Five Stripe Film Room: Long balls, free roles and trying your best

Atlanta United's problems against FC Cincinnati became a little clearer on rewatch

via Atlanta United

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The first match for Atlanta United in 2026…ended up with the same results as most matches for Atlanta United in 2025. The Five Stripes generated just 0.33 xG in their 2-0 loss. Here’s what went wrong and what (sort of) went right in Tata Martino’s second debut.

Long balls and a lack of quality

Let’s start with the foundation of everything Atlanta United did on Saturday. The Five Stripes almost exclusively built from the back out of this 2-5-3 shape.

A few notes here. First off, you’ll notice that Cincy is virtually in the same exact shape. Their 3-5-2 setup meant there were 1-v-1s at every spot and that Tomás Jacob had Evander/Dado Valenzuela on his back the whole time.

You can see here where the space actually is. The fullbacks are the most likely to receive the ball. And, folks, let me tell you, Cincy were extremely ok with Ronald Hernández and Elías Báez having the ball at their feet. Cincy pressed the flanks consistently and made working the ball centrally difficult. Oftentimes, Atlanta and goalkeeper Lucas Hoyos were forced to play the ball long in the hopes that one of Miguel Almirón, Saba Lobjanidze or Latte Lath would be able to redirect the ball back to that line of five to manufacture a transition moment.

That…did not work. For a number of reasons that include: Atlanta’s small forwards vs. Cincy’s much larger centerbacks, Atlanta’s unathletic midfield, and a little too much distance between the front line of three and the second line of five. It’s not a perfect indicator, but Cincy recovered 47 loose balls to Atlanta’s 38. 50/50 balls were more like 55/45 balls. Oh, and Lucas Hoyos, brought in to start purely for distribution reasons, went 3-for-16 on long balls. His counterpart, Roman Celentano, ended the day with a 14-for-20 mark.

Of course, Atlanta didn’t lose every single time. But in the moments where a second ball resulted in an opportunity to attack at speed, Atlanta struggled to take advantage.

I liked the part where Almirón and Latte Lath tried to take the ball from each other.

Anyway, Atlanta’s inability to capitalize on the few moments they had Cincy scrambling became a theme. Even when they pressed successfully (more on that later) they struggled to make the right choices and to force Cincy into difficult decisions. And when it did actually go right…

That’s a great play by Jacob, a great run by Latte Lath and really, really bad work to not get a shot off. Teenage Hadebe can fly. But you just expect more from your $22 million striker.

Meanwhile, when Atlanta did try to play through Cincinnati, Atlanta attempted to create numerical advantages by letting Almirón operate in the “free role” Martino had been discussing all offseason. As the ball cycled out to Hernández at right back, Cooper Sanchez and Jacob would shift over to try and create triangles, and Almirón would drop deep to provide another option. Or at least try to drag a center back out of position. Oftentimes, that looked like this.

Going great.

The bottom line for a lot of this is that Atlanta’s forwards either didn’t have the ability to beat Cincy’s center backs and that, in buildup, Atlanta had to rely on Hernández and 17-year-old Cooper Sanchez to solve problems. The end result is ineffective long balls and almost zero periods of sustained possession and pressure in the final third. Cincy won the field tilt battle in this game and Atlanta ended up completing four (4) whole passes in the penalty area.

To be even more fair to Hernández and Sanchez, who were already being asked to deal with challenges above their paygrade, “Miguel in a free role” sometimes made their jobs even harder.

There were a number of moments when Atlanta cycled the ball to the left side of the formation and Almirón, vacating his spot on the right wing, would travel across the width of the pitch to try and create an overload. Overloads are totally fine and you have to take risks to make things happen, but this generally resulted in the ball going back across the field to Hernández. He already had limited options. Now, he’s trying to solve problems without Almirón in front of him to help.

Going great.

Just for clarity, Almirón is in the middle of the pitch. The one holding his arm up for a pass that will never, ever come. Perhaps he’s still there. Waiting.

Let’s do it once more. With feeling.

Ok, back to being fair. Almirón in a free role did actually work really well at one point in the game. But, uh, hey, remember that thing about Cincy’s center backs being a little more physically gifted than Atlanta’s attackers?

Maybe in 2018, Almirón is in on goal. In 2026, against Miles Robinson, he’s on the wrong side of a nature documentary.

While we’re here, one more quick note on Almirón. This is a great illustration of why he really, really needs to be on the left.

He is actually in on goal here. But instead of driving forward, he’s already attempting to cut the ball back into traffic because he’s simply never learned to use his right foot. It goes how you’d expect. Maybe worse, actually. Please stop inverting this man. I’m begging.

Honestly, it’s a great representation of what made this match frustrating. We saw Almirón on the right and Saba on the left all last year. It clearly didn’t work. This isn’t a lesson we should have to keep learning.

The Peachtree Press is more of a sapling than an actual tree

Atlanta’s press was by far the most encouraging thing I saw on rewatch. They pressed out of their 4-3-3 setup with a few moments of retreat into a 4-1-4-1 block. All in all, I thought it looked, at the very least, organized and well-drilled.

What it didn’t look like is a team of high-level athletes overwhelming their opponent. They weren’t trying to steamroll Cincy, they were more focused on trapping them and putting them into bad positions. Weirdly enough, that resulted in a lower average defensive line height than the 2025 side typically had. Not by much, by about a meter.

Still, this is much more effective than the apathetic approach the team tended to take under Ronny Deila. Even if, ya know, they seriously need to get their stuff together when transition opportunities present themselves.

Related: Jacob completed 13 of his 26 passes.

A little lucky here. Maybe you’re getting ripped apart if it’s not week one. But good pressure overall. Sanchez is in the right spot to force the bad pass at the end.

Great work from Baez to be proactive and win the ball here. Less great work to send the ball right back to Cincy. Dude seems like a wrecking ball for better or worse.

Atlanta kept pressing, again for better or worse, throughout the match. I’ve got no real problem with that, but the lack of athleticism stayed on display. It’s an organized press, but it’s happening at like 0.8 speed. Because of that, Atlanta’s passes per defensive action stayed relatively high (26th in the league after week one) despite decent organization and a commitment to pressing.

Like any team that presses, that double-edged sword can get pushed on your throat quickly. And if you’re not athletic enough to force turnovers, then you’re going to end up chasing the ball. And if you’re chasing ball for too long, especially late in the game, well…

In the sequence before Cincinnati’s first goal, Cincy has possession for about a minute and 35 seconds. There are a couple of stoppages, but Atlanta is chasing the ball almost the entire time before the ball goes out for a couple of throw-ins. This is the 80th minute of the match and there were already a handful of previous sequences that involved extended periods of chasing.

When that now pretty exhausted team pushes numbers forward to try and capitalize on a turnover, there’s no real semblance of rest defense or organization. They lose focus. They don’t have the legs to make up for it. And the giveaway results in an outstanding through ball that leaves Atlanta doomed.

And other notes…

They’re slow, but they’re small too

The lack of athleticism across the board continues to stand out. Full credit to young players like Jacob, Baez and Sanchez for providing some juice, but the team is just too slow and, at times, too undersized. Tough example, but poor Luke Brennan ended up marking Nick Hagglund on the second goal. He got ragdolled. Hagglund got a free header. And (notably undersized Lucas Hoyos) didn’t have a prayer.

In general, though, you see the lack of physicality pop up all over the pitch. Signings like Jacob and Baez are a step in the right direction. And young players like Sanchez seem willing to do the work. The problem is that you needed to start 17-year-old Sanchez ahead of a TAM player like Tristan Muyumba simply because no one else in your stable of midfielders could put in the work next to Steven Alzate, who’s just trying to finish this 5k even if he has to walk a little bit.

Jacob impressed…most of the time

Jacob’s five tackles tied him for the most in the league this weekend. He added two interceptions and six recoveries to that. Oh, and he won all four of his aerial duels. Plus, the eye test clearly showed him getting his hands dirty. That’s a needed breath of fresh air for Atlanta United.

The problem, of course, is that you’re asking a 21-year-old to play out of position in maybe the most critical role on the pitch. He had some good moments on the ball, but got marked out of the match at times by Valenzuela and didn’t connect on enough passes. Going 13-for-26 on passes is below the threshold for “aggressive passer trying to make things happen” and into “dude is just straight up missing too much.” A lot to build on there.

Báez has the athleticism, at least

Báez had an up-and-down first start. He can fly, he’s physical, he’s aggressive as hell, and he, like Jacob, didn’t look nearly as comfortable on the ball as Atlanta needed. In theory, that will come with more time on the pitch and more time in the system, but it seems to be a real weak point for him. He also just ended up putting himself in bad spots at times. It’s fun and good to drive the ball forward at speed, but you can’t run yourself down alleys with no exit strategy.

Hoyos…uh-oh

The distribution wasn’t there. He nearly turned the ball over in terrible spots a couple of times. He made no saves. He’s undersized and coming off an ACL tear…..

Look, it’s early, players can have bad games, but I’m genuinely not sure yet what the team is doing here.

The second half wasn’t a total loss

On rewatch, Saba Lobjanidze was onside in that moment where he sent a shot just wide after getting in on goal. He’s got to do better there.

That moment, along with the sequence where Latte Lath got in behind and attempted to head the ball past Celentano, are just two examples from a second half that came across better than I remembered. The game opened up a ton in the second half and Atlanta nearly found the net a couple of times. It would have been a smash-and-grab, but they weren’t totally devoid of chances to flip the game in their favor.

Also, the second half gave us this sequence of Jacob tying his shoes while the game started around him. And for that, I’m grateful.