Is all soccer truly good soccer? That’s the question we may find an answer to tonight as Atlanta United and Atlas battle it out in the Benz for… absolutely no reason whatsoever.
Both clubs are second from the bottom of their respective leagues as they enter the third match of Phase One, and each have earned that big, bold E for elimination after losing both matches prior. This all makes for an extremely underwhelming return to Mercedes-Benz Stadium for Atlas manager Gonzalo Pineda, who joined his current red and black “Atl” side after parting ways last summer with the one you’re more familiar with.
A manager who won’t be on the touchline is his successor in Atlanta, Ronny Deila, who earned a red card after the end of the Pumas match on Saturday for criticizing the (how to put this nicely?) interesting refereeing choices made during and especially in the latter part of the game. Assistant coach Kenny Miller will take the reigns with, fortunately for him, absolutely nothing at stake should things go awry. This would be the one Atlanta wins, won’t it?
One would hope (and expect) a good amount of rotation from the Five Stripes with a trip to fellow bottom-dwelling CF Montreal on the horizon in a league that, for now, still counts for something. To that point, Atlanta announced yesterday the signing of ATLUTD 2 midfielder Cooper Sanchez to a Homegrown Contract and have made him an Off-Roster Homegrown for the remainder of the season. Sanchez was already set to become a homegrown at the start of next year, and as an Off-Roster Homegrown can only appear in MLS matches on short-term call-ups, with a maximum of six. No such rule applies to other competitions, so expect to see him in some capacity tonight.
Right back Nyk Sessock was also announced yesterday on a first team deal through the end of the season. You can expect to see him feature tonight as well.
Will Gonzalo get one over his former side, or will Atlanta end up with a meaningless first ever Leagues Cup victory? It’ll happen one way or the other, with kickoff tonight advertised for 7:30 PM ET. Streaming can be found on Apple TV with a subscription to MLS Season Pass. Radio coverage is provided in English on 92.9 The Game and in Spanish on La Mejor.
Atlanta United’s Lineup:
Atlas Fútbol Club’s Lineup:
How to Watch:
Venue: Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta, Georgia
Kickoff Time: Wednesday, August 6th; 7:30 PM ET
Available TV/Streaming: Apple TV (with MLS Season Pass Subscription), UniMas, TUDN
Available Radio: 92.9 The Game, La Mejor 1600/1460/1130 AM
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The one game Ronny misses we score 4 goals – obviously he should be on a red card suspension every week.
PLAY. THE. KIDS.
Should we be winning? Yes. Are we? Also yes.
Luke has been a menace. Saba with the rocket on the free kick. Miranchuk had a good chip after a fantastic run and through from Luke (again, playing well). Stian drew the PK. Jamal buried the PK. It’s nice to see.
Sure they (atlas) have some academy and 2s out there, but so do we.
We should be dominating and we are. Hope to see that continue and get some other guys out there too
This Atlas side is shockingly poor. Also, Orlando is up on Necaxa 5-0.
Only time will tell if 5 points would have been good enough to advance. We played well enough to hit that mark.
Agree. I thought we had a good chance coming in. They did the same with their lineup, but this? Wow.
The announcers were saying Atlas has the same line up they had against Miami. And they played Miami well.
Oh wow. That’s shocking cause it’s all united right now
I wouldn’t mind seeing how Miggy meshes with this lineup but like…can we keep this for Saturday?
I dunno. I would leave him out in latte laugh out and see what happens. I mean we’re up three nothing at halftime. Have we done that this year?
3-0 ?? 🫨🫨 am I dreaming
I know it doesn’t mean anything at all but this is fun to watch
I won’t dump on him too much considering he’s actually been decent the past few games but… Does Miranchuk just not know how slow he is? Why dribble into the 18 with 2 defenders closing down on you? Shoot or pass, guy.
Poor timing with that comment 😜
… And then he pulls off a cutie like that. Wow. But also, huge credit to Brennan for that composure and the intelligence to slip that one through the channel.
I guess you mean, why did he score a goal?
Yeah, that happened after my comment lol. It was a couple min before that he tried to just straight up dribble from outside the 18 in with just a keeper in front of him but 2 defenders chasing him in, and predictably, dispossessed.
Thiare got in his way
Jayden is tall and quick
Viva la Jamal
an all female referee crew, thats pretty neat.
It’s neat if refs were assigned before Leagues Cup began.
It’s be neat if they weren’t calling a horrible game. The referee’s decision-making is inexplicable sometimes.
so we are running with eh 1 CB set up again…great…not that this match really matters
Latte Lath not on the bench.
Theories? Wild speculation?
I am guessing that since this match has zero importance, they are resting everyone for the MLS match that we have on Saturday.
Doubt fans will even show up to this game it’s meaningless
My “Let The Kids Play” tshirt arrived just in time today. Wearing it to every remaining match this season. Do the right thing, coach(es).
Looks like Hibbert, Sessock, Reily & Brennan start.
“A manager who won’t be on the touchline is his successor in Atlanta, Ronny Deila…”
Ronny may have proven to be the wisest member of the team. Missing this game due to the red card doesn’t actually seem like much of a punishment.
This.
Assuming Pineda plays the same tactics as when he was with us, which are basically the same as RD’s tactics as far as I can tell, this should be a cagey affair full of back passing and lateral passes across the back line.
Makes me wonder if we’ll see a Lennon back pass to an Atlas player during the match.
yawn
I say we play Hibbert and then any ATL2 guys we can find with a formation of “pickup league” . No defenders (cause we don’t have any anyway) – just ten midfielders and forwards doing whatever they want.
I hope we do let Hibbert start, regardless of the rest of the lineup. He needs minutes, and this game is a perfect opportunity to do that.
Gotta be prepared for that 6 point game this weekend for the coveted wooden spoon.
Are we sure this still counts as “the beautiful game”?
Hey. Atlanta teams seem to do well going worst to first. Let’s go all in for the spoon and see what happens next season!
I wasn’t one to hate on Pineda, so I have nothing against the guy. If he wins, whatever. If we win, whatever. if this needs to be a momentum builder, ok fine, but otherwise I see this as a “give the youngins minutes on the pitch and sideline our typical starters” type match.