Atlanta United grapple with Thiago Almada absence for playoff opener

Atlanta United have vowed to stay true to their attacking style in Wednesday’s Audi 2023 MLS Cup Playoffs debut against the Columbus Crew (7:30 pm ET | Apple TV - Free, FS1, FOX Deportes), even without star playmaker Thiago Almada.

Almada, who led MLS with 19 assists this season while producing a second-best 30 total goal contributions, will miss the Round One Best-of-3 opener at Lower.com Field after getting red-carded on Decision Day.

Needless to say, the 22-year-old Argentine midfielder’s absence will loom large for the Five Stripes.

“It’s really hard to replicate exactly the quality that Thiago has,” head coach Gonzalo Pineda acknowledged to reporters on Monday. “So we have to rely more on the team, on playing as a team.”

Fortunately for Atlanta, coping without Almada is made easier thanks to the likes of striker Giorgos Giakoumakis, who had 17 goals in his debut season, as well as summer signings Tristan Muyumba, Xande Silva and Saba Lobjanidze.

“It changes the game plan. How we press, how we occupy the spaces, how we are gonna create the gaps that we normally try to create in the positional shapes,” Pineda said, while withholding any clues on who’ll fill in for the suspended No. 10.

“Whoever is gonna replace him or play in that certain role, we have to be more specific in the ways, the patterns we have to create,” Pineda said. “The style won’t change… but I would say that yes, the structures or the way we are getting the patterns is gonna change, for sure.”

Stylistically speaking, Atlanta and Columbus are arguably the most similar pairing of all the Round One series. Both sides play a highly-aggressive, offensive-minded style that leads to plenty of goals (the Crew led MLS with 67 tallies, one better than the Fives Stripes) – sometimes to the detriment of their defensive solidity.

“Yeah, it’s interesting. It’s a good battle in terms of tactics, in terms of players as well. Like the characteristics of players, some of them are very similar,” Pineda said. “… Similar rosters, similar ideas, similar identities.”

It’s an identity Pineda prides himself on sharing with his opponent on the bench, Crew head coach Wilfried Nancy.

“When you’re truthful to your style, I think that’s what I admire as coaches,” he said of the two-time Sigi Schmid MLS Coach of the Year finalist. “Whether it’s one style or the other, probably I’m more of Nancy’s philosophy of the game. I’m more on that side.”

Purist that he is, Pineda isn't about to tinker with a formula that's taken Atlanta to the playoffs in his second year in charge after missing out in 2022.

"I think one area where we've improved a lot I think is once we go, we go together and we go aggressive," Pineda said. "And then of course we can be broken at any moment, but that aggression is something we're very proud of."