Let’s head back to where we left off.
Rewind to November 12th, 2023. Atlanta United, despite a thrilling 4-2 victory at home in the second leg of the best-of-three playoff, fall to the same score line (in the opposite direction) and are bounced from the MLS Cup Playoffs by the eventual champions, the Columbus Crew.
Now back to the present, where the Five Stripes embark on their eighth MLS campaign today from (where else?) Columbus, Ohio, home of that and other not-so-fun memories of the year gone by for Atlanta faithful. Throughout the previous season, Atlanta visited Lower.com Field three times, losing in each and conceding TWELVE GOALS. Yikes is an understatement.
Never before has Atlanta been matched with such a daunting opponent to kick off the regular season. Columbus hasn’t lost much from their title winning roster, and expectations there are still high as ever. Did I mention the Crew are getting their championship rings before the game? How’s that for motivation?
Atlanta has a massive chance before them this afternoon to prove the ultimate point in how they’ve improved from last year to this one. The inclusions of Gregersen, Slisz, and an entire preseason worth of preparation with last season’s summer window signings should, theoretically, make this Atlanta United identifiably better than the one that took the same field back in November. Sure, it’s only game one, but also a very clear test of growth from this team and one that could send a message to the entire league for the season ahead.
There’s only one way to find out.
Kickoff is scheduled for an earlier 2:00 PM ET, as the playoff rematch against the defending champs gets its own spotlight to start the weekend slate of MLS matches. The match will stream on Apple TV as a part of MLS Season Pass, and be broadcast over radio in English on 92.9 The Game and in Spanish on La Mejor.
But before then, be sure to check out our match preview and predicted lineups for all the match prep you need. Then, hop back over and join us in the *NEW AND IMPROVED* comment section below as we kick things off all over again from Ohio.
Atlanta United’s Lineup:
Columbus Crew’s Lineup:
How to Watch:
Venue: Lower.com Field, Columbus, Ohio
Kickoff Time: Saturday, February 24th; 2:10 PM ET
Available Streaming: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV (subscription required)
Available Radio: 92.9 The Game, La Mejor 1600/1460/1130 AM
This thread will be your match thread. We don’t have many rules here. We just ask that you don’t insult each other personally and treat each other with respect. Debates can get heated and that’s fine, but name-calling and petty insults will get you banned. If you see a comment that you feel is out of line, please report it and it will be dealt with.
Good game we will work it out
Welp. There goes the 34-0-0 season.
LOL… I think we are going to be just fine. Lots of rust, but progression and potential is obvious to me. My prediction – we will have a better season (and post season) than last year. Vamos ATL!
New comments section came through for the opener. Thanks S&S!
So glad! Got some improvements coming too.
We’re trying lol
I wasn’t expecting this to be great. In some ways better than DSS. It will grow on us.
We’ve seriously grown into this game, tale of two halves for sure
I didn’t expect us to get a W this game. A better second half. Tired legs slowed the game down. I think we’re lucky to walk out only 1 goal down, but good to see a better performance second half. Only one data point for me, but thus far, I am not impressed with Slisz at all… seems very slow and doesn’t appear to have the intensity needed.
Amen on the Slisz comment
I had the same thought. He didn’t impress on even a basic level in preseason, and today’s performance didn’t redeem that. He seems like a traffic cone, reminiscent of several other ghosts we have had in the past in the midfield. Please prove me wrong next week.
Almada… you are good, but stop trying to play the hero and be a team player. That’s 3 times this game. Sigh.
I think Gregerson is a solid Miles replacement. Very happy about this signing.
I’ve never heard a crowd get so riled up over offsides and out of bounds. it’s one of the few things you can’t really argue with, unless you had an amazing few of the situation, better than the refs, which is relatively unlikely.
When the players don’t argue, the crowd probably shouldn’t.
Losing every dribble.
I take such joy when Guz proves all you unnecessary haters wrong
Guzan PK save. There goes our miracle for the season.
WTG, Guzan!
F YES GUZAN
Just give them the PK already and move on
Welp, great start to the 2nd half.
0.04 xG. Awful. I’m sorry I renewed my MLS season pass.
we’re still in this. I’m not even that bothered by the goal – yes, there were things we could’ve done better, but overall it was a well-worked goal by Columbus to take advantage of small errors.
What I’m more interested in we just need to adapt, get better quality passes, disrupt their possession better. We need to get better control of the midfield
Positive – I like what I see from Gregerson.
Neutral – Slisz was invisible on the field (he is going to need to seriously adjust to the speed of MLS).
Negative – team is very unorganized.
Will see if we can make some adjustments second half.
Well, good news is score line could be so much worse.
We look so disorganized and running around with not a care in the world.. Just running to run.
Double and tripled team. Overloaded all over the field. Ugh.
Need to get to 1/2 time without conceding another one… need some serious regrouping on the right back/right mid area.
New backline for a team that primarily plays out the back. Wonder what happened to Abrams.
Also, I said this after the Memphis pre-season game, Barto is a plodder and will be benched soon enough. I think he’s awful
We can’t seem to get that signing right?
Can’t say I disagree at this point. First time seeing him though.
Columbus looking very much like MLS Champions… we are very much looking like a team that needs some time to gel. We’ll be lucky to score at this point and not concede another goal.
Lol, maybe that counted as a shot…
weeeelllllp
Aaaaand the theme of not tracking runners continues
Ugh…..Can we get a better keeper, please…
I’m sorry, what? Where are you finding fault with Guz so far in this game?
the goal itself definitely wasn’t his fault. maybe could argue he should’ve gotten a better hand on the cross. I blame that more on silva not tracking back.
You were saying
Killing us on the right.
This defense needs to jell.
Just survive for the first part of the season without losing dumb points.
Spoke too soon.
25 in!! Let’s go boys!!!!
Anyone listening to the our radio feed?
I’m tired of listening to the Columbus supporter’s section yell and complain about everything.
Wtf is GG doing there
Guzan… looks all of 39
This is mainly a test comment cause login is apparently hell for me, but have we had a shot on goal yet?
Nope
So new season, old story. Though I guess it is away against the champs.
Apparently this Crew supporters’ don’t understand how out of bounds works. They won’t shut up any time guzan steps out to keep the ball in, or Xande Silva playing the ball on the line.
10 min in, and I said it after the Memphis pre-season game, barto looks wholly unathletic and like a plodder. I hope I’m wrong
Guuuuz
UNDERWAY FROM COLUMBUS!
Has the camera angle always been this low in Columbus?
I was thinking the same lol
Celebrating their championship in front of us will hopefully motivate our players today
Lets F’ing go!
Rafael Bonilla is the ref – anybody know anything?
https://twitter.com/MikeConti929/status/1761390977325891961?t=dnkpuLCC-MNMAw5-xeLuCA&s=19
Not surprising that Williams gets the LCB start and Guzan at GK. Considering that’s what the line up was for the final preseason match.
Official kickoff time of 2:10!
Interesting to see Williams win out the starting role at CB next to Gregersen, something to keep an eye on as the season progresses. Same with the position battle at GK, we’ll see when Cohen gets his shot.
Just a heads up for those in the comments, we’ll be implementing some updates so you can actually Login or create a WordPress.com account specifically for Scarves and Spikes much easier from right above the comment field after the game. Ignore the login button for now, it’ll be replaced later by a little WordPress “W” where you can edit your profile and Gravatar photo!
ATLUTD put the lineup out EARLY!! No surprises, Guzan in goal
This is an interesting development gonna find out if I need. wordpress account
Greetings
Taking some getting used to but the comment section is fire
Vamos Atlanta!
Does anyone know a way to make the mls season pass hide the scores so I can watch it later?
Yes if you look in the main Settings area for apple tv, at the bottom there is a choice to Hide Sports Scores. Finding the Settings is a probably a little different depending what streaming device you’re using.
Real MVP
It still shows in thumbnails though
Hi everyone, testing to see if my comment works
Got you Dakota!
It’s matchdaayyyyyyyyyy!
I’m so confused on how logging in works around here. I’m logged in to WordPress. And then I come to an article, and it makes me log in. And then I try to log in, but it takes me to jetpack. And then I put in my WordPress log in creds and it says it can’t find my account. Wtf.
With this new system, once you try and comment, you should be able to just add your name/email and it’ll automatically pick up your account (should)
I no longer seem to be able to comment from Jetpack, and I don’t seem to be able to login using the wordpress account I made. Maybe it’s just a side effect of the new comment system?
Though once I enter my name and email in the thing to post a comment, it seems to look like as if it figured it out afterward.
Oh man, this is exactly my same experience. Glad I’m not crazy.
I suspect it’s some sort of side-effect of the wordpress add-on they used to improve comments. Like the new system kind of doesn’t want to interact with wordpress’s accounts.
I’m trying different names and emails to see if it doesn’t make the connection to my underlying wordpress account. So far it seems like the picture (and maybe notifications) are connected underneath, but UI doesn’t recognize it.
edit: nevermind, as soon as I changed the email, the picture changed.
Whatcha think of this comment section compared to yesterday?
I like the new comments more
Much much better!
The situation makes it difficult to compare. I had been doing most of my viewing/commenting the past few days using the jetpack mobile app, and with the new system, even though I can see the articles, it’s like all commenting is disabled on the app. But, compared to how I remember the commenting system on my computer being before, I much prefer this.
Also, it’s not necessarily a dealbreaker for the app to stop working. The mobile browser experience is also a lot better, so I could just go back to getting the mobile stuff through my phone’s web browser again.
This seems to solve the problem of all the random anonymous comments for sure. The one thing I want to find a good solution for (that might already be here) is a way to keep track of unread comments without having to resort to email notifications.
aww, lost the ability to see who is liking individual comments though. I think. Not the end of the world.
fyi, I used to be a programmer who tended to get a decent amount of experience building robust UI, so I tend to think about this stuff. I’d offer more help above just feedback, but I have very little experience developing web apps, more installed local apps.
I’m a programmer/web dev too, I emailed to offer any help they need, but I think they’re playing around with what they have and weighing whether to stay on WordPress or use something else
I like it better, and also the comments total showing under articles on the main page.
Also, the state of the blog post on DSS disappeared. I feel like today’s the day to have that post there, I wonder if Vox removed it, trying to stop the bleeding?
The article was updated to “hidden” last night on the site’s editorial page by someone other than the usual DSS staff.
The new site looks amazing though, both more interesting and more user friendly.
That’s good to hear, thanks! We’ll still be fine tuning things but we’re hoping once everyone kinda gets the comments section we’ll settle in. I kinda like the little bubble update thing too. Site just looks clean, if I do say so myself 😎😂