Brennan, Muyumba point to chemistry after Atlanta United comeback in Dallas

Atlanta United completed a hectic comeback win in their second match of the Torneo de Tejas preseason tournament, ultimately walking away with a 3-2 win over New York Red Bulls at Toyota Stadium in Dallas. Since these matches aren’t streamed and only the highlights are becoming available, this article will go into some detail on how the game flowed and why Luke Brennan and Tristan Muyumba both pointed towards the Five Stripes’ togetherness as a primary factor in their early confidence.

First, the Wild West nature of this tournament – no pun intended – has to be noted when it comes to game state, strategy, and how coaches are rolling out players. This is a set of preseason matches, after all, so the primary focus is still having players gain fitness and implement tactics they’ve been learning against real opponents in an environment with unlimited subs. That being said, Atlanta’s initial lineup didn’t contain any Designated Players (Alexey Miranchuk is still day-to-day), though it had the likely starting pair of center backs in Stian Gregersen and Enea Mihaj, along with younger guys like Matt Edwards, Luke Brennan, Will Reilly, and THE ALWAYS INFAMOUS “TRIALIST.” And before it’s asked, the trialist won’t be named at the moment, though will in the future. Tata Martino took a pragmatic approach to subs, with an initial three at the half, and a few more interspersed throughout the second 45′.

Meanwhile, Red Bulls trotted out a first half lineup featuring talent like Emil Forsberg and Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty, and ended up making wholesale changes going into the second half.

The initial moments of the match saw Red Bulls subscribing to an admittedly anti-Red Bull philosophy, keeping possession of the ball and making Atlanta press. For Atlanta’s part, the combined impact of Luke Brennan, Cayman Togashi, Trialist, and Tristan Muyumba did well to tip the scales totally in their favor after the first five minutes. Those four, along with intelligent midfield work by Tomás Jacob and Will Reilly, led to Atlanta creating three good chances in the first 15 minutes, including a Brennan to Togashi goal that was called back for a suspect offside call.

That midfield trio of Muyumba, Reilly, and Jacob looked very disciplined. When one would push higher up the pitch (usually Muyumba, though all three stepped up when needed) the other two would fan out and mark an opposition midfielder to stifle any potential counter. In the second half, Cooper Sanchez entered and performed the role more than admirably, and Muyumba was very pleased when talking about them both in my post-match interview with him.

“He’s still improving,” said Muyumba about Reilly, “and we know now, now we start to know his quality, and we know he’s going to be someone really important for this season. We are really pleased having him on our roster so but yeah, it’s not just about him. We have a lot of players, lot of guys able to play as a midfielder, and it’s going to be something really interesting to see. I’ve seen Cooper. Cooper did really well today, when he came in, and so, yes, it’s nice having those guys with us.”

However, it’d be a dinky goal totally against the run of play that would ultimately set Atlanta United down 1-0. The momentum shifted at that point and Red Bulls would bag a very non-dinky open play goal after Atlanta got caught overcommitting numbers. The half would end with the Five Stripes struggling to recover after the one-two punch, and if it were still 2025 that’d be all she wrote.

Thankfully, she kept writing. And while the Red Bulls made their aforementioned wholesale subs, Tata simply subbed out the front three, replacing Brennan, Togashi, and Trialist with Saba Lobjanidze, Latte Lath, and Miguel Almiron. The first 15 minutes of the second half were fairly unremarkable for both sides, as everyone settled back into the match. However, in the 63rd minute the soccer gods decided to reverse the dinky goal in the first half by giving Atlanta a dinky goal of their own. Up until that point, Atlanta had slowly started to find a rhythm hitting in transition with Miggy, LL, and Saba all involved, and this led to a corner (one of many). The ensuing kick saw the ball end up in the proverbial blender where it fell fortuitously past the keeper.

The momentum visibly shifted at that point and Atlanta would go and snag another goal two minutes later. Saba and Latte Lath broke away on a transition, courtesy of Miggy, and Latte Lath’s cross in to Saba was intercepted by a Red Bull defender and slotted neatly into the back of the net. Again, an own goal, but directly a consequence of Atlanta’s speed and effectiveness on counters.

Atlanta would continue pushing and their reward was a beautiful open play goal by an airborne Latte Lath, with the assist by Saba coming from the right side. The game winner was exactly the style of play Atlanta fans have been jonesing for, as it was all set up via quick passing and fluid movements by the front players.

A few moments later Atlanta would hit the back of the net once again, as Miguel Almiron brought down a long switch with his chest before hitting a golazo off the volley. Unfortunately, the offside flag would go up, negating a goal for the second time on the day for the Five Stripes.

Both Tristan Muyumba and Luke Brennan noted how the team’s chemistry and cohesiveness are directly related to the identity and fluidity that we’re seeing in a short few matches.

“I think it starts in training,” said Luke Brennan.”It starts in the locker room. Guys are just, we got some big leaders on the team. Obviously Miggy is is huge for us, and I think him and his relationship with Tata is huge for the club. And I think we just kind of have been just working more and just just different drills and training like running together. I think we’re ready.”

Muyumba reiterated how the off-pitch relationships are contributing to the on-pitch results.

“We spend a lot of time together. We did 10 days in Florida, and we are here in Texas one week. And before that, we were training together in Atlanta. So we just stick together, and we we spend a lot of time on the field and off the field together, and we just create and build a good chemistry together, which is good for the confidence and for the knowing of each othe​r.”​

Prior iterations of Atlanta had traits that fans were apt to point out as signs of a true lack of cohesion amongst the individuals. Though I’ve only been able to witness a little over 180 minutes of football between preseason matches so far, I’d be lying if I said Atlanta looks like those former versions. Players have been playing with a purpose, there’s a feeling of intentionality with each individual’s own movements to benefit the collective, and they clearly want each other to succeed. Even in this match, where they went into the half down two goals, the players were chatting tactics and encouraging each other on the way into the locker room. No hanging heads or infuriated glaring, but something that dare I say looks like a truly cohesive team that could be competitive this season.

As an aside, I’ve been really blessed to be able to take this trip out to Dallas and provide y’all some coverage of Atlanta United’s preseason. Thanks for reading, and if you haven’t already be sure to dive into the comments down below and tell your friends, as well. Thanks!