How I Dug Up That NYRB vs Atlanta United Stats Mess
So last night after dinner, I was just scrolling my phone like usual, right? Coffee cold beside me. Saw some guys arguing online about who’d win this weekend – New York Red Bulls or Atlanta United. Real loud opinions, zero facts. Got me itching to find out myself. “Screw it,” I mumbled, shoved the laptop open.
First move? Typed “New York RB Atlanta United past games” straight into the search bar. Expected a clean little table. HA! Got bombarded. Official league site? Couldn’t find the head-to-head button. Fan wikis? Dates all messy, looked like my kid scribbled on ’em. Third-party stats sites? Pop-up city. Closed five tabs before I even saw a number. Threw my hands up. “Fine. Old school it is.”
Opened a fresh sheet. Made two columns: NYRB Wins, Atlanta Wins. Drew a line down the middle. Started digging like I lost my keys. Went year by year, season by season. Had to flip between:
- The league’s “past matches” section (slow as molasses)
- News articles about old games (got sidetracked reading about fights twice)
- Even checked social media rants from 2018 (don’t recommend)
My eyeballs started crossing around 2020 fixtures. Scores blurred. “Hang on,” I told myself. Leaned back, cracked my knuckles. Remembered screenshots. Yeah! Started snagging final scores right off match reports. Pasted those bad boys next to the dates. Slowly…painfully…the wins, losses, draws filled up. Took like an hour just to get five seasons straight. Spilled cold coffee on my notes. Perfect.
Then recent form. Thought this part would be easier. Nope. “Recent” means what? Last 5 games? Last 10? Depended who you asked! Grabbed their last six league results for both:
- NYRB: Win, Loss, Loss, Win, Draw, Win – all over the shop!
- Atlanta: Loss, Draw, Loss, Win, Loss, Draw – ugh.
Sat back staring at my chaotic sheet. Coffee stain perfectly covered Atlanta’s 2021 away win. Felt fitting. Whole thing looked like a battle map after a storm. Messy. Took way longer than my usual research. Learned that? Sometimes the simple question needs the grunt work. Data’s never just handed to you clean. Gotta dig, piece it together yourself, coffee stains included.
