Ronny Deila’s last time in Mercedes-Benz Stadium as an opposing head coach was on Oct. 20, 2021, a 1-1 draw between NYCFC and Atlanta United.
It was a much different Atlanta United team back then. On Saturday, though, Deila received a full taste of what the venue is all about.
“I was feeling (like) I was at a rock concert. It was good. It was unbelievable,” Deila said after Atlanta’s season-opening 3-2 win over CF Montréal behind a Latte Lath debut brace. “This is an unbelievable stadium, and we have unbelievable fans.”
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Those that have been with Atlanta United since the beginning are well aware of how loud it can get. Many of the 65,520 fans at the Benz — the third-highest attended soccer match in the world on Saturday — didn’t need much of an invitation to be vocal as they anticipated the debut of Latte Lath and the return of Miguel Almiron.
Almiron’s image on the halo board was met with loud cheers pregame before an even louder cheer when introduced during the starting XI, and still more cheers when exiting the match. His young son, Francesco, accompanied him to the field during the processional and covered his ears to drown out the noise.
“It’s always great to come back and next to my teammates, I felt their support, the support of the fans, and that makes me feel good on the field,” Almiron said through an interpreter.
Welcome to Atlanta, Francesco 🥹
— Atlanta United FC (@ATLUTD) February 23, 2025
Your dad can tell you, it is always this loud 😅❤️ pic.twitter.com/zdY1698t1Y
Latte Lath, who marveled at the size of the stadium during his first visit there shortly after his MLS-record transfer, saw his expectations exceeded once more on Saturday.
“It wasn’t the way I imagined it,” he said of the crowd.
Wins, of course, will give way to even more of a vibrant matchday experience. And while Saturday’s match saw Atlanta’s defense on its heels a bit despite the victory, it’s good early signs for a club looking to reestablish itself among the league’s top teams.
“Massive three points in an unbelievable atmosphere,” Deila said. “We have more to go. It’s just a start.”
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My Take – that was a good game overall. However, our defense look bad on the 2 goals we conceded. No one tried to header that ball out, and #59 was right there but never reacted. We have to do better on break down there attack, meaning the holding mids need to engage and be the first to pressure and tackle – allowing the the defensive back to pickup and clean up.
We really should have won that 3-0. With that said, I enjoy seeing Edwards – he give a spark to that position. His ability to pass from the back is good, and he pressures the opponent.
The holding mids need to do better defensive work – and that would make a big difference when you are in any game, especially if you are on the road.
Just as a side note – Mosquera is up for GoW, and our new expansion club is flexing their muscle a bit for their candidate….we should be getting folks to vote!
While I appreciate the banger from Edwin, San Diego’s second game sealing goal on the two man counter was pristine. Near perfect soccer.
Win more than you lose, play attractive soccer and the crowds will follow.
We’ve seen waaaay to much mid soccer the past 4+ seasons.
I know we can scrutinize Saturday’s performance, but regardless of how we got it done, a win on opening day at home is massive for fan retention. I know that’s obvious, but for a team that clearly has ambitions to replicate 2018, results like that are what will spur the off-field atmosphere to those levels.
Yes indeed, had to be a win, so glad they figured out a way to pull it through despite the defensive funkiness
Yeah, we have to remember 2018 wasn’t perfect either, particularly on defense. What made a difference was that even when parts of the team weren’t at their best, they still figured out how to get wins. That, and Chris Armas blew it.
We were blown out by Houston 0-4 to open the 2018 season, so I think we’re fine.
I was thinking the other day and you’ve just brought it up so I’m wondering—was 2018 shaky defensively in transition or were teams able to build up and through us? Looking at our team now, I’m wondering if our defensive shakiness is similar or different to 2018.
We had switched to a 3-5-2 pretty early on, which helped a lot in our defensive solidity. I’d need to review to remind myself how it was generally, but what came immediately to mind was a game at NYCFC postage stamp. I looked it up, and we played a semi-even first half, got the goal lead at 48′, then were forced to park the double-decker for the rest of the game, and I did not feel confident we were getting out of there with any points. NYCFC was peppering us with shots, many on target, tied at 77′, and it’s a miracle they never got the game winner. we had no shots after 55′, lost possession 60/40, outshot 25 to 5, lost xG 2.6 to 0.2.
Looking at FBRef, looks like we gave up 1.29 goals per game that season. That’s significantly better than the Pineda years (1.59, 1.56, 1.44), but significantly worse than the powerhouse defense teams (Charlotte last year 1.09, Nashville ’23 0.94)
Interesting, thanks for the reply.
I have to say, MLS teams are getting better and more goals are being scored (this opening day had the most goals of any in league history, for instance). We can’t rely on out scoring opponents in the same way we were able to in 2018, since those teams were also worse defensively than they are now. If 1.29 goals against per game was 2018, I honestly think we need to be significantly lower than that this season if we want to win the cup.
It was a classic AU “just keep scoring” win. The squad obviously needs more than 1/4 of its starting back line healthy for any given start. Assuming Amador and Williams are fit sooner rather than later, they should get better on defense. At least maybe not mark one guy with 5 players while leaving two unmarked entirely at the back post.
The attack was obviously good, but it wasn’t very organized. They overwhelmed a questionable Impact side with sheer talent. Once more assuming, but if/when those attackers get on the same page and understand each other’s preferences and patterns more, we could see something truly exceptional offensively. Miggy and Miranchuk need to work out who is the connector and who sprays out wide. Everyone who recently arrived needs to understand ELL’s pace and feed it, while feeding whatever chaotic energy Saba is bringing to his side of the pitch.
A 3-2 win on a day no one really played that well as a team is a good sign.
On the other hand, I regret the loss of George Campbell more than the exit of Miles Robinson. That guy is becoming an absolute force in this league.
Campbell should have been our successor at CB. The club decided nearly $1 million in GAM for Campbell and a defense of Alan Franco, Juanjo Purata, and a post-injury Robinson would be good enough. Noah Cobb had just signed his HG contract and Morales was waiting in the wings.
Hindsight, most of us would have kept Campbell after seeing what happened next.
I think we may also regret letting Garrison Tubbs go to DC, but it is still early.
Do you have more context around Latte Lath’s comment that the crowd “wasn’t the way [he] imagined it”? It feels like a quote that had more surrounding it and I’m curious what the question was or if he said anything specific about what made it different. From the introductory press conference that was the biggest crowd he’s played in front of. Good atmosphere that hopefully gets even better as the season goes on.
It was a good crowd but somehow I didn’t feel it being loud enough or was it just me?
It felt a little subdued at times and could have been louder, but it never felt dead like some games in the last couple of years. At least in our seats. Hopefully they’ll get more wins and it will get louder.
We actually tried to clarify this a couple of times but because it was so ambiguous that’s why we haven’t really touched on it much. It felt like more of a “it wasn’t how I imagined it because it was better than I expected” but we definitely don’t want to put words in his mouth. It was asked by one reporter and then Henry tried to clarify but to be fair he was surrounded by a crap ton of journalists and was moving from one question to the next pretty quickly. We’ll see if we can get a better idea from him next time around.
That’s kind of how I read into it. Basically stating “i had an idea of what it would be like and it was nothing like that…it was better.” but trying to get the words out after playing 70+ minutes in your new stadium and being bombarded by staff & journalists probably isn’t the easiest way to clearly describe your emotions.
aka. don’t read too much into it.
For what its worth, on the Apple TV broadcast, the camera cut to him just as the PA guy did starting lineups. He got a huge reception and gave a seemingly heartfelt acknowledgement pregame, which I dont see a ton. So perhaps that was sticking out in his mind.
I also thought it was weirdly quite for how full it was, so I hope we didn’t give a bad impression by having a bunch of filthy casuals not cheering
I believe that we had special priced tickets for educators so it may have been a lot of people that are newer fans.
yeah, now that I think about it, I know of multiple people who don’t really follow AUFC who went to the game. I think Georgia Tech had some special pricing tickets too.