It’s a bit too early to say that Atlanta United is back, but the squad showed a lot of encouraging growth compared to 2025 when it cruised to a 4-0 win over Lexington SC on Friday in the club’s first preseason friendly of 2026.
The match gave us our first look at what Atlanta United will look like under Tata Martino (again) and how some of the new signings are integrating.
For the first 45 minutes, Martino rolled out a lineup that included most of the presumed starters. Lucas Hoyos started in goal behind a back four of Pedro Amador, Juan Berrocal, Enea Mihaj and Ronald Hernandez. Tomas Jacob was the single pivot in midfield, accompanied by Tristan Muyumba and Steven Alzate. Finally, Luke Brennan and Miguel Almiron played as wingers with Alexey Miranchuk leading the line.
The Five Stripes opened the scoring in the 11th minute. Brennan lost the ball after attacking from the left, but it rolled to Miranchuk, who had a wide-open goal.
Almiron doubled the lead in the 32nd minute after Miranchuk played him into space on a counterattack and the Paraguayan international made no mistake with his 1v1 finish. Moments later, Miggy made it a brace after yet another combination play with Miranchuk.
The Russian international then made it 4-0 after capping off an attacking transition by smashing a low-driven cross from Amador into the net just before halftime.
Martino made wholesale changes for the second half. Jayden Hibbert took over in goal, while Dominik Chong Qui, Berrocal, Stian Gregersen and Matt Edwards slotted into the backline. Cooper Sanchez, Adrian Gill and Will Reilly made up the midfield. Finally, Santiago Pita, Cayman Togashi and Enzo Dovlo formed the front three.
Although players like Pita and Togashi showed great attacking determination, they were unable to add to the score.
Overall, the team looked much cleaner on the ball. The passes were crisper and the touches were much better. The attacks looked more direct and the transitions happened much quicker. All very encouraging signs.
What did you think of the match? Let us know in the comments below.
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[…] While it’s unclear whether he comes in to be a starter over Pedro Amador, who stood out in Atlanta’s 4-0 preseason win over Lexington SC last Friday, he will at least add quality depth and competition at the left back […]
“Jacob was the single pivot in midfield”, Miranchuck involved in all 4 goals including 2 assists to Miggy’s brace, 4 goals with no natural striker and Berrocal the only player playing both halves are the things I’m taking note of. Seems like this is still an incomplete glimpse into the 2026 team, but some interesting optimism to consider for sure.
Berrocal played about 10-15 min in the 2nd half before being subbed off. That is also partly because we technically still only have 3 true CBs with the first team, so someone had to play a bit longer to cover the 2 CB positions
Oh, interesting. Who came in for him?
It was a 2s player. I think his name was Toto Majub
Something like that. I was actually impressed with him too.
Right on. I still think there is something to the fact that Berrocal stayed in. Maybe it’s trust in leadership, or favored of the CBs.
Well, out of our 3 CBs, Berrocal was the only one that stayed healthy during his duration with Atlanta last season.
I actually have a hot take, I think it could be saying more about Gregersen.
Berrocal is the only LCB on the team, whereas Mihaj and Gregersen are both RCB. Yeah you could move one over, but generally I think they try to keep them on their preferred side. Pairing is also important for CBs, they have to work together really well to be effective as a defensive line.
So my hot take is that they wanted Gregersen to get a least a little bit of game time with a 1st team pairing. That only makes sense though if Gregersen is part of the plans for the team this year, aka not being bought off or sold.
Rumors that they’re selling Jamal to Crew for GAM.
DOn’t understand why selling to a team in our conference
They needed a forward. We have an extra forward and need the cash. When you’re as cash strapped as AU is at the moment you do business where it is.
Don’t disagree with seizing the opportunity. But Chris did say we were in a good position as far as cash goes at the moment.
Hopefully, this move is part of an incoming transfer soon.
I don’t love it, but it was probably the best deal out there. Thiare is a super sub on the wrong side of 30 and making an estimated $700k. Probably not a huge selling market for him. Hopefully, we are flipping his vacated cap space and the acquired Garberbucks into a CDM or wing.
Much better start than last year. Santiago Pita got my attention – a keeper. I am Dominique Chong Qui STAN he did not disappoint, Adrian Gill is the white Nagbe, Tata got it right
Any particular reason Lath wasn’t playing?
Both him and Saba had slight knocks, so they were kept out as preventative measure
Well, I know this is just a warm up but they didn’t look this good on their first warmup for the last 4 years! we played awful and even lost to second tier teams. Very different today.
It was a promising start from a side that has made a habit of getting booted out of tourneys by USL sides.
Lexington didn’t make it easy either so that’s promising.
Gill looked pretty good, but it would have been nice if the 2nd team scored at least one goal in the 2nd half.
He looked very good to me; calmed on the ball; excellent ball handling skills; good movement. Having said that, the opposition was not that great. We’ll see on the next games…
They really probably should’ve scored one or two. They had several really good buildups fail on the final pass. Otherwise, I thought the 2nd group was pretty well organized and controlled the 2nd half of the game. Some of those young guys have loads of pace, at least compared to the Lexington defenders.