Atlanta United’s recent success at set pieces could be key in Leagues Cup

Saba Lobjanidze hit the corner kick with the precision of a driver navigating traffic on the Grady Curve. Stian Gregersen headed the ball with enough power to leave “ADIDAS” imprinted on his forehead in the 60th minute for a goal against Columbus at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

It was so easy, the two connected again 17 minutes later to give Atlanta United a 2-1 win July 20.

The goals looked choreographed and naturally repeatable, and they were but aren’t. They were the first two scored from free kicks for Atlanta United this season. And they weren’t easy. To wit, they came from the team’s 136th and 139th corners taken during the MLS regular season. All the little details came together, according to Atlanta United goalkeepers coach Liam Curran, who works on the team’s set pieces.

Atlanta United’s ability to score from dead balls may be pivotal to it not only advancing out of its group in Sunday’s important Leagues Cup match against Santos Laguna, but securing one of the nine playoff spots in the Eastern Conference once MLS play resumes Aug. 24 at L.A. Galaxy.

“Sometimes things work, sometimes they don’t,” said Liam Curran, who is the coach tasked by Atlanta United interim manager Rob Valentino with executing and defending free kicks. “I think you also it comes down to the desire to score in that moment. Hopefully we can see a few more of them.”

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Set pieces can sometimes look as simple as Lobjanidze-to-Gregersen’s goals. Take the team’s best passer and have him hit it to the tallest player. Gregersen, who is listed at 6-foot-4, usually is the tallest player. But to successfully execute requires hours of research, practice and luck and every one of the players usually involved in the play needs to make the right decision if they are the attacking team and the wrong, or just not totally right, decision if they are the defending team. Of the 1,096 goals scored during league play, 211 have from non-penalty kick set pieces, according to whoscored.com.

“I think there are always opportunities to score goals,” Valentino said. “And on both sides, I think of the defending set pieces, can you create a counterattacking chances that you can give yourself a chance to score goals?”

Atlanta United spends hours each week studying opponents on set pieces. In a typical one-match week, the club will spend parts of its last two training sessions working on defending what it thinks the opponent may do from corner kicks, direct free kicks, and indirect kicks, and then working on its own “plays.” Scouting when defending will include does the opponent hit inswinging kicks or outswinging kicks, do they typically play the ball to the near post, centrally or the far post, do they like to have attackers take running starts to meet the ball or do they attack from a standing jump, do they typically target the same one or two players. That’s just the start.

When attacking with its own kicks, the team’s playbook isn’t as nearly as thick as those used in football, but they have a few for each match, and each has variations for kicks to the near post, centrally and the back post.

Curran, who declined to take credit for the team’s recent successes, said the coaches study video, and then they will show the players as a group scouting reports on the kicks and then work with individual players using iPads and other devices on videos so that they can better anticipate what may happen when defending or what they need to do when attacking.

“Not bogging them down with so many that it doesn’t actually provide clarity,” Curran said. “It’s simplifying things for the players and getting them to understand it and recognize and then obviously just help them with the execution because they’ve got many other facets to the game and other things to be worried about. Our hope is that they’ve got that extra little bit of focus and concentration on each play when that time does come.”

The play that resulted in Gregersen’s goals is one that the team had tried many times without success, but it illustrated how Atlanta United approaches its attacking set pieces. Analyzing Columbus, Curran said Atlanta United knew that the Crew weren’t a tall team, and they recognized that the Crew’s taller players typically were put into a zone structure in front of the goal when defending corner kicks. So, they knew that Gregersen was going to have a matchup advantage on whomever the Crew used to mark him. As Lobjanidze approached the ball to hit an inswinging corner, or a ball that curves from right to left when taken from the left side, Gregersen made his run toward goal. Jay Fortune put himself in the way of the man running with Gregersen, giving him the free space to make a clean jump at the ball.

“If you score on set pieces, then we have more opportunities to score goals in a different way,” Gregersen said. “So that’s good.”

Atlanta United, like many teams around the world – Curran mentioned Bournemouth, Real Madrid and OSG, treats any dead ball as a chance to score. In the match that preceded the one against Columbus, the Five Stripes scored the earliest goal in franchise history when it took a 1-0 lead on a goal against NYCFC.

Curran said that when studying NYCFC, Atlanta United recognized that its opponent liked to play a high defensive line, so they tried to devise a way to get behind the centerbacks and fullbacks as soon as possible from the opening kick. It was a sequence that Atlanta United hadn’t yet tried to start a match. Tristan Muyumba played in with Saba Lobjanidze behind NYCFC’s line. He squared a ball to Daniel Rios. The “play” didn’t work exactly as it was practiced, but Atlanta United had a 1-0 lead after 21 seconds.

It also exemplified what Atlanta United will need to do against Santos Laguna on Sunday if it hopes to advance in the Leagues Cup.

“Credit to the boys because they’re the ones that have to improvise at times and adapt, and we executed it well, and I suppose it goes down in the history books as the fastest Atlanta goal,” Curran said. “Scoring goals changes games and scoring early like that, especially at home, you hope to be on the front foot anyway, but it just shows intent to come in to say, ‘We’re gonna get at you, we’re going to attack you and we’re going to show that intent from the get-go.’ That was kind of how it all went down.”

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Atlanta United’s 2024 schedule

Feb. 24 Columbus 1, Atlanta United 0

March 9 Atlanta United 4, New England 1

March 17 Atlanta United 2, Orlando 0

March 23 Toronto 2, Atlanta United 0

March 31 Atlanta United 3, Chicago 0

April 6 Atlanta United 1, NYCFC 1

April 14 Atlanta United 2, Philadelphia 2

April 20 Cincinnati 2, Atlanta United 1

April 27 Atlanta United 1, Chicago 1

May 4 Minnesota 2, Atlanta United 1

May 7 Atlanta United 3, Charlotte Independence 0 in U.S. Open Cup