Atlanta 4, Fire 0: First Thoughts

Atlanta 4 Vincent (OG) 4’, Martínez 60’, Villalba 67’, Martínez 82’

Fire 0

• Pre-match Thought: I’m not totally convinced about this Facebook Live thing, not gonna lie.
• Aaaand we’re off! It’s the battle of preseason hype!
• There’s this Official Timekeeper Of MLS thing at the bottom of the screen that’s showing the gameclock and it’s... three seconds behind Unimas’ clock. Womp womp.
• And now the scorebug with the time is going. lol
• The... the commentators are talking about emojis. Shut it down, the experiment has failed.
• Anyway Atlanta’s up 1-0 and it may have been an own goal. So that’s cool.
• lol Brandon Vincent played an attacker (Julian Gressen, apparently) through on goal. This is the Fire I recognize.
• Meanwhile the commentators are getting really psyched over corners.
• "Keep the Thumbs Up and the Heart Emojis coming at us!!!" Have some self-respect, guys.
• The color commentator likes short corners. Really, really likes them.
• “King David Assad.” Uhhhhhhh.
• Sorry if I’m focusing on the commentators but there’s not a whole lot to talk about on the pitch beside the OG.
• Haha right as I say that Kap gets sent off. Awesome.
• ThisIsFine.jpg
• Alvarez coming off for J-Camp. Probably the best they can do right now.
• “Who wants a shoutout?!!”
• Jorge Bava gets a yellow for time-wasting. It’s the 19th minute.
• I dunno, guys. The bad feelings are coming back.
• Martínez played through but the Fire’s central defenders scramble in time to break up the play. Yikes.
• Short corners!! What a time to be alive.
• The color commentator says the Fire needs to “take their opportunities.” Thanks buddy.
• Oh god now they’re doing fake bad English accents. Stop. Just, stop. Please.
• The Fire have had 20% possession so far. Yup.
• As Ruben points out, the fact that it’s only 1-0 is pretty good.
• Did you know they sometimes call this city “Hotlanta?” I sure didn’t until this commentator team spent a good two minutes on it.
• Halftime Thought: Ugh.
• Halftime Thought 2: If the player play a lot smarter and get a little luck their way in the second half maaaaaaaybe they can steal a point. But I’m not counting on it.
• Alright, well, here we go.
• Second verse just like the verse... eh, you know the rest. Atlanta controlling play and getting more good chances.
• Martínez makes it 2-0 for Atlanta. We’re almost definitely losing this game, the question is how many goals we’ll give up.
• Rubes said it better on the Twitters but I think it’s best to write this game off as a wash. My worry is that the players won’t and this is just the setback the squad needs to fall back into old habits.
• Aaaaand the stream failed. Switching over to Unimas.
• Bronico in, Solignac out. Uh, ok.
• There’s #3. Not enough pressure from defenders and Villalba hits home from close to the penalty spot.
• Still 20+ minutes left in regulation and this could well end in a blowout.
• Drew Conner on for Nikolic. Pauno’s seen the writing on the wall and is playing the kids. Probably for the best.
• Atlanta are playing keep-away. Fire are whatevering. I’m painting my nails.
• #4 for Atlanta, Martínez again.
• Oh hey there’s Jeff Larentowicz.
• The last two goals were largely due to a lack of defensive pressure. I don’t want to say it’s Michael Harrington, but... it’s Michael Harrington.
• Pirez with a free header but it’s over the bar. I bet Atlanta will make it five very soon.\
• Here’s the lovely and talented Kevin McCauley being more generous toward the Fire than I’m feeling right now.
• We’ve used up all two minutes of stoppage time. Any minute now.
• Final Whistle Thought: I mean, you know. Whatever.

We'll be back shortly to take an in-depth look at everything that happened in today's game with the full recap. Until then, let us know your take on the ups and downs of the match in the comments, and if you haven't already, join the community at Hot Time, where we'll have full coverage and lively in-game discussion for every match this season.