Efrain Morales makes good on first-ever start for Atlanta United

Efrain Morales didn’t find out he’d be starting for Atlanta United against the Chicago Fire until three hours before the match.

“I honestly think it kind of helped me because it didn’t give me time to be nervous, which I think if I had been told a little bit earlier it might have been different,” he said after Atlanta’s 0-0 draw against the Fire.

The 20-year-old Homegrown center-back has been available for selection for the last several outings thanks to injuries to Stian Gregersen and Derrick Williams. But with Luis Abram and Noah Cobb serving as Gonzalo Pineda’s preferred CB pairing in the interim, Morales had yet to crack the starting XI.

Until Saturday, that is. Cobb, who was forced out of the April 20 match vs. FC Cincinnati due to a migraine headache, was ill the night before the Chicago match and struggled to sleep, continuing to not feel well on Saturday. Wanting to avoid risking Cobb’s wellness, Pineda gave Cobb the night off, setting Morales up for his first MLS start — which he learned about right before the team’s pre-match meeting.

And if there were any nerves at all, Morales didn’t show it, ultimately rewarding the decision of his head coach.

“In preseason he was very good, and then in some of the [Atlanta United 2] games he has also been very good, so we had the confidence that he could have had a good game. I think he did pretty well,” Pineda said.

Morales has indeed been able to cut his teeth with the 2s this season, one of just two players to play every minute of every match for them thus far in 2024.

On Saturday, he put on a first-team kit for the first time in an MLS regular-season match, the culmination of a journey that started when he signed for Atlanta’s first-ever U-12 side in 2016, continuing to his ATL UTD 2 debut in 2020 after signing a Homegrown Player contract that kicked in on Jan. 1, 2021.

“Honestly, I guess [it’s] pretty cliche to say, but it feels pretty surreal,” he said.

It was nearly a storybook ending for him, Morales: with the match five minutes past an allotted seven minutes of stoppage time, Thiago Almada’s cross into the box met the head of his onrushing teammate, who sent it just wide of the net.

Morales struck the ground and let out a scream in frustration — and again as referee Filip Dujic’s final whistle sounded — knowing his chance to win the match went begging.

“I’m not sure if they might have called it a foul anyways because I kind of jumped over the (defender), but definitely, it would have been nice,” he said.

Still, it was a performance to remember, one that will aid in his development as he heads back to ATL UTD 2 as the center backs ahead of him on the depth chart return.

“I’m happy to get my first full 90 in, but I’m going to just take whatever opportunity as it comes,” he said. “I still just see it more as an opportunity to learn more than anything, more than them taking away my playing time.”