“Victory.” “Rocky.” “Major League.” Maybe even “Space Jam.”
Pick your favorite sports movie with an underdog upset, then place it side by side with Atlanta United’s astonishing defeat of Lionel Messi and Inter Miami CF in their Round One Best-of-3 Audi MLS Cup Playoffs Series.
You can accuse us of hyperbole if you like, but it probably holds up.
The Five Stripes pulled off the biggest upset in MLS history with their comeback 3-2 victory in a devastatingly dramatic Game 3 decider at Chase Stadium Saturday night. And that applies in both statistical terms and by the eye test: No lower seed has ever beaten a favorite who finished as far ahead of them as the Herons did ATLUTD in the regular season standings, a whopping 34 points.
Thirty-four! Ninth-seeded Atlanta only garnered 40 points in total this year, sneaking into the final postseason slot on Decision Day with an away win over Orlando City SC combined with D.C. United’s home loss to Charlotte FC. Not that Brad Guzan and his comrades are remotely bothered by such details at this point.
“It doesn't matter. Honestly, the regular season means nothing,” ATL’s 40-year-old goalkeeper told reporters postgame, wearing a wry smile after another jaw-dropping performance marked by seven saves, three of them on Luis Suárez, with whom Guzan also jousted verbally on more than one occasion in this riveting encounter.
“I said that when we were in the regular season, and not that it doesn't mean anything then, because you need the regular season to get into the playoffs. Once you're in the playoffs, it doesn't matter, in terms of where you're seeded, and home and away and this and that. It is what it is, right? … Come down here, backs against the wall, find a way to get a result. Feels good.”
Giant slayers
Guzan’s reputation is well established: A distinguished veteran of the English Premier League and US men’s national team, with two World Cups and myriad other honors on his résumé. His contributions to this stunning outcome were massive. Yet there were many hands at the oars for Atlanta here, many of them role players and relative unknowns outside of north Georgia.
Defending both resolutely and with desperation, the visitors repelled Suárez, Messi & Co. again and again, and sliced open their hosts’ injury-riddled defense with startling ease, particularly via the tireless transition work of Saba Lobjanidze and Jamal Thiare – the latter’s clinical brace broke this game open in a dizzying three-minute span in the middle of the first half – and the canny central-midfield labor of Bartosz Slisz and 37-year-old vet Dax McCarty, along with more pinpoint service from left back Pedro Amador.
“It took everyone’s special amount of running and giving everything that they got,” said Thiare in French postgame, reserve goalkeeper Quentin Westberg providing translation services.
“Everyone’s held each other accountable, fighting when we're basically backs against the wall. We didn't want to finish the season like this, so it was good effort in training, but it was really something that the group discovered along the lines of the last few games. And something great is igniting from all of this.”
Notably, Guzan chose to spend a great deal more time praising Thiare’s off-ball contributions than his clutch scoring.
“Aside from his two goals, I thought Jamal was fantastic in terms of his work rate and defensive ability and holding the ball for us,” said the ‘keeper. “I mean, those are huge plays that he gets zero credit for on the stat sheet and the numbers and all that. But those are big, big plays for us.”
"Internal belief"
For all the glitz and hype with which Atlanta roared into MLS seven years ago, their current iteration is something quite different, a sturdy collective with nothing close to the star power of their 2018 MLS Cup-winning squad, let alone the glittering constellation of names wearing Miami’s pink, but a tenacity and belief that’s gelled remarkably in the final weeks of an otherwise bitterly disappointing campaign.
The coach who navigated this upstart past Messi and Gerardo “Tata” Martino? He’s not even the permanent boss. Rob Valentino has led ATL on an interim basis since Gonzalo Pineda’s dismissal back in early June, and as impressive as his leadership has been on the Five Stripes’ unlikely autumn push, he’s steadfastly sidestepped or rejected every single opportunity to take credit or advance his own credentials for the full-time job.
“I'd love to say something fancy, like I'm a tactical genius or something like that, but I'm not. I'm not, and that's not the way I coach,” said Valentino. “So just talking about, all along, internal belief, fighting and sticking together. We've made, obviously, little tweaks, and we've done certain things to try to win each game, and done something a little bit different every time.
“It's not going to be one player that's just going to carry us, and that's not an underlying tone to anybody else. It's just the fact,” he added. “I tell this group that you have to do this together. You can't have passengers. So whatever shape you play, whatever tactics we give them, it's going to have to be everybody in it together. And you could see that they really believe that they can do something.”
Not done yet
Now the Five Stripes will try to extend their Cinderella act, appropriately, just down the road from the Magic Kingdom with an Eastern Conference Semifinal visit to Orlando City, the team they had to beat a month ago just to get into the playoffs at all on November 24 (3:30 pm ET | MLS Season Pass).
And they believe.
“The last couple of weeks, there's something special,” said Guzan. “There's something special in the group, there's something special in the locker room. And what that thing is, is belief, is confidence, is desire to help the group. And when you have those things, the margins are fine, right?
“Obviously [Miami] have a very good team with very good individuals who are extremely talented – best player in the world. And so we don't have that. And so how do we make up the difference? We make that up with working for each other, and defending and doing hard running and tackling. When you do things like that, you're able to give yourself an opportunity. And tonight, we were able to take those chances and finish it off.”
