CHICAGO – One of the biggest reasons for Atlanta United FC’s expansion season success has been the tireless work of their young attackers.
Miguel Almiron, Hector Villalba, Josef Martinez and Yamil Asad – all 24 or under – have brought plenty of punch to Atlanta’s high-flying attack, combining for 29 goals and 23 assists in the team’s first 21 games.
Much of that offensive output has been sparked by the quartet’s defensive work. Atlanta head coach Gerardo “Tata” Martino has instituted a high-press system with the first-year club, putting an emphasis on forcing turnovers up the gut and finding one of the South American foursome on the break. Some combination of Almiron, Villalba, Martinez and Asad are usually the first line of that pressure. They don’t allow opposing defenders much time on the ball and check back to bother central midfielders when they’re in possession, with their work leading to plenty of dangerous chances – and plenty of goals – for Atlanta.
Atlanta center back and captain Michael Parkhurst is well aware of the defensive work put in by his attacking teammates, three of whom – Almiron, Martinez and Villalba – are high-priced Designated Players. The 2017 MLS All-Star understands it’s not every coach that could coax that kind of defensive effort out of multi-million dollar players, giving Martino, who came to Atlanta after stints managing Argentina and Barcelona, plenty of credit for getting the best out of the club’s young attackers.
“Guys work extremely hard for him,” Parkhurst told MLSsoccer.com on Sunday ahead of Wednesday’s MLS All-Star Game, when the MLS' best take on Real Madrid at Soldier Field (8:30 pm ET; FS1, Univision in the US | TSN, TVA Sports in Canada). “He demands a lot of us. Our training sessions are difficult and demanding, probably more demanding than I expected them to be. But it helps that we’ve got DPs that work their tails off up front – you don’t see that a lot of times."
Martino arrived in Atlanta last summer with perhaps the most impressive resume of any coach to ever come to MLS. A legendary player with Argentine club Newell’s Old Boys, the 54-year-old had hugely successful runs at a pair of Paraguayan clubs and the country’s national team before taking over Newell’s, following that stint with a season at Barcelona and two years in charge of Argentina.
Parkhurst said Martino’s pedigree has helped him with fellow All-Star Almiron, Villalba, Martinez and Asad, with the manager’s experience bringing him instant respect from the star attackers and the rest of Atlanta’s roster. The 33-year-old defender also said the shared culture and language between Martino and the club's South American contingent – running things "80-20" in Spanish – has helped with the MLS newcomers' adjustment to Atlanta.
There’s no questioning his experience, but there was some speculation heading into this year about how Martino would adjust to MLS. The league certainly has its quirks, and – fair or unfair – there’s a perception that foreign managers struggle with some of its nuances.
According to Parkhurst, the transition hasn’t been an issue for Martino.
“I think it’s been a case of both sides learning each other,” he said. “Us learning and adapting to Tata and how he wants to do things, what he expects of us on a daily basis, in games, on the field, off the field, but also him adapting to MLS and the rigors of it with travel and the heat in Atlanta and some of the restrictions and Players’ Union issues put on him that he’s probably never dealt with before.
“I actually had to have a conversation with him at one point like, ‘Hey, I think we need to have a day off here,’ but to be fair he’s really easy to talk to. He’s a good guy in that aspect, so that’s good. He’s got the respect of the whole team.”
