Atlanta United couldn’t start the 2026 campaign — and Part II of the Tata Martino era — with a win, losing 2-0 at FC Cincinnati on Saturday. With Matchday 1 in the books, it means the first staff and community player ratings of the season.
As a reminder, here’s the ratings scale:
- 10 – world-class performance
- 9 – elite performance
- 6 – average
- 5 – slightly below average
- 3 – well below average
- 1 – poor in every level
Lucas Hoyos
Hoyos had a solid game overall, making several key stops to keep Cincinnati at bay. While there wasn’t much more he could have done to stop Kévin Denkey’s goal that put the hosts ahead, no keeper on earth was ever going to save Nick Hagglund’s header that iced it about 10 minutes later.
Staff rating: 6.5 | Community rating: 4.89
Elías Báez
Báez, who had barely trained with the team while waiting for his visa to be processed, carried himself well regardless. However, you could see the match eventually start to wear him down as he struggled more and more to contain the pace of Ender Echenique.
Staff rating: 6 | Community rating: 5.65
Juan Berrocal
Berrocal had a poor clearance on a ball in the second half that ultimately led to Denkey being put 1v1 with Hoyos. Other than that, he looked good, taking a possible sure goal away from Miles Robinson on a great goalline clearance.
Staff rating: 5.75 | Community rating: 5.35
Enea Mihaj
Mihaj was composed and steady throughout the evening, leading the team in defensive contributions wiht 13. However, he gets docked slightly for being just a little slow to react to Hagglund’s header that put Cincinnati up 2-0 in the 90th.
Staff rating: 5.75 | Community rating: 5.73
Ronald Hernandez
Hernadez didn’t affect the game a great deal when used in the attack, creating just two chances, going 0-for-3 on crossed and 1-for-5 on accurate long balls. He’s certainly more effective as a stay-at-home right back.
Staff rating: 5.5 | Community rating: 5.8
Tomas Jacob (Man of the Match)
As we’re fond of saying here at Scarves and Spikes, if you don’t notice a midfielder, that’s usually a good thing. Jacob wasn’t necessarily signed to be a No. 6, but has taken the role well and settled in nicely. He was a perfect 4-for-4 in aerial duels and led the team in total duels won with 11.
Staff rating: 7 | Community rating: 7.1
Steven Alzate
Alzate had a solid night passing the ball, finishing 20-of-22 in that department. He also added six defensive contributions and generally had, I thought, a decent performance.
Staff rating: 6.25 | Community rating: 5.71
Cooper Sanchez
High marks for the 17-year-old for stepping into the starting XI and turning in a strong shift. Tata Martino said after the match that he felt Sanchez was “ready to play”, and the Homegrown midfielder didn’t let his coach down.
Staff rating: 6 | Community rating: 5.92
Miguel Almiron
Almiron had a nice chance in the box that was turned away by Roman Celentano. He also created an opportunity for Saba Lobjanidze that saw shades of the 2017 and 2018 Miggy reappear. That said, he has to find a way to affect the match even more. Hopefully, he’ll get to that point soon with Martino back in the technical area.
Staff rating: 5.5 | Community rating: 4.69
Saba Lobjanidze
The aforementioned opportunity Almiron created for Saba has to go in. Overall, it was a much-too quiet evening. While that partially might be down to getting used to yet another coaching system, he’s not nearly the player he was in 2024.
Staff rating: 5 | Community rating: 4.61
Emmanuel Latte Lath
The community rating is pretty harsh for Latte Lath! But it tells the story of how he continues to underperform for this club. He had just one shot all evening, and it was off-target. Sure, he needs service, but for over $20 million, he could be doing much more to help his own cause.
Staff rating: 4.75 | Community rating: 2.96
Tristan Muyumba (73′)
Muyumba had a chance deep in stoppage time that wasn’t the worst in the world, but one that went wide of goal. Some might say the match turned when he enteres, but correlation doesn’t exactly equal causation.
Staff rating: 5.75 | Community rating: 4.59
Alexey Miranchuk (73′)
Miranchuk started Saturday’s match on the bench and, like Muyumba, came in with just over a quarter-hour left. The knock against him is that he didn’t quite affect the match in a much larger fashion.
Staff rating: 5.75 | Community rating: 4.27
Luke Brennan (85′)
A few touches and a couple of crosses for Brennan in brief action, but that was it.
No rating. Limited involvement in the match.
Let us know what you think about the ratings in the comments.
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Yep I didn’t rate, would’ve been pretty much all 5’s & 6’s.
ELL so far……….one of the biggest busts in MLS history. Will he come “good”? If not, we have major problems.
It’s not looking good. A DP at his level is meant to be the guy defenders adjust to contain. Kevin Denkey, for example. There has yet to be a match where ELL reshapes the opposition and makes them fear him. He’s never been the best player on the pitch in MLS.
Yes and no. Look at his transfer history prior to Atl Utd…is there anything about that track record that would make one think he had much potential to begin with ? I know Tata is well compensated but I do feel a bit badly for him. The season might be a long one…. https://www.transfermarkt.us/emmanuel-latte-lath/profil/spieler/392964
Ugh. Brutal. Another FO blunder.