Atlanta United suffered one of the biggest defeats of the season following a 4-1 loss against New York City. This loss at the Yankee Stadium comes just before the end of the regular season. It is a very disappointing result for Frank de Boer’s men. The manager admitted that the players lost concentration and suffered a big defeat as a result. The lack of workrate between the two halves of the game was extremely obvious. Even though the result does not hurt Atlanta’s chances of participating in the play-offs, it is a huge dent to the confidence levels.

Up until this defeat, Atlanta had lost only two games since August. Those two losses against Philadelphia Union and Columbus Crew were quickly overcome with wins over Cincinnati and San Jose Earthquakes. The first half turned out to be out against New York, who are able to get a 3-0 lead after just 34 minutes following a hat-trick from Alexandru Mitri. Gonzalo Martinez came up with a penalty just after half-time but the three-goal lead was restored late in the game through Heber. Atlanta remain in contention with the likes of Philadelphia and DC United for the second spot, while New York City are significantly ahead in front at the top of Eastern Conference table.
“We always have to work very hard. You see the difference between the first half and the second half, it’s a very big difference.We had maybe the first two big chances in the first half, but they were winning those second balls. And three times they countered us: long ball, winning the second ball and they scored three times a goal. Also the penalty was the same story.Second half we were winning those duels and we were much more attacking. Not that it resulted in very big chances, but we had the control,” said de Boer.