The Ronny Deila derby is finally here.
Once upon a time (from 2020 to June 2022, to be precise), Atlanta United’s head coach held the same role at New York City FC, a club he led to its first, and far only, MLS Cup title in 2021. As a fun exercise, I decided to look up how many current NYC players were on that team and the answer, interestingly, is three: Keaton Parks, Maxi Moralez, and Tayvon Gray.
Will Saturday’s match have a little bit of a different feel for those three? I’d imagine it wouldn’t. For Deila, there certainly won’t be time to get sentimental: Atlanta is winless in its last four (0-2-2), which is not exactly the recipe for a side looking to return to the MLS elite. It received some injury news earlier in the week regarding Tristan Muyumba, who’s out for at least three weeks with a sprained right calf and LCL.
Get ready for Atlanta United vs. New York City FC
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The book on New York City FC
Pascal Jansen took the reins after 30 games in charge at Hungarian side Ferencváros and after just over three seasons as manager of AZ, where he replaced former boss and current Liverpool boss Arne Slot.
And, like Atlanta, they’ve been somewhat finding their way under their new head coach. They haven’t been bad, but they haven’t been a juggernaut: a 0-0 draw against the Columbus Crew where they registered zero shots on goal would certainly speak to that.
Alonso Martinez (16 goals in 2024) caught fire late last year and has been in good form so far in 2025 (three goals in four matches). The ageless wonder, Maxi Moralez (38!), is back at the 10 for NYC, signing a one-year deal in the offseason for what may (?) be his final season as a footballer.
Matt Freese, on his day, is as good as any keeper in MLS.
Atlanta United injury/availability report
Atlanta aren’t fully healthy, but it’s not an injury crisis, either. Along with Muyumba’s injury, still no Jamal Thiare (quad) or Edwin Mosquera (ankle) for this one. That said, Mateusz Klick seems to be in line to (finally) start for Atlanta after several weeks on the injury list for one reason or another.
One key non-injury question involves Miguel Almiron. who played twice for Paraguay in World Cup qualifying and arrived back in Atlanta on Friday morning.
Atlanta United predicted starting XI vs. New York City FC
Prediction: Atlanta United 2-1 New York City
I think Atlanta finally gets back in the win column in this one. Bonus: Someone other than Latte Lath scores for them.
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Hoping Klich & Slisz back together in mid since game 1. Even without Miggy, I look for better build up play from mid plus starting wingers in play. Look for solid night for 5 stripes and 3 points
Vamos atlanta! I’d just like the game to be enjoyable… starting with low expectations…
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Since we have more depth this week, I guess the team could go about the starting roster a bunch of different ways. If Almiron has too much mileage this week, we could have him start on the bench and either shift Saba over to the RW and start Silva on left. Or shift Lennon up to RW and start Hernandez at RB. We could even start Brennan at RW and keep Lennon at RB as well. It is definitely nice having more options.