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Dom Dwyer, Josef Martinez duel as Atlanta United ties Orlando City in shootout

 

Atlanta United had a league-record crowd on their side, and Dom Dwyer and Josef Martinez did their part in entertaining them en route to a thrilling draw.

Josef Martinez provided yet another hat-trick while Dom Dwyer provided two goals and an assist of his own as Atlanta United played Orlando City to a thrilling 3-3 draw. Cyle Larin also got on the scoresheet for Orlando City as the Lions became the first road team to take a point from Mercedes-Benz Stadium,

Dwyer opened the scoring just 10 minutes in, scoring on an assist from Donny Toia. Martinez responded in the 36th minute to level the scoreline at one apiece before Dwyer fired his second just three minutes later to restore the Lions advantage.

The lead lasted until 10 minutes into the second half as Martinez fired his second on an assist from Chris McCann. That deadlock only lasted three minutes as well before Dwyer fed Larin to push the scoreline to 3-2.

In the 69th minute, Martinez sealed the 3-3 draw with his third of the night and 16th of the season from just 13 appearances.

With the draw, Atlanta United seals point no. 43 on the season while Orlando City collects their 35th point, keeping them well out of the playoff picture. Next up for Atlanta is a midweek match at home against the LA Galaxy while Orlando City takes on visits the Portland Timbers next Sunday as the look to play spoiler against a Western Conference foe.

MAN OF THE MATCH

Josef Martinez’s season has been nothing short of remarkable, and the Venezuelan forward shined yet again on Saturday.

MOMENT OF THE MATCH

Martinez’s second half equalizer sealed a point from a match that saw Atlanta United come from behind on three separate occasions.

MATCH TO FORGET

Tommy Redding was far from the only defender to struggle in a very attacking game, but the Orlando City defender had trouble with Martinez throughout.

 

Comments

  1. Atlanta is a terrible sports town. Fans won’t show up to these games…
    Someone needs to go through the last 3 years of SBI posts and publicly shame those who repeated this chorus.

    Reply
    • I was definitely one of those doubters when Atlanta United was nothing more than an idea, but once I saw how well Orlando was doing in Florida, where two MLS teams were contracted, as well as the number of season ticket deposits ATL Unit was getting, that doubt turned into cautious optimism. Then I started reading more about Arthur Blank and how he was fully committed and watched how they were building their team and front office and I was convinced they would be successful. I doubt there’s a large number of doubters from 3 years ago that haven’t already declared mea culpa

      Reply
    • While they are at it, dig up all of the Atlanta Silverback posts claiming that they would always be the best team in town/would last longer than the ATL UTD/some other stupid thing that I don’t remember. You don’t live in the South, crave soccer and not attend the local team. I have season tickets and drive 10 hrs. round trip to watch a game. Did it yesterday. Why? Because I was driving 9 hrs. one way to watch a game before. Nashville would be the same.

      Reply
  2. The next time someone tries to tell you that Serie A is way down and hardly better than MLS, remind them that Josef Martinez could hardly find the field for Torino and scored seven goals in three years, he scored seven goals in the last eight days in MLS.

    Reply
    • @Mr. Razor People say this? I’ve heard people say the Italian league is down compared to the the top flights in Spain, Germany and England, which is true. Can’t say I’ve ever seen anybody say MLS is anywhere close to Serie A

      Reply
  3. Today I figured out why CONCACAF team with MLS players rack up goals on us……OUR GOAL KEEPERS. Wow, Guzan has lost ALL his reflexes and made Dwyer look like he went to the Barcelona Academy…..he cant seem to react effectively against headers / crosses into the box / high fliers.

    Reply

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