Chapter 40: The One Who Wins Will Be Me
Atlanta, USA.
While Vure was in Spain as the savior of Granada, another player of Ji Qin's team, Ibrahimovic, was on the scene of the Major League Soccer in the United States.
After the match against the Chicago Fire, the LA Galaxy traveled to Atlanta, Georgia to take on Atlanta United FC away.
This Atalanta United is not the Atalanta of Serie A!
Atlanta United is a team founded in 2014 and has officially joined Major League Soccer since the 2017 season.
For example, in the first season of joining the MLS, he won the regular season third place, but was eliminated by the Columbus Crew in the play-offs, and then in the 2018 season, Atlanta United won the regular season runner-up in the MLS, eliminated New York City in the quarterfinals, eliminated the New York Red Bulls in the semifinals, and defeated the Portland Timbers in the final to win the championship.
It is worth mentioning that the Mercedes Benz Stadium, the home of Atlanta United, is one of the few devil's home stadiums in Major League Soccer!
Although the Mercedes-Benz Stadium is not owned by the club, Atlanta United invested a lot of manpower and material resources in the construction process.
After the completion of the new stadium, Atlanta United has benefited a lot, ranking among the top three in the league in home wins in the past two seasons and winning the championship for the first time last season!
On September 16, 2017, Atlanta United drew 3-3 at home to Orlando City, with 70,425 fans pouring into the stadium, while Mercedes-Benz Stadium has a capacity of 42,500 to host football matches!
The game broke the MLS's 11-year-old attendance record, which was set on April 13, 1996 at the Rose Bowl Stadium in Los Angeles, when 69,255 people attended the LA Galaxy's 2-1 win over the New York Metro Stars.
Atlanta United, which set a new record, continued to rewrite records for more than a year, with the top 8 games in the MLS attendance ranking all taking place at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, and the top-ranked game occurred on July 15, 2018, when Atlanta United played 1-1 at home to the Seattle Sounders in the regular season, with 72,243 fans pouring into the stadium.
This is a statistic that is comparable to many of Europe's top giants!
Today's match with the Los Angeles Galaxy, Mercedes Benz Stadium also poured into more than 40,000 fans, which made the head coach of the Los Angeles Galaxy envious and jealous!
......
The game began for nearly forty minutes and was very intense.
Atlanta United, who are playing at home, has a strong attack, which makes the players of the Los Angeles Galaxy very uncomfortable, almost the whole team retreats, and even Ibrahimovic has to retreat to the midfield position, easily not pressing out.
Atlanta United striker Joseph Martinez failed to make a couple of sneak attacks, and the Venezuela international didn't know what to do against the LA Galaxy who wanted to defend with all their might.
Today's LA Galaxy was a little embarrassed away from home, and Ibrahimovic, who shone in the last game, seemed to be invisible on the field, which made many scouts from afar mutter, could it be that Ibrahimovic's performance in the last game was just a flashback?
Unfortunately, less than 10 minutes before the start of the game, defender suffered a muscle strain and could not hold on, and the head coach of the LA Galaxy had to send his youth academy youngster Joa on the field.
But Ruoya produced by his own youth training is really not very reliable, he is like a child in front of the experienced Martinez, and has been repeatedly penetrated by the other party, if it were not for the experienced Ziani to help the defense, I am afraid that he would have lost the ball, which also made the 35-year-old Ziani's physical strength drop seriously!
Forty-three minutes into the game, Atlanta United had a corner kick opportunity.
Barakas took a tactical corner, and the Argentine player, who is said to have been eyed by Lazio in Serie A, handed the ball to German Gressel, who pulled out of the box to meet him, and he tried to get past Ziani, who seemed to be old and frail, but Ziani won the ball with a clean tackle.
Gressel, who was a little embarrassed, fell to the ground and spread his hands and complained to the referee about Ziani's foul, but the referee ignored him and ran towards the Atlanta United half.
LA Galaxy strikes back!!
Dos Santos took the ball in the backfield and passed the ball to Ibrahimovic, and the LA Galaxy counter-attack did not put much power, only Ibrahimovic, Alessandro, and Dos Santos were three, but the speed of the advance was fast, and the ball was carried across the half court between the three passes.
In the face of the menacing Ibrahimovic, Atlanta United's captain Parkerstst's reckless robbery was passed by Ibrahimovic directly changing direction, and another defender Halford didn't expect the captain to be passed so easily, and quickly wanted to come up to make up for the defense, only to see Ibrahimovic shoot the football in the direction of the goal with a low shot.
Parkhurst played for the New England Revolution, North Zealand, Augsburg and Columbus Crews. The former USA international has won the Danish Premier League and the Danish Cup, and he has made two Bundesliga appearances for Augsburg.
Parkhurst was traded to Atlanta United in December 2016 and has made 33 appearances in the major league regular season this season as a central defender, in addition to five in the playoffs. Parkhurst helped Atlanta United win the major league championship for the first time in history, which was also his first personal championship trophy.
It stands to reason that Parkhurst should be reassuring to be in the backline, but the shadow of the famous tree, Ibrahimovic's fame is too great, coupled with the miraculous performance on the field, Parkhurst has always been in a state of high tension, and his brain is hot to cause this fatal low-level mistake.
Atlanta United goalkeeper Guzan is also a veteran, and many teams in the Championship in his career, such as Tigers, Aston Villa and Middlesbrough, do not say that they can't be guarded, but they are also well-informed, what kind of superstars have not faced in the FA Cup League Cup.
Goalkeeper Guzan faced Ibrahimovic's shot and stretched out his leg to block it, but although it touched the football, it was still unable to stop the ball from flying into the net.
1:0!
Atlanta United, who bombarded the Los Angeles Galaxy goal in the entire first half, conceded the first goal at home!
After scoring the goal, Ibrahimovic ran to the corner flag area and spread his arms to celebrate, although the more than 40,000 home fans of Atlanta United booed wildly, but still could not stop the Swedes' arrogance and domineering!
What if you can't get used to me?! The one who will win will only be me, Ibrahimovic!!