2:2 New York Atlanta Vanzeir Manoel Miranchuk Mosquera 09.21.24 · League

What do you know... another tie. Another tie! Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. Nothing like another point in this slog for home field advantage... oh, it's so important! (But is it more important than youth development? It's not!)

Well, at least this tie was more exciting than others, as Metro and Atlanta exchanged injury-time goals to settle for a 2:2 tie. How did we get here? We'll tell you! What do you think, we're not gonna write our usual stellar recap? Youth development is not an issue here!

With both Emil Forsberg and Sean Nealis still injured, the armband went to... no, not Carlos Coronel, Daniel Edelman! At the age of 21 years, 146 days, we're pretty sure he became the youngest matchday captain in team history. So there is that.

There is also a goal by... Dante Vanzeir! Off a corner kick, in the 31st minute, the ball looked to be going over the endline, but a madcap effort by John Tolkin kept it alive. He sent it to the near post, where Vanzeir was on the doorstep to redirect it. Truly a sight for the ages!

Metro was completely dominant in the first half, but it all went for naught in injury time, when Felipe Carballo could not catch an attacker and brought him down inside the box. Carlos Coronel could not stop the penalty from Atlanta's Russian guy, and the game was tied. (Here we mention that Atlanta employs someone who pays taxes in a country that has been brutally attacking its neighbor for the last two and a half years. Let's just move on.)

We'll move on straight to the 82nd minute, when feet went up in the air in Atlanta's penalty box, with Elias Manoel somehow whistled for the foul. Upon VAR review, the obvious became clear: it was the Brazilian who was hit, and a penalty was awarded. Manoel (not Lewis Morgan!) stepped up, and... yeah. You know how this goes. An easy save. (Sure, Brad Guzan came off the line early, but that's life. Moving on again.)

Two minutes into injury time, Atlanta put on a sub and he scored on a looping shot that found the top right corner of the net. And that seemed to be it, more points lost on the way to develop youth players...

Manoel did make amends five minutes later, as Atlanta failed to clear the ball and Julian Hall intercepted. He found Elias just outside the six-yard box, and this time, the Brazilian did not miss.

We hope you enjoyed this recap more than we enjoyed this game...

Lineup: Coronel, Tolkin, Eile, Reyes, Nealis, Edelman, Carballo, Harper, Gjengaar, Morgan, Vanzeir. Subs: Hall, Donkor, Manoel, Ngoma.