NASHVILLE – It is the Official Position Of The Blog® that Atlanta United 2 is an extremely fun soccer team to watch. The Baby Five Stripes are creative on the ball, have individual skill in spades, and bust their humps to get forward. It is also an Official Position Of The Blog® that they are not good in the traditional sense – you know, winning games and such.
More than four months after their parent club entered First Tennessee Park and took down Nashville SC by a 3-1 count, they couldn’t repeat the feat as NSC took down the reserve unit __
Brandon Allen scored in the 19th minute dunking a cross from Alan Winn, then Winn got on board himself in the third minute of first-half stoppage time after cutting back following a Lebo Moloto feed. By the time Moloto put one in in the 84th minute, the game was well done and dusted.
A leaky backline shouldn’t obscure that Atlanta is riotously fun to watch (on both ends of the pitch), though. While Nashville’s experience won out on this day, a bit of precociousness in the final third made for an entertaining game coming the other way, and they may have been unlucky not to at least find the back of the net once – though maybe not, given that few of their five shots on target provided much difficulty for Nashville keeper Matt Pickens.
By knocking off one of the USL’s worst teams in the table (but most fun for the eyeballs), Nashville climbed to No. 3 in the Eastern Conference standings, setting up a titanic clash next week against FC Cincinnati. If they can take down the league leaders in Nissan Stadium (in front of the biggest crowd they’ll have seen this year), Nashville will be well-poised to contend for the conference crown themselves.
Despite losing two of their previous four games in all competitions (and drawing another in that stretch), it appears Nashville is back on solid footing, and ready to make that push.
Starting lineups
Match events
- 19′ NSH GOAL – 32 Brandon Allen (left footed), assisted by 19 Alan Winn (cross)
- 45’+3 – NSH GOAL – 19 Alan Winn (right footed), assisted by 10 Lebo Moloto
- 45’+4 – Half time
- 62′ NSH Substitution – On 11 Ish Jome, off 19 Alan Winn
- 66′ ATL Substitution – On 41 Alessandro Castro, off 8 Kevin Barajas
- 72′ NSH Substitution – On 20 Matt LaGrassa, off 23 Taylor Washington
- 72′ ATL Substitution – On 23 Lagos Kunga, off 10 Yosef Samuel
- 77′ NSH Substitution – On 3 Ropapa Mensah, off 32 Brandon Allen
- 84′ NSH GOAL – 10 Lebo Moloto (right footed), assisted by 3 Ropapa Mensah
- 84′ ATL Substitution – On 45 Blake White, off 26 Jon Gallagher
- 88′ ATL Yellow card – 3 AJ Cochran (foul)
- 90’+6 – Full time
Club and Country 