Despite the result being largely expected, the Fire’s loss against Atlanta United still left me with a lot of things to talk about. Here’s what we learned from the 3-1 defeat.

The Fire Don’t Have The X-Factor

Ezequiel Barco absolutely ruined the Fire. The Fire defended his free-kick about as well as they could. The wall did its job blocking the initial strike, but it was hit so hard it came back to him and he hit an early contender for goal of the year to put the team up 1-0. From there, Atlanta was able to take the game by the horns and endure a Fire push early in the second half to take 3 points.