Herediano Highlights vs. Atlanta United FC¿Te lo perdiste? ¡Acá tenemos todas las acciones del partido entre Club Sport Herediano y Atlanta United FC! #CSHvATL #SCCL2019
Posted by Scotiabank Concacaf Champions League on Thursday, February 21, 2019
Atlanta United head coach Frank de Boer admitted that his team were well below par in their season-opening Concacaf Champions League round-of-16 loss at CD Herediano on Thursday, while vowing to exact “revenge” on the Costa Rican side in next week’s second leg in Georgia.
“I knew it would be a difficult game,” de Boer said after the 3-1 thumping at Estadio Eladio Rosabal Cordero. “A lot of teams didn’t win here when they’ve played Concacaf Champions League here. Overall, maybe today we didn’t show it, but we have a lot of quality players. Today it wasn’t enough. We have to play better as a team.”
Meanwhile, Herediano coach Hernan Medford – a Costa Rican international during his playing days who scored two goals against the United States in World Cup qualifying – sounded notes of defiance as well as caution, defending his team while pointing out that the job is far from done.
“Herediano plays this way – we have played four years like that,” Medford told reporters postgame. “Many have disrespected the champion, but until the end of this championship [we] will remain the champions. Herediano pressed, had more of the ball, played with intensity, that is, tactically obeyed all aspects. I feel it was a complete game.”
Currently stuck in ninth place in their domestic league after winning the championship in the fall Apertura season, the hosts have been subjected to criticism lately, as Medford acknowledged.
“It is always like that, when Heredia is more or less talking straw [running their mouths], but now we play an excellent game,” he said when asked about the “negative atmosphere” around his club. “Last year I remember that they gave us everything, but then we shut them up when we were champions; that's why we have to be objective.”
Herediano tore open Atlanta’s 3-4-3 formation repeatedly, especially in transition, and could easily have won by an even bigger margin.
“Maybe we were too emotional,” De Boer said. “We wanted as soon as possible our goal. Then you see you make the pitch so wide and so open for the opponent.”
The Five Stripes still believe they can overturn the deficit with a multi-goal win on home turf, however.
“I’m 100 percent sure we can get our revenge,” De Boer said.
Read more from De Boer in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s coverage, and find further quotes from Medford (in Spanish) at La Nacion.
