After shutting out their last two opponents, Atlanta United will look to make it back-to-back wins when they face visiting New York City FC on Saturday evening.
Atlanta (7-14-5, 26 points) followed a 0-0 draw against D.C. United with a 1-0 victory over the Portland Timbers last Saturday. But it enters this game missing a number of players on international duty, including Miguel Almiron and Junior Alonso (Paraguay), Paulo Diaz (Chile), and Alexey Miranchuk (Russia).
That could open up opportunities for players like defender Matt Edwards, who has seven starts and 17 appearances this season.
“I think we have a lot of characters on our team that can step up to the role,” Edwards said. “Missing those players could be challenging, but we’ll figure it out, I think. We’re professionals, so we should be able to.”
Meanwhile, New York City (8-10-8, 32 points) is looking to bounce back from a 1-0 loss to rival New York Red Bulls last week. NYCFC, which sit a point behind FC Cincinnati for the ninth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, are 1-4-4 in their past nine league matches.
New York City saw several of its own players called to their international teams, headlined by Matt Freese (United States), Tayvon Gray (Jamaica) and Aiden O’Neill (Australia). That’s on top of leg injuries which continue to sideline Talles Magno, Keaton Parks, Maxi Moralez and Kai Trewin.
Coach Pascal Jansen made clear he was not pleased with the situation.
“That’s something that still amazes me in this league, that we have to play during a national team break,” Jansen said. “But it is what it is, and we will deal with it.”
New York City is likely to debut Matt Miazga, whom it picked up on waivers after the former MLS Defender of the Year had his contract bought out by FC Cincinnati.
“He is very vocal and tries to create his environment where he can make sure that his experience in several scenarios or certain plays gets across to the other players,” Jansen said.
“This is something he can add to this team, but it doesn’t mean it wasn’t there without Matt.”
–Field Level Media
