The 2024 MLS season is almost upon us, and Atlanta United sits poised to be a true contender in the Eastern Conference. A variety of offseason moves by Garth Lagerway and Carlos Bocanegra have laid a solid foundation for the Five Stripes to be one of the league favorites, and all that’s left is to put the plan into action.
Let’s take a walk through the entire Atlanta United offseason, from year-end moves to the present day, where the deadline for roster compliance is mere hours away on February 23rd.
2023 Year-End Moves
Atlanta United ended its 2023 season in the first round of the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs to eventual winners Columbus Crew. The scheduling gods decided the 20+ goals the teams scored against each other in every competition last year would be prime television, so they’ve placed the two Eastern Conference giants against each other in one of the hallmark week 1 matches.
But Atlanta’s roster will be significantly different than the last time these two squads met, so check out how the offseason began with the 2023 year-end moves.
On November 17th, Atlanta United announced the following players would either be out of contract, or wouldn’t have their options exercised.
- Machop Chol
- Jackson Conway
- Clement Diop
- Justin Garces
- Efrain Morales
- Ozzie Alonso
- Miles Robinson
- Miguel Berry
- Matheus Rossetto
- Amar Sejdic
- Quentin Westberg
The club did exercise Aidan McFadden’s option, and ultimately renegotiated with Efrain Morales and Quentin Westberg. They declined the purchase option on Juanjo Purata’s loan, and picked up the option on Xande Silva’s loan to make his move final in December. It’s also worth reminding everyone that Ezequiel Barco’s loan ended then, too.
2024 Signings
After Atlanta United resigned Efrain Morales and Quentin Westberg, and picked up Xande Silva permanently, they began rapidly making other moves. They signed goalkeeper Josh Cohen on December 14th, and then homegrown and Wake Forest defender Garrison Tubbs on the 15th. Tubbs would then immediately be traded to D.C. United for up to $275,000 in General Allocation Money (GAM) on December 21st.
Meanwhile, the team traded Miguel Berry’s rights to the L.A. Galaxy for the 33rd pick in the Superdraft. Atlanta United would go on to sign three players in the Superdraft, goalkeeper Jayden Hibbert, midfielder Javier Armas, and goalkeeper Casper Mols. They’d also receive $50,000 more in GAM in a trade to Chicago.
On December 21st, the club would then sign center back Derrick Williams in the Re-Entry Draft. Williams was formerly of L.A. Galaxy, D.C. United, and Aston Villa.
Atlanta United 2 would also sign three players, goalkeeper John Berner and midfielders Noble Okello and Jacob Williams. All three were free agents with experience in USL and MLS NEXT Pro. They would then sign defenders Matthew Edwards and Daniel Russo (insert Karate Kid jokes here) before trading Jonantan Villa to Atletico San Luis in Mexico.
The New Year came and went, and Atlanta United picked right back up after the holidays by signing veteran defensive midfielder – and free agent – Dax McCarty, formerly of Nashville SC. The announcement was made on January 9th. They then loaned Franco Ibarra to Rosario Central in Argentina on the 11th before signing center back Stian “Norwegians Are Awesome” Gregersen from Bordeaux, through 2027 (option for 2028).
On January 17th, the Five Stripes announced another solid defensive signing in Polish international Bartosz Slisz from Legia Warsaw. Two days later on the 19th, they loaned Santiago Sosa to Racing Club in Argentina.
The 2’s would then reach down and pluck forward Ashton Gordon from the Academy, with the caveat that he would become a first team player in 2025 through 2026, with options for 2027 and 2028.
On February 6th, Atlanta United re-signed eMLS legend-in-the-making Paulo Neto through 2025. The young Brazilian has already delivered another trophy to the club, after winning the eMLS League Series 1 title.
As It Stands
So, only a couple of days remain before every MLS team (besides Inter Miami and Real Salt Lake) have to be roster compliant. Miami and RSL play the season opener on February 21st, so they must be compliant by February 20th. How does Atlanta United’s roster look after all the moves? Take a look (as of February 20th, 2024)!
Keepers (3): Brad Guzan, Josh Cohen, Quentin Westberg
Defenders (9): Luis Abram, Noah Cobb, Stian Gregersen, Ronald Hernández, Brooks Lennon, Aiden McFadden, Efraín Morales, Caleb Wiley, Derrick Williams
Midfielders (11): Thiago Almada, Derrick Etienne Jr., Nick Firmino, Ajani Fortune, Saba Lobjanidze, Dax McCarty, Edwin Mosquera, Tristan Muyumba, Bartosz Slisz, Adyn Torres, Tyler Wolff
Forwards (5): Luke Brennan, Erik Centeno, Giorgos Giakoumakis, Xande Silva, Jamal Thiaré
Franco Ibarra and Santiago Sosa are loaned out, marking 30 on the roster.
Don’t expect any significant changes as roster compliance day looms, barring some potential salary restructuring or loans to the 2’s. The total squad is – on paper – one of the strongest in the short history of the club, and expectations are high. Stay tuned to Scarves and Spikes for a variety of articles to prep you for opening match day, and be sure to subscribe over on YouTube to catch our interview with Columbus’ MLS Gone Wild and our upcoming chat with Apple TV/MLS commentator Steve Cangialosi!
This is one of the top five rosters in MLS. If they are below fourth it will be a disappointment and I will join the anti-Pineada crowd.
Did I miss something or have they decided not to use the buyout option this year?
I think they technically used it on Erik Lopez
Good info- thanks
Great read!
Just figured out how to log in as well!
nice write up tyler. appreciate this.
overall, this is the strongest roster we’ve had in a while. but on the back line (both cbs and fbs), i think we might be the strongest we’ve ever been…and that is WITH hernandez, who (if you can’t guess), i’m not very high on.
midfield leaves me hoping that the talent on paper and the talent we know can quickly develop good chemistry. the prospect of almada/muyumba/slisz bossing the center of the pitch is pretty exciting.
and if we truly are expecting to move almada this summer (and i think almost everyone sees that coming), i hope firmino gets plenty of minutes thru the first 1/2 of the season to settle in.
Thanks!
And yeah, I agree. I know it was one of my “hot takes” but I really feel this is the strongest – on paper – roster Atlanta United has fielded. Or at least the most balanced. They’re going to have some true tests this year, though, between international breaks and possibly having Almada move on.
yeah…i can’t see us holding on to almada beyond the summer. i’m a little surprised we kept him this winter but european budgets are a bit tight right now.
just figured out how to make sure i’m logged in…doh!
Woo! Excellent!
And yeah, there’s no way Atlanta United doesn’t receive some solid, bonafide offers for him in the summer.
Agreed…it definitely feels balanced and with nice depth. In no way to undervalue Almada as a player…he’s obv really good and glad he’s here…but think we’ve got some serviceable options to plug that gap. And if it came to that, bonus if it means they’re developing one of the youngsters in that role where errors are maybe generally a little less costly.
They should just hire Jurgen Klinsmann
user name checks out
but would he have to move to south korea so he could manage long distance? or is socal far enough away to qualify?
Fanbase would self-combust
IS THAT DANNY DORITO?!
I’m still curious about what that last signing could be if it is still in play. The roster compliance deadline will be any day now so we should probably hear something soon. Doug from AJC seems to think we are up against the cap so it will probably be a depth signing, if anything. That could be an early promotion of Javier Armas if the club feels that they want him available other than through the limited emergency short-term call-up options they have for MLS NEXT Pro players.
I had forgotten that was a thing. I feel like it’s probably either fizzled out for now or it’s Armas, especially with preseason practically done.
This is the best depth we’ve had since 2019…easily
Hopefully all the DSS people will migrate here and FSF. Although, I will not miss that website. It was not the best.
I’ll miss having the unread comments highlighted. Now I’ll have to sort through which comments I’ve read already and which are new. First world problem, I know, but still..
Totally get that. Unfortunately we had to move kinda quick to get things where they needed to be, but updating the commenting section is one thing we’d like to see sooner than later. The caveat to that is….we don’t want y’all to have to resign up again after just having moved over lol. But I get you
Especially coming back later to see if new comments have happened or not. I can’t tell if I need to recheck an old thread or not without scrolling through each page over and over, or without getting a flood of emails to tell me someone commented.
I think the notifications are just a step away from what we need. It’ll tell you if someone replied or liked your comment, now I just need something similar for a whole story I commented on.
Some of that can be handled from your main account page under the notification settings, to kinda help determine which notifications you want, and how.
I can’t remember who all I’ve commented this to, but the commenting format is something we’re going to try and evolve, if at all possible lol
I don’t know if others had the same issue on the old site but every time I tried to post on it, my typing had to wait on various pop up ads to load and I’d have to scroll back down to where I was posting and then wait again on another ad to load. Repeat multiple times. Several times I just quit posting. I won’t miss that site at all.
Honestly relieved that – even though the commenting here isn’t perfect (where is it?) – everyone seems to be getting on fairly well so far
So is it safe to infer at this point Guzan will be the starter or is there still a competition ongoing for the role?
I don’t know if we can actually infer anything from the starting lineup of the final preseason match. For example, I have to think that Williams is probably not starting over Abram at CB. Pineda is hard to figure out and I won’t be surprised if Guz is the starter or if Cohen is. About the only thing I can tell you is that whoever starts, barring injury they probably won’t be replaced except for non-MLS matches (ie. USOC, Leagues Cup) so on Saturday we’ll see who really won the job between Guz and JC.
This is a really interesting point. I agree that Guzan and Cohen are both in play for the match on Saturday. But I am genuinely curious whether they prefer the passing options Williams gives them over Abram on the left. It could be a situation where the backline rotates depending on the tactical wrinkles Pineda and his staff intend to bring against each opponent.
That said, I agree that we are fairly locked at fullback, in the front-four, and with our midfield pairing other than through expected squad rotation around international breaks, non-league competition, and after prolonged schedule congestion. But when we do rotate, I’m not worried about the next guy being much of a drop-off.
I think we have to believe that the starting line up from the final preseason match against KC will be our starting line up for the 1st regular season match other than Almada replacing Firmino
Yeah, the only outlier to that, though, is for sure that goalkeeper spot. I still think it’s a coin toss. But yeah, that starting XI against SKC is pretty much locked in.
Where can I find info/writeup on the KC game?
There wasn’t much detail provided because it was completely closed to media and fans. Basically though, it was a heavy fitness week for Atlanta (by design) so the KC goals were scored a bit later as legs got tired and they subbed on new guys
Thanks! How did you find that out?
Pineda gave us a quick update at the training ground
Ah! The inside pitch!
We do our best 🫡
I agree…we’ve got solid depth and some options for rotating depending on availability and situational formation changes. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Williams starting often. Hopefully Cohen is starting more often than not.
Tyler I have to disagree with you, Paulo Neto isn’t a “legend in the making,” he already is one! 🤩
this was me lmao. I did it through the browser and didn’t realize it would make me anonymous 🤣
And now we know your super hero name, Henry
One sec, gotta call up Dr Strange real quick