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Just like we did on the podcast, we’re going to start by deffering to Ronny Deila.

“I think we played unbelievably well in the first half an hour,” Deila said post-match. “I really enjoyed myself watching that. I just like the level, it’s really, really high, but that next 60 minutes, maybe next I will say 45 again, that’s not good enough. That's how it is. We lose the ball all over the place so we can talk about scoring goals.

“We had chances, we couldn’t put them in the net, that will come, we have players that can score. We need to play as a team, the same way that we did in the first half hour, because then we switch the play over and over again, we double up on the side, we get crosses in. Then we suddenly stop doing it, we stopped and made the play difficult. We played straight balls, you know that against the Red Bulls if we do that you get counter attacks instead.

“So yeah, I have to look at myself, first of all, take responsibility for that. But I don’t think about scoring goals. I think about how we produce and how we play as a team and the first half an hour shows where we can be. And now it is about how we can get those periods longer because then I don’t think it is easy to handle us.”

We could stop the column there. There isn’t much else to glean from a 0-0 draw that featured yet another disappointing second half performance. But we’ll do our best. And we’ll start by agreeing that Atlanta’s first half performance against New York is maybe the best half of ATLUTD soccer against RBNY since Chris Armas blew it.

The good first half

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