These are the kind of weekends when a team must pull together and tell each other that they can do this, tell each other that they are the team to pull this off. Tell the world, that they are the team to beat. The Atlanta Silverbacks are faced with exactly that scenario starting tonight against the El-Paso Patriots.
Tonight, the Atlanta Silverbacks begin a gut-wrenching, heart-pounding weekend in which they must play two games in three days and travel at least half the United States. They begin their task tonight, facing the El-Paso Patriots in El-Paso. El-Paso, one of the Top 5 teams in the Western Conference, leads the A-League in goals and is not only hard to beat, but even harder when you have traveled half the United States just to play them. El-Paso, at 6-4-1, features an abundance of veterans from Bulgaria who all know how to play soccer and could give the Silverbacks trouble. Another interesting element about the Patriots is that their highest goal scorer is barely ranked in the Top 25, this shows that since they lead the A-League in goals, any player on the field (excluding the keeper), can put the ball in the back of the net. This could become a problem for the Silverbacks who would have to often bring all their midfielders back and even one forward sometimes to defend against El-Paso's furious attack. Atlanta, if they win this game, would probably win ugly, scoring a goal or two on the counterattack.
Atlanta then returns home to play in an even bigger game for them. It is at home against the Atlantic Division leaders, the Hampton Roads Mariners. The Mariners, at 7-2-1 have not relinquished their lead this season and a win for Atlanta would mean they would find themselves only one point behind Hampton Roads (although Richmond would likely overtake Hampton in first place), however if Atlanta won the game by at least three goals and Tony Roberts gets his all to common clean-sheet at home, they would receive five points and find themselves tied with Hampton Roads atop the Atlantic Division.
Atlanta will probably both win these games in ugly fashion. Traveling across the U.S. to play a soccer game and then returning to play one only one day later is not easy. Don't expect any blowouts with the Silverbacks receiving more goals, not only because they are playing quality teams, but because they will be extremely fatigued. Look for sneaky goals from the Midfielders, Junus Coralic, Josh Henderson, Brian Piesner and Guy Valcourt that could hopefully get Atlanta four points. Iggy Moleka will also have to score and Patrick Beech has to get his head back into the game after receiving a Red Card two weeks ago, Patrick has not stepped on the pitch since. Hopefully, he can come back playing just the way he was before the Red.
After this weekend, we may know just how good the Atlanta Silverbacks are. Or we may be left with more questions. It's one of those weekends, where you just have to wait and see how everything pans out.
