The Union always cherish wins over big-money rivals, and they got another in routing Atlanta

A pregame conversation Saturday night at Subaru Park with colleagues from Atlanta could have easily been full of clichés, but in fact it was all true.

Here came an Atlanta United team that stands as one of the most expensively-assembled in MLS history, built by one of the smartest front offices the league has ever seen. But it had won just two of its first eight games this year, playing remarkably uninspired soccer for all its talent.

Could the Union give them a kick while they were down?

At the same time, the Union arrived with a three-game winless streak, and this was their first home game since selling Dániel Gazdag. Another notch in the rut would surely bring out the boobirds, some of whom were ready to take flight at a moment’s notice.

Could Atlanta give them a kick while they were down?

It took a while to find the answer, long enough for the Union to give the Five Stripes plenty of time to get their act together. But by the end of the night, the hosts had a 3-0 rout, and an emphatic statement that they could get back to the strong form they started the season with.

“We put in a scrap when we needed to and we made it pretty when we needed to,” manager Bradley Carnell said afterward. “I really enjoyed the performance tonight.”

Quinn Sullivan’s 27th-minute goal opened the scoring, a first-time smash that saved six of his teammates from the embarrassment of a sequence in which they all jammed in the 18-yard box but couldn’t score.

» READ MORE: Union snap winless skid with 3-0 rout of Atlanta United

Danley Jean Jacques doubled the lead in the 50th with his first Union goal, finishing a terrific give-and-go with Mikael Uhre. It was a highlight play for the team’s player of the game, and his contributions became even more vital when Jovan Lukić was rightly ejected six minutes later.

Yes, it was a soft second yellow card, but he clearly delayed a restart, and his booking in first-half stoppage time for kicking a dead ball out of bounds was also earned.

Jean Jacques thus had to play the defensive midfield role alone for a while, as he did last year when he arrived midseason to replace José Andrés Martínez. Carnell was able to get more defensive reinforcement on the field by subbing in Olwethu Makhanya in the 61st, but that was to build a five-man back line.

By the end of the night, it did not feel like Jean Jacques had just two tackles, one block, and one interception, as the box score said. His six defensive recoveries were more like it.

“We put a big emphasis on our 6’s [defensive midfielders] in our shape today,” Carnell said. “We had to tell our 6’s, we are ultra-aggressive on the jump. And I think you can see by the amount of turnovers that we forced that it was a real collective effort, really inviting them in to play and setting the traps, and jumping and pouncing.”

That was proven by the teamwide total of 30 clearances. In fact, it could have been even higher had the rest of the defense not spent too much time early on hesitating to boot the ball out of the back. Sure, it’s prettier to pass the ball forward on the ground, but most of the times when Union players just hoofed it, Atlanta didn’t have an answer.

One of the first half’s key moments came from just such a play, and though it had the boobirds on their perches, they might want to notice what happened just before it. Yes, Uhre should have scored on either of his back-to-back shots in the 16th minute. But that sequence started when Kai Wagner smashed the ball toward the heavens with a first-time hit out of traffic.

» READ MORE: Dániel Gazdag’s departure makes room for the Union’s young prospects. When will they play?

The ball flew past the midfield line, where young Atlanta centerback Noah Cobb was stationed. Bruno Damiani sprinted toward Cobb, forcing him to choose between the ball coming at him and the human coming at him. The pressure caused Cobb to take one bad step, the ball bounced past both of them, and Damiani controlled it and sent it on to a sprinting Uhre.

Add the whole sequence up, and you have something to argue over while watching Barcelona or Arsenal play pretty ball in the Champions League.

Tai Baribo came off the bench to score his league-leading seventh goal of the year. It was surprising that he didn’t start, but it wasn’t surprising that he played eventually. Carnell made it clear that he picked Uhre and Damiani to start for tactical reasons, and signaled that game-by-game choices will usually be his way.

“It’s my job to keep the harmony within the group,” the manager said, and Uhre endorsed him soon afterward.

“That’s how it should be,” he said, having started after coming off the bench in the previous two games. “You need the competition, and I think we’re playing good.”

A 3-0 win makes it easy to say that, even though Uhre hasn’t scored since the season opener and Damiani hasn’t scored since his debut a week later.

It won’t be long until the Union play teams that have both better talent and the mental fortitude that Atlanta lacked. The Columbus Crew will certainly be one on May 10, a game that will be amplified by Gazdag’s return to Subaru Park.

Inter Miami’s visit two weeks later will be another, and not just because of Lionel Messi. The Herons showed in beating the Crew on Saturday that they can win a gritty, 1-0 game, not just one in which Messi shows off.

For now, though, the Union have their own statement, that their hot start to the season wasn’t just a new-manager bounce. Before that Columbus matchup, they have three games they should win. When that stretch is done, we’ll have a better view of what this team can really be.

» READ MORE: Through noticeable change, Union manager Bradley Carnell has been determined not to show his hand