Saturday, September 7th, 2019 – Detroit City FC 2 Club Atlas 1

After the short-lived dream of NPSL Pro proved unfeasible and City announced its move to NISA for 2020, I expected the Members Cup and accompanying friendlies to essentially serve as an extended trial period in which new players would be given opportunities, Trevor James would try out some new ideas, and the club as a whole would troubleshoot any issues that come with running a fully professional operation.

While all of those things appear to be proceeding apace, there’s also the little matter of the team continuing to exhibit the confident, free-flowing play it showed during the NPSL classic season while mowing down nearly every opponent that steps foot in their path.

This was only a friendly, but Club Atlas competes in the top league in North America and was playing many of its regular starters. The win has to go down as the biggest pelt City has ever claimed, especially once you consider their recent results against teams of a similar caliber:

2018: Losses to St. Pauli (6-2), Necaxa (2-1), Frosinone (10-0)

2019: Loss to FC Juarez (3-1)

What was most impressive was the manner in which City’s victory was achieved. Rather than playing ultra-defensively and scraping a goal from a counter or set piece, they outplayed Atlas for the majority of the game and fully deserved to win.

The delicious frustration of the Atlas players was displayed by their refusal to shake hands at full time, resulting in the above photo of Stephen Carroll savagely waving them goodbye as they trudged off the field in a collective sulk.

Now that we’ve had a little time to process Saturday’s events, it’s clear that this win was a breakthrough, a program-builder, a 16-year-old-future-NBA-star-dunks-on-his-dad-for-the-first-time type of moment.

A full 80% of the Members Cup schedule remains, and it’s staggering how quickly some of the new players have established themselves. In particular, Ryan Peterson, Yazeed Matthews, Diego Casielles, and James Vaughan have slotted in seamlessly with the summer holdovers to form a starting XI that looks like it’s been together far longer than a few short weeks.

For those of us who were hoping for a respectable top 2/top 3 showing from City in the Members Cup, expectations just got ratcheted up a little higher. If they can win the next two matches – away to Milwaukee and home against NY Cosmos – first place is theirs for the taking.