Tough season-opening loss for Atlanta United on Saturday, but was just one of 11 matches during a packed day of soccer. Here’s the Feed:
Columbus Crew 1-0 Atlanta United
Recaps: S&S | AJC | Columbus Dispatch | ATLUTD.com
More coverage: MLSSoccer.com | Five Stripe Final
Around MLS
Five (!) teams opened with new head coaches on Saturday. Two more make their debuts next week: one is on the way and one was serving a suspension. Here’s how it shook out across the league:
-Dean Smith, a name tied to remarkable success in the state of North Carolina, and Charlotte FC started their season with a 1-0 win over NYCFC. We need a Dean Smith and Michael Jordan collab.
-Another new head coach: former West Ham, Chivas USA, and LA Galaxy man Laurent Courtois, who spent 5 years with Columbus Crew’s academy before leading Crew 2 to the inaugural MLS NEXT Pro championship. He’s now at the reins at CF Montréal, who played Orlando City to a 0-0 draw.
-New coach derby: Phil Neville’s Portland Timbers vs. Chris Armas’s Colorado Rapids. This one ended up being all Portland, as they opened up a 4-0 1st-half lead and won 4-1.
-Another new coach derby: Caleb Porter’s New England Revolution vs. Troy Lesesne’s D.C. United. This one went to D.C., who beat the 10-man Revs 3-1 thanks to a Christian Benteke hat trick. (Lesesne didn’t coach in this one, due to a suspension stemming from receiving 2 yellow cards during RBNY’s playoff match in 2023 where he served as interim head coach.)
We…might have a legit Goal of the Season candidate out of this one, though! This is just disgusting from Carles Gil to pull New England level despite being a man down:
-Minnesota United’s new head coach, Eric Ramsay, is on the way, but the Loons topped Austin FC 2-1 with interim head man Cameron Knowles in the technical area. Austin, who were 1 win away from an MLS Cup appearance in 2022 before a 12th-place finish in the West in 2023, could be in the market for a new head coach soon if things don’t turn around in a hurry for Josh Wolff.
-The Philadelphia Union drew Chicago Fire FC 2-2, then it didn’t, then it did again in stoppage time. Chicago still can’t hold leads. It did get this pretty goal from Brian Gutierrez, who’ll likely be a part of the U.S. Olympic team this summer:
-The Sounders still can’t beat LAFC. LAFC topped them 2-1 on 2018 World Cup champion Hugo Lloris’ debut.
-FC Dallas beat the San Jose Earthquakes 2-1 through a Dante Sealy stoppage-time goal.
-Houston Dynamo FC-Sporting Kansas City and St. Louis CITY SC-Real Salt Lake played to 1-1 draws.
-Three more games today! FC Cincinnati-Toronto FC (2:30 p.m.), Nashville SC-New York Red Bulls (5 p.m. ET), and LA Galaxy-Inter Miami (9 p.m. ET). Two more head coaches are making their debuts: Toronto’s John Herdman and RBNY’s Sandro Schwarz.
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Anyone know how we already have a bye week next week?
With New England participating in CCL, they will have had 4 competitive games to our 1.