Little moments keep Atlanta United in playoff picture

If Atlanta United improbably advances to the MLS playoffs, six events during Saturday’s 2-1 win against New York Red Bulls may prove to be the difference.

Those were Edwin Mosquera’s aggressiveness, Jamal Thiare’s quickness, Alexey Miranchuk’s decision, Tyler Wolff’s coolness, and two decisions by referee Ismir Pikmic.

Mosquera chased a long ball that resulted in a red card. Thiare beat his defender and won a penalty kick. Miranchuk made up his mind before he took the penalty where he was going to put it to give Atlanta United a 1-0 lead. Pikmic ruled off one Red Bulls’ goal because of an inches-close offside, Pikmic ruled off another Red Bulls goal for another offside, this one slightly more clear but still close, and Wolff kept his cool when in on goal by himself to score Atlanta United’s second goal.

None will be remembered like Michael Parkhurst’s tackle and Josef Martinez’s goal in the MLS Cup, or Jeff Larentowicz’s rocket in the Campeones Cup, but it’s the little plays that can make a difference between an e- beside a team’s name in the standings, and one more chance to secure a postseason berth and from there a trophy. Atlanta United made enough of the little plays to defeat Red Bulls and go into Decision Day in two weeks with a chance to make the playoffs for the second consecutive season.

“I‘ve said before, you create your own luck, and (expletive) right, we deserve some of that,” interim manager Rob Valentino said. “So I’m not going to apologize for it.”

Atlanta United’s playoff situation isn’t simple.

It has 37 points and must defeat Orlando on Oct. 19 and hope that Montreal (40 points) loses to NYCFC and D.C. United (40 points) loses to Charlotte. If those happen, Atlanta United will finish at least ninth and will advance to a wildcard match against the eighth seed.

If those events happen AND Philadelphia draws or loses to Cincinnati, Atlanta United will move into eighth and will host the wildcard match.

The wildcard matches are scheduled to be played Oct. 27-28, with the first round, best-of-three of the playoffs scheduled to start Oct. 25.

What seemed improbable during the team’s five-match winless streak that preceded Saturday’s win, during which it had opportunity after opportunity to lock up a playoff spot, now doesn’t seem as far-fetched.

“In every game, we trying to do our best performance,” Miranchuk said. “But it depends on us, how we play. And today we were calm with the ball. More possession, make them run without the ball. In the end, we scored.”

A difference between Saturday’s victory and the five matches, really most of this season’s matches, is Atlanta United played aggressively from the start.

It took almost as many shots in the first half (9) than it did the entire match (10) against Red Bulls two weeks ago. Atlanta United finished Saturday’s match with 20 shots, six on goal, to Red Bulls’ seven and two. Bartosz Slisz said the tactics didn’t change much from that game to Saturday’s. Atlanta United’s formation changed. It started the previous match with three centerbacks before Valentino recognized that it wasn’t working and switched to two. The team started Saturday’s match with two centerbacks.

“I think we’re better on the ball, we’re more comfortable, and everyone wanted to play, just have the possession,” Slisz said. “It was really great.”

And there was one more event that may have contributed to Saturday’s win and the team’s possibly advancing to the postseason.

It happened on Thursday, the day after Atlanta United was beaten by Montreal 2-1. It was something Valentino said to the players at the training ground.

“It’s a tough part of the season now, it’s pressure,” Valentino said. “...You have to keep showing up. The hardest thing to do when you give everything you have to something and you have failure is to keep showing up and keep doing it.”

Atlanta United must do that at least one more time.

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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