Atlanta United vs. Columbus Crew
Atlanta Fights
Back for 2-1 Victory
Gregersen Records Brace
Atlanta Latinos Magazine – Two teams going in opposite directions faced off Saturday night at Mercedes Benz Stadium. The Columbus Crew, defending MLS champion, one of the hottest teams in MLS, winners of 9 of their last 11 matches, stood at third place in the Eastern Conference standings. Atlanta United, with three wins in its last 19 matches, remained outside the playoff line in 12th place. Moreover, Atlanta United had recently transferred two with a reported third of its top players.
On paper, this appeared to be an enormous mismatch. But matches aren’t played on paper.
Late in the first half, Columbus scored the first goal. Diego Rossi found the back of the net for his ninth goal of the season.
Training 1-0 at halftime, Atlanta fought back to tie the game 1-1. In the 60’, defender Stian Gregersen headed in a beautiful cross off a corner kick from Saba Lobjanidze. It was Gregersen’s first MLS goal.
But Gregersen was not done. In the 76’, he headed in a second corner kick from Lobjanidze that was nearly identical in every way. Lobjanidze earned his seventh assist of the season, taking over the team lead from Brooks Lennon.
From there, momentum was on Atlanta’s side. It was able to withstand a late, flurry of desperate attacks from Columbus to avenge an earlier season loss in the opening match. Atlanta earned three points for the win, vaulting them into ninth place in the standings and for now a playoff position.
Atlanta next enters League Cup play on Friday, July 26th at home against D.C. United. Atlanta’s next MLS match is August 24th away against LA Galaxy.
Notes…Columbus midfielder Darlington Nagbe, who won the MLS Cup with Atlanta in 2018, did not play in this match…Gregersen is the fourth player to score a brace for ATL UTD this season…after the match, Gregersen said that he had never scored two goals in one match…Atlanta was able to hold Cucho Hernandez scoreless, even though he entered the match with 13 goals and was fourth in the league in goals scored…attendance was announced as 42,601.
