By: Alex Jenkins (@acjenkins17, @1788sports)

Photo: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

Atlanta United (1-1-0) notched their first win of the new MLS season beating D.C. United (0-1-1) 3-1. While it was rainy and gloomy outside, United’s attack flourished under the roof of the Mercedes-Benz Stadium this Sunday afternoon.

The Five Stripes came out in a new look 3-4-2-1 formation and the team responded well from their opening day loss to the Houston Dynamo. It took 24 minutes for United to get on the score sheet. Darlington Nagbe started the play by feeding a ball into Héctor Villalba’s path around midfield. With acres of open space, Villalba got to the 18 yard box before delicately threading a ball through a defenders legs, past another defenders slide tackle, and finally to the left foot of Joséf Martinez for an easy tap in to make it 1-0 Atlanta. D.C. United’s attack was pretty much non-existent in the first half and the score remained 1-0 going into half time.

D.C. United made a few tactical changes to open the second half and it stymied Atlanta for the first 20 or so minutes. Greg Garza received a yellow card in the 50th minute after a VAR review on his slide tackle challenge. Despite Garza clearly winning the ball before making contact with D.C. United’s Paul Arriola, he was given a yellow and a free kick was awarded. I do not think a foul was committed by Garza. Yes, he did make contact, studs up on Arriola’s shin, but it was not intentional in any way. It was after the he made contact with the ball and it was just the natural motion of a slide tackle. Correct me if I am wrong but I did not think you could use VAR to go back and look at a challenge to see if it was a “common” foul and then give a yellow card. I thought VAR was used for determining if a goal was scored, awarding a penalty kick, confirmation of straight red card decisions, and situations where the wrong player was given a card. So unless they thought Garza’s challenge was worthy of a red card, I think I will have to go read up on VAR rules and see what even allowed that play to be looked at with VAR. Eventually in the 73rd minute, Miguel Almirón riffled the ball into the back of the net, off a pass from Julian Gressel. Gressel, slotted the ball back across the box where Miggy was waiting unmarked and he calmly put the ball into the upper left corner of the goal. United made it 3-0 in the 75th minute after a short corner, where Almirón found Villabla’s head and he clinically placed his header in the back of the net behind D.C. United’s goalkeeper. D.C. United did manage to salvage a goal in the 86th minute. Jeff Larentowicz deflected a ball that dinked past our back line and D.C.’s Darren Mattocks cleaned the mistake up to make it 3-1

All in all, it was a drastically better performance compared to the 4-0 thrashing the Dynamo handed Atlanta United last week. The new 3-4-2-1 formation provided width and a solid backline, made up of players who actually play center back. Garza and Gressel, as wing backs, turned the formation into almost a 5-2-2-1 when we lost the ball. I was really impressed with both Garza and Gressel’s willingness to track back on defense and then contribute offensively as well. I think going forward Atlanta United will be using this new 3-4-2-1, at least until Ezequiel Barco is back from injury, compared to their standard 4-2-3-1 of last year. When Barco is healthy, Tata and the staff will have to decide what is best formation to play in. In the end, a good result and well deserved three points. Onto next week!