We’re 45 minutes into the first preseason match of Atlanta United’s 2026 season and the Five Stripes have hit the back of the net a grand total of 4 times so…
Honestly, let the hot takes flow. Is it worth taking a ton from a preseason match? No. But as fans, that’s your job, and I’m quite certain it feels nice to seem your team playing mobile, fun, front-facing, quick soccer for once. The movement was a stark contrast to last year’s stale, confused play, and there’s certainly a foundation from which to build.
Here are the first First Reactions of 2026!
Fluidity
Word of the day, and perhaps the season if they can keep these concepts and patterns of play moving, is fluidity. In both halves, the midfield trios performed their roles admirably, with one dropping back as another center back to help play out, and in the attack one or two would help create numerical advantages either out wide or up top. The front three relied on the wingbacks arriving high up the pitch, which was crucial in every of the goals Atlanta scored.
Everyone seemed very confident in their roles and the movement off the ball was constant. The discipline was clear, even if not perfect, and both groups in each half played with clear identity. Again, it’s a foundation, not the final product, but there is absolutely a much clearer pathway for success with this version of the squad.
C-words
Chemistry, clarity, communication, confidence, cohesion, (insert your preference below). It’s refreshing that the c-words we’re using after 90 minutes aren’t confusion and cluster****. The main takeaway I wanted from today’s match was seeing the players operate with some semblance of familiarity: familiarity with each other’s positioning, runs, and other movements. The goals were simply the icing on the cake. The true formational ideas and fine-tuning come later, and it’ll be interesting to see how the squad fares against other MLS teams, but I enjoyed this version of controlled chaos.
I’ll keep it short for this one because all things considered, it’s still the very first preseason match of an exceptionally long year, but I’ll take a solid W over anything from 2025 every day of the week. Let us know below what you thought of the match!
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After the rewatch/real watch today:
1st half: You can still see some chemistry hiccups between Miggy and Miranchuk, but it’s a lot better. The goals weren’t just individual brilliance moments like it’s been so much of the past few years, but actual teamwork. Loved the varied looks in getting into attack: crosses, cutbacks, throughballs, counters, direct, circulate, etc. Muyumba looked more like the dynamic midfielder I remember he could be before, at least until he started to wear down towards the end. Jacob looked very calm and composed in controlling the back.
2nd half: more rawness, but lots of good things. Players that stood out to me were Gregersen obviously (he’s always been good to great, it’s just whether he can stay healthy), but also Chong Qui for his defensive solidity, Gill for his smoothness and precision on the ball, Reilly for his tenacity, and Dovlo for his great 1v1 ability. In particular, it stood out to me how Dovlo and Gill (and Gregersen) have a cleanliness on the ball that often hasn’t developed yet in lower level players.
RW is a better position for MA…presume we will no longer see him at CM, which is the right choice.
? We never saw Almiron (I assume that’s who you mean by MA) at CM last year? He was at CAM a couple times, but we saw him much more at RW, so I don’t know that we can say anything about which position is better for him with this team. Over his career he’s played at both positions a lot. He’s been more productive at CAM, but a large part of that is due to his time here 2017-2018.
All this to say, I don’t think RW is a bad position for him, but there’s also pretty much no evidence to say that CAM is the wrong position either.
Great work from Miggy and Miranchuk. I loved seeing Luke Brennan make those defenders sweat. I’m excited to see how they fare against Houston. Will that be live streamed the same as this one?
Unfortunately no, but I’ll be at the game vs RBNY out in Texas so I’ll be giving some insight here for that one. It’ll be a good comparison to this first one
On the ball, the team already looks better than last season.
Something interesting I saw in both halfs was Jacob (who looked very good today), drop in between the center backs and Amador push up simultaneously. I think it’ll be very interesting to see how that will work out in the future, but I definitley like it as we saw Brennan and Amador able to go 2v2 in the wide area many times.
I think Tata is running a 4-3-3 when defending and running a 3-4-3 when attacking, so that is why you saw Jacob fall in as the 3rd CB frequently.
Need a Sesame Street word of the day meme for “fluid”
Closest I could get: https://gpb.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/sesame-wots-liquid/word-on-the-street-liquid-with-murray-sesame-street/
I only saw the 2nd half, but they did look well composed on the ball and in control. Gill definitely looks the part.
Yeah, really liked Gill and Pita but they all did well. The first half was, dare I say, fun
Yes…dang it. Swore I wasn’t gonna let myself get excited this preseason after last year but…..
Fr
I went back and watched the first half and found a few differences between this single preseason game (let’s not forget, it’s preseason) and last season:
Still, looked good but not great…need to get a bit more cohesiveness but it’s a good start.