D.C.’s were successfully taken by Benteke, Herrera, Christian Dajome, Pedro Santos, McVey and Gabriel Pirani.
“We have to learn from our mistakes but it’s happened,” Lobjanidze said. “It’s football and we conceded like really stupid goals. But, anyway, that’s it. It’s happened and thank God we have a chance to come back for next time.”
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