Atlanta United played without Thiago Almada. It didn’t go well.

Without Almada, Atlanta had a rough night at the office

Thiago Almada is arguably the best player in MLS, and is pretty much inarguably having the highest-caliber start to the season of any individual player in the league.

Unfortunately for Atlanta United, they had to play without the World Cup winner Saturday night. You’d expect them to have a harder time creating chances, and maybe attempt a more cagey approach without their 21-year-old attacking dynamo.

What you might not expect is for them to get completely obliterated, but that’s just what happened. The Crew stormed to a 6-1 win over an utterly hapless Atlanta, blowing things wide open after halftime.

A rocky start saw Columbus take a 14th minute lead, with some stagnant Atlanta defensive work and a bad bounce allowing the home side to capitalize. Alexandru Mățan attempted a low diagonal ball to the back post that was deflected…right into the path of Aidan Morris.

Atlanta struggled on from there, but at halftime it was just 1-0. That’s salvageable, right?

Not so much. About 90 seconds after the break, Christian Ramirez finished off a low cross from Jacen Russell-Rowe after Atlanta’s Noah Cobb missed his clearance attempt.

That’s about when the wheels fell off. Atlanta couldn’t get anyone on Philip Quinton for a 51st minute corner kick, which resulted in the Crew defender powering home a header.

Ramirez grabbed a brace, and it’s not a goal Atlanta’s going to want to see back. Steven Moreira walked forward into the midfield and, under no pressure, looked to play Ramirez through.

The big striker was also left completely unmarked, and just strolled into the box before shooting low past Brad Guzan.

Atlanta’s nightmare continued at the back, with Crew players making the game look like a training ground exercise. Mohamed Farsi got into acres of space along the right, and his low cutback found Russell-Rowe so open that the only problem he had was calling Ramirez off of it before finishing the move past Guzan.

Brooks Lennon picked up a late goal to at least spare Atlanta the embarrassment of being shut out, but even then, they found the Crew unstoppable at the other end.

Once again it was easy work: Will Sands saw some hesitation from defenders around him, waltzing out of token pressure along the touchline before crossing for Max Arfsten. Yet another open look ended with yet another goal, with Arfsten side-footing home in stoppage time as an exclamation point.

The only saving grace for Atlanta? When the New York Red Bulls come to Georgia on April 1, there’s at least a chance they’ll have Almada available.

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