It’s been a while since the last Atlanta United matchday, but it’s back to the pitch on Saturday as the Houston Dynamo pay a visit to Mercedes-Benz Stadium for the first time since 2019 — with plenty to talk about surrounding the Five Stripes on and off the pitch.
Atlanta, of course, are playing their first match of the post-Gonzalo Pineda era. That’s on top of the pending departure of Giorgos Giakoumakis for Cruz Azul, not yet made official by either club but all but complete as Giakoumakis was seen meeting his future teammates on Thursday evening (he’s out for Saturday). Then there are the absences outside of Giakoumakis: Saba Lobjanidze (Georgia) and Bartosz Slisz (Poland) are at Euro 2024, Luis Abram (Peru) is prepping for Copa America, and Stian Gregersen won’t play due to a strained hamstring.
Not exactly the best situation for Rob Valentino in the first match of his second stint as interim head coach. That’s not to mention that six-match home winless streak, too. They’ll look to battle against a Dynamo side that has struggled to put the ball in the back of the net with consistency (18 goals in 16 matches, despite five in their last two) but has defended well and received some solid defending led by Steve Clark in net (18 goals allowed, tied for fourth in MLS).
Players To Watch
As mentioned, Houston has enjoyed strong performances from Clark, who has two clean sheets in 13 appearances after pitching 12 shutouts in 2023 and is among the top keepers in the league in save percentage (77.8). Of course, a key member of the Dynamo backline is Franco Escobar, making his first visit to the Benz since leaving Atlanta in 2021, while Atlanta’s attack will need to cope with challenges from CB pairing Micael and Erik Sviatchenko.
No mention of Houston, though, is complete without referencing Hector Herrera. The 34-year-old former Mexican international missed some time at the beginning of the season and has been rounding into fitness. The Dynamo will hope that the extended layoff will be what he needs to jumpstart things in the second half of the season: he had 11 assists in league play last year but is sitting on just two in 2024 (in nine appearances).
The Stats
The History
These two teams have played each other just three times with each match seeing the home team win by at least three goals: Atlanta won 4-1 in 2017 behind Miguel Almiron’s hat trick before suffering a season-opening 4-0 defeat the next year in H-town, but hammered the 10-man Dynamo 5-0 in 2019 after Alberth Elis was sent off in the 6th minute. Something tells me the scoreline will be a little closer this time around.
Availabilty Reports
Will be updated after official reports are released.
Atlanta United
Questionable:
- Tyler Wolff (knee)
Out:
- Stian Gregersen (hamstring)
- Giorgos Giakoumakis (not injury-related)
- Luis Abram (international duty)
- Saba Lobjanidze (international duty)
- Bartosz Slisz (international duty)
Houston Dynamo
Questionable:
- McKinze Gaines (lower-body injury)
Out:
- Nelson Quinones (knee)
Predicted Lineups
Atlanta United Predicted XI
Houston Dynamo Predicted XI
Don’t have any optimistic thoughts, but we’ll be there cheering on the boys. The quality and talent will be lacking, so hopefully the effort is there
Given that we’ve dug ourselves a massive hole (Ex: April & May) to climb out of in an effort to possibly turn this season around (even though the odds are against us with a win streak starting tonight) …..some of the first things I will be looking for from ATL UTD @ kickoff are: the ability to challenge opposing teams when they have possession instead of just sitting back and letting them roam freely throughout the pitch which often times played right into their hands by leaving opposing players unmarked. In addition, the style of play that Pineda had us playing from constantly in the back also worked against us because all it took was a bad pass on our part (or) being out of position and with a short field being gifted to the opposing team, then they just needed to capitalize on their shot(s) on goal, so avoiding giving opposing teams short fields will be key to this second half stretch of games. Additionally, I would like to see us push the pace all game starting tonight as we have always had the potential to be in every game this season, but have squandered those opportunities by wanting to play as individuals instead of a team on the offensive side of the ball and at times instead of using teammates to our advantage….individuals trying to take on opposing teams whole midfield/back-line often resulting in turnovers. Our team is not built to constantly play from behind (or) have the offensive firepower to always give us at least a goal/goals when they are a must in order to get wins! Lastly, while there is a head coaching search going on in Rob V.’s defense if he is able to somehow improve our quality of play at home given the minimal room for error and on the road resulting in more wins on the road than at home overall due to the damage our current 5 game home losing streak has caused us and is somehow able to get us a playoff seeding since we do have rematches against opposing teams working in our favor for alot of the matches left during this second half stretch, then I think that he should be given serious consideration for the permanent HC role. While our home matches are extremely important as always the key to us having any real chance at making any type of noise this season will stem from primarily from our play starting on the road next week @ DC United.
[…] Match Preview: Atlanta United vs. Houston Dynamo […]
Are we really wearing our away jersey at home AGAIN?
Look we get to be short three players (starters) short due to playing during the international windows.
#BocaOut!!!
If you don’t understand that we simply can’t take 3 weeks off now – and by the way, like most but not all of MLS we did get last weekend off – I don’t know what to tell you. You gotta play matches sometime. If the team takes off during big international windows then guys like you bitch when they have no choice but to make the matches up on Wednesday nights – “We had to play 3 matches in 8 days, bleep MLS…” whatever. Hey if you have a perfect solution to this that doesn’t involve like a month’s worth of Wed-Sat matches every week or playing until January, please share.
There is a valid reason that isn’t just about selling new jerseys for wearing the so-called Resurgens [sic] jersey tonight. I’ll let you think about it for a while and you’ll probably figure it out. I’ll give you a hint – the Resurgens [sic] jersey isn’t actually aimed at existing fans but somebody else.
Probably another reason why Boca hired Pineda in the first place. So Boca could pick the game day jerseys and get all the credit, without getting too much pushback from Pineda.
Would guess Fortune for Dax, if Fortune is available.
Well fortunately we have a deep, talented squad with a next man up mentality so now that we’ve gotten rid of Pineda, this should be an easy win.
I’m sorry your feelings are hurt by Pineda’s firing but it’s a results-oriented business. I don’t know why you’re struggling to understand that.
So Atlanta United put out the availability report for tomorrow, but GG is not listed on the report. Does this mean the deal to Cruz Azul is finalized, or is he going to play tomorrow?
He was in Mexico as of yesterday so he will not be playing for us.
Unless something kills the deal, he’ll never play for us again just to be sure he doesn’t get hurt. Boca and Garth eventually figured out last year that their original plan to let Luiz Araujo play for a solid month before leaving for Brazil was completely insane from a risk standpoint as if he had gotten hurt, the $10 million sale would have been cancelled on the spot. So once we have a guy going out, he’s not going to play any more just to keep him safe, which is as it should be. GG has had a really bad health history here. If he can be sold, it would be off the charts bonkers to play him again and then watch as he goes down for the season in his final match for us with an injury and the sale also gets canceled.
The deal is definitely NOT finalized and as I posted below, nobody seems to know what the hold up is, although your guess that maybe he (somehow) hasn’t completed a physical yet is a good one. My guess is that Cruz Azul is reneging on the price.
It was reported that the physicals were occurring yesterday and today. And he was indeed there yesterday and today doing just that. There’s no mystery about the “hold up”. There’s a process. Negotiations take time as does the vetting process. Also to be clear, GG’s injury history started well before his Atl stint. All that said, extremely unlikely he’ll play another game for Atl.
Gosh, it has gotten to were I dread match-days.
I used to wake up and scream “ITS GAME DAY!!!” Now I say “Dang it’s game day.”
Really not sure why the GG sale can’t just be made official.
has there even been news that he got his physical done? usually once the physical is done, the deals get announced.
I believe Cruz Azul plans to announce the signing on Monday. I would not expect anything from AUFC until then.
Yes there has been. Deals are obviously not made official until they’re…well…official.