In a week otherwise dominated by Atlanta United transfer news, the Five Stripes welcomed the Seattle Sounders to the Benz for their last chance at three points before Leagues Cup. Atlanta would take an early lead before giving it up early in the second half (shocker) before the game became a chess match of subs as both teams tried to snag a game winner. One of those subs was newcomer Enea Mihaj, who put in a solid shift in his debut, but the game would ultimately end 2-2 to Seattle after a wild set of stoppage time goals. Here are the final whistle thoughts live from Mercedes-Benz Stadium!
Enea Mihaj
Enea Mihaj’s introduction at the Benz was always going to be a main story tonight. The 26 year old Albanian international stepped in for Stian Gregersen and immediately began making his presence known. His first test was a Seattle corner in which he irked and annoyed Seattle with his physicality (and a bit of poking and prodding), and he then settled into a true leadership role at the back. He was constantly communicating with those around him, and during breaks in the action he was chatting with Brad in what can only be assumed as an attempt to fine-tune the defense. This match wasn’t a huge sample size, but it had good signs.
Is the transfer window a reality check?
We’ll see how this ages into the second half, as I’m writing this paragraph at the 30 minute mark, but this starting XI has played with what some might call a “renewed vigor.” The opening 20 minutes saw not only a (dinky) goal, but Atlanta playing through Seattle with relative easy. The trio of Ronald Hernandez, Miguel Almiron, and Alexey Miranchuk had great success down the right flank, and the center back pairing of Stian Gregersen and Derrick Williams played very aggressively.
This transfer window bump always intrigues me. Is it a tangible moment where players begin to realize they can’t be complacent or they could be on the chopping block? Is it simply a sense of excitement because change is inevitable? It’s not like any new players had significant time to make a difference in the early stages of match like this one, so it can’t just be attributed to new talent finally arriving. Either way, there were some positive signs here for a team that truly needs any positivity it can find.
Update: the second half complacency certainly settled back in.
Luke Brennan
I feel like I end up highlighting one of the young guys (or multiple) in these articles evert match day. Luke Brennan is this week’s recipient of the xDawg award, as he got robbed of a beautiful assist in Atlanta’s opening goal and then struck a close one off the woodwork that would’ve made the game 2-0. Week in and week out the players that have cut their teeth coming through Atlanta’s academy and 2’s pipeline perform admirably. Not without mistakes, but with a true passion. After the Charlotte loss, Luke Brennan told us how much it means to him to represent the club that he grew up with, and he showed it again tonight.
The opening 15 minutes of the second half
It’s mind numbingly insane. Atlanta United has a -15 goal differential in minutes 45-60 throughout 2025. They consistently struggle and look like an entirely different team after what’s often a decent first half. In many ways, this portion of each match represents the larger struggle we’ve seen with this squad’s mental frailty all season long. There simply hasn’t been any consistency for a full 90 minutes at any point this year, and while the additions of Enea Mihaj, Juan Berrocal, and possibly others are meant to remedy that, it seems like a massive uphill battle.
| Get Atlanta United and NWSL Atlanta training ground updates, audio and video content you won’t see anywhere else, Discord access, and more. Support us on Patreon and help support independent soccer coverage here in Atlanta! Click here to start a 7-day free trial. |
Let us know down below what you thought of the match!
After “LC” the battle for the wooden spoon heats up as AU takes on the current holder of the wooden spoon (MTL) in a head to head matchup! Should be exciting to see who wants it more……my $ is on “AU”.
Miranclutch coming through with a beauty of a goal.
Great to see Mihaj get his first few minutes with the club.
I’m a firm believer that once we fix our backline and get Hibbert in goal we will play like an entirely different squad.
I think we also need to improve the speed of ball movement, try more penetrating passing, attack the far post, take more shots, make more overlapping runs along the flanks, get better at counter pressing, get better at give/go combinations, develop expertise on free quicks and score more goals. If we get better at these AND improve our defense and goalkeeping, we may be good…😉
Those are all things we did more than we have seen for much of the season now that we were finally able to start our first choice CB pairing again. And there should be more reinforcements coming such that we can hopefully upgrade Williams as well.
It should at least help the team continue to function better so that we can get a clesrer picture of where our weaknesses truly are.
While I agree with everything you’re saying, you’ve gotta start somewhere and I think our attackers having confidence, or even semi-confidence, in our back line will thus improve upon the other things you mentioned.
Some of those things will happen organically with new faces and fresh paces. We’ll see but I’m always a fan. Regardless of how pissed off I am about certain moves, it’s still my team
Don’t speak to highly of Brennan. That that will just bolster his young, promising profile further for Atlanta United to sell way to early for a pittance.
You ain’t kidding. These kids are just making themselves too high profile to leave alone 😂
I liked his speed and aggressiveness in the first half but disappeared on the second. He may be better coming in at the half.
& the nerve of the “FO” to increase ticket prices (most notably at a varying rate myself included…..not even for all STMs) for the 2026 season. No flurry of signings during this 2nd transfer window will fix the mess that is 2025 (or) 2026 squad for that matter if they keep the same mindset/unwillingness to close down space/take on attacking players with the ball and showing no sense of urgency whether you have a lead and want to maintain it (or) break a tie and retake the lead. All I am going to say is you can throw $ at a problem, but as we saw this past off-season $ is just that if you don’t invest it wisely. Glad I sold my tickets back earlier this season also and am hoping that my “LC” ticket will sale. Also, I expect Gonzalo’s squad to beat “AU” on August 6th. as I have watched a few of their games and they have some scorers and really can push the ball down the field which is not a good sign for our defense.
I encourage you to vote with your feet and not renew.
I’m also verrrrrry curious about that game vs Atlas. Whether Atlanta makes it out of the group or not, that’ll be the story
I think the LC story will be, do we have less than 10k fans in the stadium…
The first game is part of the season ticket package, so it’ll be the usual Wed night crowd. The second Wed isn’t, so that’s the attendance to look at.
Well, mine went up $37 per ticket but had over $400 in credits for returned tickets, so I renewed. Too much of a hard core fan to miss next years revival; at least the first 10-12 games.