Junior Alonso Is the Backdrop in His Own Best Moment

Junior Alonso made the most memorable thing Atlanta United did this season, and the story belongs to the man he did it to.

ESPN's own power rankings put Atlanta 28th of 30. Megan Swanick's entire entry on the club is two sentences: "The bad news is Atlanta lost again. The good news is it managed to stop Lionel Messi from getting a hat trick in the 3-1 loss to Inter Miami."

The good news about the club is a thing an opponent did not do.

September 5, away at Inter Miami, seventh minute of stoppage time in a 2-2 draw: Messi had one shot saved and another blocked, and Alonso conceded the corner off it. Cronica, Infobae and HITC all have Alonso celebrating that stop in Messi's face.

Six weeks later, 60th minute at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Messi's second of the night makes it 3-0 in a match Atlanta lose 3-1. Five outlets place Messi and Rodrigo De Paul celebrating it in front of Alonso.

This morning, ESPN FC ran a segment titled "Were Messi and De Paul wrong to 'taunt' Atlanta United's Alonso?"

That is the ledger: one act of his own, a supporting role in it, then a debate about whether that was fair.

Alonso laughed. Infobae has him smiling at it, Messi answering with an OK sign. A man who laughs is not asking for your sympathy.

The filing is the problem. Fourteenth of fifteen in the East, 30 points from 30 matches, and Tito has the maths. Down here you do not get moments. You get other people's footage of them.

Chicago come to the Benz on Saturday. If Atlanta do something worth a clip, watch whose name it gets filed under.