GREENSBORO — The Carolina Dynamo closed out its season with a 4-2 loss to the Atlanta Silverbacks on Saturday night in front of 1,941 fans at Macpherson Stadium.

Coming off a 4-0 victory over Nashville on Friday night, the Dynamo came out flat. Just 30 seconds into the game, the Silverbacks had a golden scoring opportunity and they went on top just 12 minutes into the match.

Carolina had numerous scoring chances in the opening half but was unable to score even once. Meanwhile, Atlanta did not have nearly as many chances but seemingly converted on each of them to take a 3-0 lead into intermission.

“The first half was disappointing, but it was really the tale of how our season went,” Carolina coach Joe Brown said. “We’ve not been able to put teams away when we should have, and defensively we’ve not been a very good football team this year.

“We just didn’t come out with a great attitude and it hurt us. They got easy goals off us and put us behind the eight-ball a little bit, and we chased the game the whole second half. Even though we outplayed them in the second half, Atlanta did what they had to do to win the match.”

Nearly all of the action in the second half happened in front of the Silverbacks’ goal. But it looked like Atlanta was going to post its second shutout victory of the season over the Dynamo as the hosts simply could not buy a goal, no matter how good the scoring opportunity.

“Watching tonight’s game — how we missed the goals — was incredible,” Brown said. “That’s really what we’ve been dealing with all year long.”

Finally Cody Arnoux got Carolina on the board at the 82-minute mark. Two minutes later, Ryan Adeleye added a highlight-reel goal and suddenly it looked like the Dynamo could salvage its unbeaten season at home.

But five minutes later Ryan Roushandel scored his third goal of the game to clinch the victory for the visitors.

“Good teams create their own breaks, and we just haven’t been able to do that and get out of our own way,” Brown said. “A disappointing season from the standards this team has, but we’ll recover.”

The Dynamo finished the year at .500 and in the bottom half of the Southeast Division. One of the main reasons for the disappointing season was a 1-3 record versus the Silverbacks. But five of the Dynamo’s seven wins this season came at home.

“Good season for our home fans,” said Brown, who had established a goal of going unbeaten at Macpherson Stadium. “We weren’t a good team on the road. We just didn’t get a rhythm with the injuries we had. At the end of the day there’s no excuses. We just have to get back to basics and get our recruiting better and with coaching, and that comes back to me, do a better job.”

Atlanta

3 1 – 4 Carolina 0 2 – 2 Goals: Atlanta — Ryan Roushandel 3, Sam Arthur; Carolina — Cody Arnoux, Ryan Adeleye. Assists: Atlanta — Jeff Scannella, Sam Arthur; Carolina — Kirk Urso. Shots: Atlanta 7, Carolina 10. Saves: Atlanta (Jimmy Maurer) 7; Carolina (Clint Irwin) 2. Corner kicks: Atlanta 4, Carolina 9.

Records: Atlanta 9-6-1; Carolina 7-7-2.