ATLANTA — Atlanta United defeated Colorado Rapids 1-0 in front of a sold-out crowd of 44,938 fans at Bobby Dodd Stadium. Josef Martinez scored his seventh goal of the year while Alec Kann recorded his third clean sheet. The win lifted Atlanta into sixth place in the Eastern Conference and was the fourth consecutive win at Bobby Dodd Stadium.
“The clean sheet was a big step for us, it’s been a while since we’ve had one,” defender Michael Parkhurst said. “We feel like some games we’ve been good enough to get a clean sheet and it hasn’t happened for whatever reason and other games we have rightfully given goals and made some mistakes. To come out here in front of our home fans in a tough game where Colorado made it very difficult defensively, we knew that we had to be tight in the back. We knew it was probably going to be a one goal game.”
After a scoreless first half, Atlanta United again scored the first goal of the match, marking the 14th time the club has done so this season, the most in MLS. Martinez took a pass from Brandon Vazquez, then calmly avoided a pair of Rapids defenders to create enough space to get a shot off, ultimately beating Tim Howard.
Kann recorded two saves to preserve the clean sheet, but his most important came on the final kick of the match. Deep into stoppage time off of a corner kick, Bismark Boateng powerfully headed a ball on target that Kann was able to knock down and fall on top of. The referee then blew the whistle, signifying full time.
After a slow first half, Atlanta piled on the pressure in the second with 11 total shots, seven of which were on target. Overall, the club dominated possession, 73-27, while also forcing Colorado to make 37 clearances.
Atlanta United (7-7-3, 24 points) returns to action on Wednesday, June 28 at 7:30 p.m. against Miami FC in the Round of 16 in the 2017 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. The club returns to MLS action on Saturday, July 1 against Columbus Crew SC. Kickoff from MAPFRE Stadium is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. and will be televised on FOX Sports Southeast.
