After Nashville SC defeated Atlanta United 4-2 on Saturday, Nashville man of the match Dax McCarty revealed his club may have used comments from Atlanta defender Miles Robinson — suggesting Atlanta had superior talent — as bulletin board material.
But were those remarks fair game? The Extratime gang discussed that during Monday's episode, and after some conversation (embedded below), it is decisively a grey area.
For Matt Doyle, the issue was not the nature of the comments, but the truthfulness.
"I think the bottom line for this is that MIles Robinson is wrong," Doyle said. "This is not to pick on the kid, I think Miles Robinson is a fantastic young talent, and I think that they have other good young talents on this team. But Atlanta’s just not very good."
From the perspective of a former player, Calen Carr didn't see anything wrong with either player's role in this battle of words. But he suggested maybe Robinson attempts to boost his team's own confidence clearly had an equal and opposite reaction in the other dressing room.
"For a team like Nashville, it gives them something to rally around, too, and it clearly gave Dax a little bit of extra energy in this match, so I think it was kind of fair play on both sides," Carr said. "I don’t take a big issue with what Miles had to say, but I think it’s totally fine for Dax to kind of give a little bit of (a lesson)."
For Andrew Wiebe, most drama is good drama.
"This is what I think the league needs more of," he said. "Guys speaking their minds on both sides before and after the game. There being a little bit extra in games because of there being something off the field. This had it."
