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The scoreboard is not a mirror. It does not reflect how well you played, how many chances you created, or how much you deserved a different result. Atlanta United learned that again Wednesday night. So did a lot of teams. This morning we get into all of it.

The numbers from Wednesday night at Mercedes-Benz Stadium look like a home win. Twenty-three shots to eight. Nine on target to four. Eight corners to three. An xG margin of 2.9 to 1.1. Fafa Picault's first league goal of the season, a close-range finish off a Saba Lobjanidze rebound in the 38th minute, gave Atlanta a lead that felt, if not comfortable, at least earned. Then the 73rd minute arrived, and all of it stopped mattering.

Alexey Miranchuk was arguably the best player on the pitch. Tata Martino said so after the match, and Madison Crews said the same in her Maddie's Version recap on soccerdownhere.net. Miranchuk made his 50th MLS regular season appearance for the club Wednesday, and he earned that milestone night. The combination play between Miranchuk, Pedro Amador, Lobjanidze, and Picault produced genuine chances. The problem is that chances are not points.

Carles Gil's corner found Will Sands for a looping header over Lucas Hoyos in the 73rd minute. Five minutes later, Gil received the ball on the left side of the box and slid a pass across the face of goal that deflected to Peyton Miller, who buried it from point-blank range. Maddie's read on that second goal is the one that stings: Atlanta had the numbers in the box on that cross. They had enough defenders to clear it. They didn't. That keeps happening.

Picault, who became just the second player in MLS history to score for seven different clubs in regular season play, put it plainly: "Every player has to take a look at themselves in the mirror and just do better." Madison framed it the same way in her piece. Get the goal, then go find the second. Put the game away before things can happen. Atlanta United needs to be the team other clubs have to worry about, not the other way around.

Atlanta travels to BMO Field to face Toronto FC on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. ET on Apple TV and 92.9 The Game. Toronto sits sixth in the Eastern Conference at 3-4-2 with 13 points and has won two of its last three. This is not a soft landing. At 1-7-1 with four points and a goal differential of minus-9, last in the East, Atlanta needs a result badly, and Saturday's opponent is more than capable of making this a difficult afternoon.

Manchester City moved to the top of the Premier League on Wednesday with a 1-0 win at Burnley, edging ahead of Arsenal on goals scored after the two sides are level on 70 points and goal difference. Erling Haaland opened the scoring in the fifth minute, and City had 28 shots and an xG of 3.5, but could only manage the one goal. Pep Guardiola will want that wastefulness cleaned up. Goal difference could easily come into play before this is over.

What makes this moment genuinely interesting is how long it took City to get here. They last led the Premier League on August 21, seven days into the season. Arsenal have spent the bulk of this campaign in first place. And yet Guardiola has four titles to Arteta's zero in recent memory. One of them knows how to finish. The other is still trying to crack it. That is the entire title race distilled into one sentence.

Arsenal now face Newcastle at the Emirates on Saturday in what amounts to a must-win fixture, while City are in FA Cup semifinal action against Southampton. That means Arsenal have two Premier League matches to play before City contest their next league game, which is the only real leverage Arteta's side has right now. Arteta called it a "new league" after the week's results. He is not wrong, but the optics have shifted. Arsenal were up nine points at the peak of their lead. They are now chasing.

Guardiola, for his part, said he is confident his squad can handle the pressure. "As much as you've been there many times, you handle it better," he said after the Burnley win. City have been there many times. That is precisely the problem for Arsenal.

Luis Suárez is 37 years old, came off the bench in the 75th minute, and scored a left-foot volley in the 83rd that his own coach called a golazo. There is no explanation for how he keeps doing this. There does not need to be. Some players just refuse to let the moment pass them by, and Suárez has been refusing for two decades.

Liam Rosenior is out at Chelsea after fewer than four months in charge, sacked Wednesday following a run of five straight Premier League losses without a goal scored, a stretch that apparently last happened to the club in 1912. Calum McFarlane steps in as interim for the remainder of the season, the same role he filled after Enzo Maresca's departure on New Year's Day. Chelsea have now burned through their fourth full-time manager under BlueCo ownership, with a fifth search now underway.

The honest read on this situation is that Rosenior never had a real chance. The Maresca situation spiraled out of control, and a portion of that squad never fully reset when Rosenior came in. He won his first four Premier League matches, which bought goodwill, but the moment results dipped the foundation crumbled. He was a young coach without the profile or the authority to weather the noise at Stamford Bridge, and BlueCo handed him a six-and-a-half-year contract and expected that to mean something in a dressing room that had already seen the previous manager pushed out. It didn't.

Chelsea sit seventh in the Premier League, seven points off a top-five spot and Champions League qualification. That is the number that drove this decision more than anything else. BlueCo's entire financial model leans heavily on Champions League revenue, and missing out for a third time in four seasons under this ownership would be genuinely damaging. So they pulled the trigger on Rosenior with five weeks left, hoping a change of voice can produce enough results to sneak into Europe's elite competition. The history of mid-season panic sackings suggests that is a long shot.

The early names in the frame for the permanent role include Filipe Luis, who won four trophies at Flamengo last year and is listed as the early betting favorite, and Cesc Fàbregas, currently building a reputation at Como in Serie A. Both are interesting candidates. Neither solves the deeper problem. Chelsea have now spent years accumulating one of the largest cost bases in world football without the stable revenues to support it. Firing Rosenior does not fix that. It just resets the clock.

Eleven matches on a midweek MLS slate, and the league delivered something genuinely strange. Two games ended 4-4. One ended 3-3 on a goalkeeper goal in the sixth minute of stoppage time. San Jose put up five in a second half that started with them trailing. It was that kind of night.

Start with the goalkeeper goal, because it deserves the attention. Toronto's Luka Gavran ran up the field in the closing seconds, headed home a pass from Alonso Coello, and gave the Reds a 3-3 draw against Philadelphia. Gavran became only the third goalkeeper in MLS history to score, joining Danny Cepero in 2008 and William Hesmer in 2010. Toronto, for what it's worth, is now unbeaten in seven straight after starting the season 0-2. That is the team Atlanta travels to face on Saturday.

The 4-4 ties were their own kind of chaos. At Yankee Stadium, FC Cincinnati trailed New York City and pulled level in stoppage time on goals from 19-year-old homegrown Stefan Chirila and Brazilian designated player Evander, finishing 4-4 in front of 7,099 fans. In New Jersey, D.C. United battled back from 2-0, 3-1, and 4-3 down against the Red Bulls to earn a 4-4 draw, with Israeli forward Tai Baribo delivering a hat trick. D.C. had scored four goals total in their first eight matches. They matched that in one night.

The Western Conference leader is San Jose, and Wednesday's win over Austin FC underlined why. The Earthquakes trailed 1-0 at halftime, then scored four goals in ten minutes in the second half to win 5-1. Timo Werner converted a penalty in the 78th minute, Preston Judd scored twice, and Paul Marie set an MLS record by recording three assists in five minutes and 28 seconds. San Jose is 8-1-0, the best start in club history, and the first team in the post-shootout era to win eight of their first nine matches. They are the most interesting team in the league right now.

Inter Miami rounded out the night with a composed 2-0 win at Real Salt Lake, Rodrigo De Paul and Luis Suárez scoring one minute apart late in the second half. Lionel Messi had chances but couldn't convert. Suárez, coming off the bench, did. Miami is unbeaten in eight straight and sitting second in the Eastern Conference. The gap between them and the league's best right now feels very small.

USWNT Heads to Brazil in June for Back-to-Back Friendlies: The U.S. Women's National Team will play Brazil on June 6 at Neo Química Arena in São Paulo (5:30 p.m. ET, TBS/Max/Telemundo/Peacock) and June 9 at Arena Castelão in Fortaleza (8:30 p.m. ET, TNT/Max/Peacock). Both venues will host matches at the 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup. The USA is ranked second in the world; Brazil is sixth. The Americans are 2W-2L-2D all-time against Brazil on Brazilian soil, and haven't played there since 2014.

June 6 Is a Big Night for U.S. Soccer: The USWNT match against Brazil in São Paulo will be the second half of a broadcast doubleheader. Before it, the USMNT plays Germany in the Coca-Cola Send-Off Match at Soldier Field in Chicago, the final game for the U.S. Men before the 2026 FIFA World Cup. It is a genuinely big evening for American soccer.

USMNT: Tyler Adams and Bournemouth extended their unbeaten run to 14 matches, though the Cherries had to settle for a 2-2 draw with Leeds. Adams set up Bournemouth's second goal with a raking cross to Brazilian winger Rayan in the 86th minute, but a Sean Longstaff blast through a crowd equalized in stoppage time. Bournemouth sits seventh on 49 points, one point behind Brighton, and is still poised to qualify for European competition for the first time in club history.

NWSL and Players Association Join Project ACL: The NWSL and NWSL Players Association have joined Project ACL, a three-year study aimed at better understanding and reducing ACL injuries in women's professional soccer. The study, launching in June, will track metrics including player workload and travel. ACL injuries occur at twice the rate in women as in men, and roughly two-thirds happen without contact. Project ACL launched originally in England with the Women's Super League and is now the first multi-league study of its kind, with the NWSL joining alongside Nike, Leeds Beckett University, and global players' union FIFPRO.

Premier League Sets U.S. Viewership Record: Last Sunday's Manchester City-Arsenal match averaged 2.6 million viewers across NBC, Peacock, Telemundo, and NBC Sports Digital, making it the most-watched Premier League match in U.S. history. The title race is drawing an audience.

Pittsburgh Riverhounds Rename Their Stadium: The Riverhounds have signed a multi-year naming rights agreement with First National Bank, and their South Shore home is now F.N.B. Stadium. The venue opened in 2013 as Highmark Stadium and was the first soccer-specific, team-owned stadium in what is now the USL Championship. Renovations and expansion are planned. The first match under the new name is Saturday, April 25, when Pittsburgh hosts Greenville Triumph SC.

Red Bull Open $100M Training Facility in New Jersey: New York Red Bulls cut the ribbon on the $100 million RWJBarnabas Health Red Bulls Performance Center in Morris Township, New Jersey. The complex sits on 80 acres and includes eight full-size pitches across natural grass and turf surfaces. Red Bull Head of Global Soccer Jürgen Klopp, MLS Commissioner Don Garber, and NYNJ Host Committee Board Chair Tammy Murphy were among those present.

SDH AM is live now on YouTube and Twitch with Jon Nelson hosting. The Power Hour is underway with Nino Torres from Fubo TV and Niko Moreno from Pulso Sports. If you missed Kyle Beierlein from Upgraded Points on their World Cup expenses survey, or Footy Prime's James Sharman and Craig Forrest breaking down Toronto FC ahead of Saturday's Atlanta United match, catch both on-demand or as a podcast later today.

At noon, Jon welcomes Social Circle High School coach Heather Richardson to the Red Clay Soccer Report as her program prepares for the state playoffs. Then tonight, the SDH Network goes live for a state playoff doubleheader in Henry County: Ola hosts Cambridge in both the girls and boys matches starting at 6 p.m. Follow along at soccerdownhere.net/listen, presented by Kaiser Permanente Georgia.

Yamal Out for the Season, Expected Ready for World Cup: Lamine Yamal tore his hamstring scoring a penalty in Barcelona's 1-0 win over Celta Vigo on Wednesday and will miss the final six games of La Liga. Barcelona confirmed he will not need surgery and is expected to be available when Spain opens World Cup play on June 15 against Cape Verde in Atlanta. Barça hold a nine-point lead over Real Madrid with six games remaining, though they are also without Raphinha.

Gnabry Out of the World Cup: Germany winger Serge Gnabry announced Wednesday that a torn adductor muscle suffered in training will keep him out of the World Cup. Coach Julian Nagelsmann announces his squad on May 12. Germany opens against Curaçao in the group stage.

Mexico's Ruiz Racing the Clock: Toluca midfielder Marcel Ruiz is attempting to recover from a partially torn ACL in time for the World Cup after delaying surgery in favor of a rehabilitation plan. Ruiz, 25, has 17 caps for Mexico and was considered one of El Tri's most consistent performers before going down against San Diego FC in March.

Leicester City Relegated to League One: Leicester confirmed back-to-back relegations Tuesday, dropping to England's third tier after a 2-2 draw with Hull City. The club has accumulated losses of £375 million since 2019, has borrowed heavily against future income at high interest rates, and faces a wage bill that dwarfs the average League One club. The financial picture is genuinely alarming.

UEFA Weighing Euro Qualifying Overhaul: UEFA is considering restructuring men's European Championship qualifying to center it around Nations League standings rather than traditional group play, with a decision expected before next month's Europa League final in Istanbul. Any changes would take effect after Euro 2028.

Barcelona Women Clinch Seventh Straight Liga F Title: Barcelona's women's team secured their 11th Liga F title in history with a 4-1 win at Espanyol, holding a 16-point lead over Real Madrid with four matches remaining. They face Bayern Munich in the Champions League semifinal this weekend. Defender Mapi León is in talks with London City Lionesses over a free transfer this summer, with Ona Batlle also closing in on a move to Arsenal.

The game does not care about your statistics. Atlanta United outshot New England 23-8, generated nearly three times the expected goals, and lost. Manchester City had 28 shots at Burnley and nearly let a one-goal lead feel fragile until the final whistle. San Jose trailed at halftime and scored five. The scoreboard keeps its own truth, and the only response that matters is what you do next. Fafa Picault said it plainly in the locker room Wednesday night: this is not the moment to crumble. It never is. The teams and players who understand that, the ones who keep competing when the numbers should be enough but aren't, are the ones still standing when it counts. Atlanta has to find that. They have until Saturday to start.

Song of the Day: "Keep Your Head Up" by Ben Howard. For every team that deserved more from Wednesday night and has to go again anyway.

Jason