American sports fans love statistics. This we know. If not, what else would we have to talk about on Monday mornings? But statistics can be deceiving, and sometimes don’t tell the true story of what actually happened. To a significant extent, that was the case on Saturday.
Consider: Atlanta United controlled 73.2% of the possession, and in fact controlled possession in every five minute segment of the game. United outshot the Impact 19 to 6, and had a passing accuracy of 88% as compared with Montreal’s 69%. All of that suggests that a blowout was a forgone conclusion, and the final scoreline of 4-1 reinforces that suggestion.