Atlanta United were disappointing in their defeat to Real Salt Lake on Friday night, their second in succession. That said, it is important to keep in mind that this is Atlanta United’s first set of consecutive losses since June 2017 when the team lost to Chicago Fire and Vancouver Whitecaps on the road. The Five Stripes never lost consecutive matches the rest of 2017 or during 2018 on their way to the MLS Cup.
Many factors contributed to the RSL defeat, including exhaustion, squad rotation, and poor defending, and while there was nothing any defender could do to prevent the 94th-minute golazo, the team was poor in many areas across the board.