Latte Lath put his name on the scoresheet for Atlanta United on his MLS debut, just moments before halftime of Atlanta’s match against CF Montréal at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Saturday.
The $22 million transfer from Middlesbrough delivered in the 42nd minute on a set piece, a big area of focus for Ronny Deila and Atlanta during preseason, to stake the Five Stripes to a 1-0 lead.
Here’s video of Latte Lath’s first goal, scored off a Saba Lobjanidze header:
Emmanuel Latte Lath scores off the header in his first MLS match! 😤
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) February 23, 2025
📺 #MLSSeasonPass or Apple TV+: https://t.co/Rz1ysDlGCv pic.twitter.com/O4FYuWATsQ
The Ivory Coast international added a second in the 63rd minute, breaking a 1-1 deadlock and making it a brace for himself:
Latte Lath scores a second goal in his first MLS match! 🔥@ATLUTD retake the lead. pic.twitter.com/1gaWKBLZGj
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) February 23, 2025
Moments like those are why Latte Lath was brought in to Atlanta United for a MLS-record transfer fee. To see him find the scoresheet right off the bat is quite the tone-setter for a player that should be the centerpiece of an attack that includes Lobjanidze, Miguel Almiron, and Alexey Miranchuk.
There’s plenty of season to go, but so far, so good for Latte Lath and Atlanta.
I believe Saba delivered the pass on LL’s first goal with his foot, not his head. 🙂
[…] Latte Lath bags brace with two goals on Atlanta United, MLS debut […]
My hot take after 1 game: I think Latte Lath might be the best striker we’ve ever had on this team. He’s definitely competing against King Josef, but something I felt Josef was not particularly great at was being a Target man, just because of his size. Seems like Latte Lath could be able to do everything Josef could, plus be a target man.
He honestly surpassed my expectations. I expected goals, I expected speed, but his touch, his strength and everything in between was at a very high level. Obviously whether the team I able to play to his strengths will be a large factor, but overall talent alone makes me think he might just be better than Josef…
Well, totally agree here. Great, soft first touch, great hold up play, good dribbler, calm in traffic, good passing, athletic, quick and can shoot from anywhere. Not to mention aggressive. Hopefully he can endure the punishment he’ll get during the season; and he will get bad treatment from CB’s. He could’ve scored a couple of more goals but great GK saved them.
Gave up two of those soft goals in the second half. Moscara came in and his Rocket saved the day. A well earned 3 pts for Atlanta United!!!
Felt like we were out-coached but the quality difference was big enough for us to brute force our way to 3 points.
I’d say our tactics were better first half, but then we didn’t adjust second half until minute 80, And we really should have around minute 70.
On one hand, Im not particularly bothered by it. On the other hand, its a little concerning given MTL had like a dozen players come and go in the offseason.
I dont know much about Deila, but he seems like an Ange Postecoglu “the style of play is the tactics” kind of coach. Which is fine. It was certainly entertaining.
I just wish we would have protected each lead a bit more convincingly.
I actually don’t know if we saw his preferred style of play last night. My understanding is that he’s a high press, high action type of coach and I didn’t actually see us pressing them and trying to force turnovers too much
I saw pressing. I did notice though that Montreal seemed to be high possession kind of team and pretty resistant to the press, so I think that affected things, particularly since they were playing a 3-4-3 and so had more men in the back to escape the press. I actually was making the joke during the game that we’re losing because we’re not winning the possession stat.