Although the Five Stripes finally found the back of the net in 2026, they remain without points through three games after a 3-2 defeat against Real Salt Lake in the team’s home opener.
Tata Martino made two changes to the lineup that fell 2-0 to San Jose Earthquakes in Matchday 2. Alexey Miranchuk returned to the starting lineup for the first time since October, replacing Saba Lobjanidze. The Russian international was deployed on the right side of the attacking trident, pushing Miguel Almirón to the left and leaving Emmanuel Latte Lath as the center forward.
Tomás Jacob moved to right back as Ronald Hernandez made way for Tristan Muyumba to start as the single pivot in midfield alongside Steven Alzate and Cooper Sanchez. The rest of the backline remained unchanged from the one that started the last two games: Elías Báez at left back and a center back pairing of Juan Berrocal and Enea Mihaj. Finally, Lucas Hoyos remained in goal.
Although the Five Stripes came out swinging, it was the visitors who dealt the first blow. Sergi Solans turned on the jets to speed past Juan Berrocal on a breakaway and finish an easy 1v1 against Lucas Hoyos to open the scoring with his first professional goal.
Mere minutes later, 18-year-old Aiden Hezarkani doubled RSL’s lead with a spectacular blast into the top corner. This is his second straight match with a goal after scoring last weekend against Seattle Sounders.
The Five Stripes finally scored a goal in the 2026 season after 218 minutes, thanks to Alexey Miranchuk. The Russian midfielder started the play with a pass out wide before running into the box to put away Elías Báez’s low cross to cut the deficit to 2-1.
However, barely a minute later, the Utah side reestablished a two-goal lead after Zavier Gozo dribbled into the box and delivered a screamer into the top corner.
Deep into the second half, Miranchuk appeared again to give hope of a comeback to the 53,862 fans inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium. After receiving a delightful through ball from Tristan Muyumba, Emmanuel Latte Lath delivered a cross that Miranchuk easily slotted home to bring the Five Stripes within a goal.
But that goal never came. Atlanta United’s 16 shots and 1.9 xG did not translate into goals, and the team suffered a third straight loss to start the season.
What did you think of the match? Let us know in the comments below.
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I don’t expect a major shake-up, but I kind of want to see 3ATB (but we also don’t really have the CB depth required to maintain that if someone goes down or gets an early YC).
ELL-Miranchuk
Miggy
Baez-Galarza-Jacob-Saba
Berrocal-Stian-Mihaj
Hibbert
I’d also be okay putting in Amador at LWB and adding more punch to the attack. Baez doesn’t have as many creative ideas, but did put in the cross for an assist and was very active winning tackles and balls on Saturday.
The back line is playing terribly (put Gregersen in because this isn’t working). Move Jacob to midfield to play with Galarza and Alzate/Muyumba. The attacking effort (outside of ELL) was better than the first two matches, but finishing remains a problem. Also, I truly do not understand the xG stat – at one point RSL had an xG of 0.78, even though they had scored 3 goals at that point, and two of them were not against the run of play.
It means those 3 goals were so low chance based on their position, and I think the position of the defenders, that only maybe one of them should have gone in. Meaning either they took really good shots, our goalkeeper sucks, or both. (It’s both.)
Our center backs are way too sloooow and not very good. Our GK is not made to play in MLS; not athletic or big enough. we will continue to give up goals like this.
I’d guess most of the xG was earned on that first goal. The 2nd and 3rd we allowed were pretty tough shots with a defender in the area. We’ve seen a lot of that over the years, though. We have a defender on the ball but not actively defending or disrupting. They just run with the dribbler. Berrocal got absolutely torched on a through ball played about 35-40 yards through clear space, but Muyumba also deserves some blame there. He’s kind of the only one in position to slow down that attack at all and just doesn’t get anything in his attempt to challenge. I’d have been fine with him earning a tactical yellow there with almost everyone else caught up field.
also is it just me that when you are trailing there is really no point in subbing after the 80th min? i think you should only sub after the 80th min to kill some time. players that sub on after the 80th min just doesn’t have enough time to make an impact in the match
Another shit shiow
Tata needs to be asked why Gregersen hasn’t featured this year.
and why Amador sat on the bench the whole match
Tata was asked, and he basically said he could be convinced that Gregersen should start, this just happened to be what he had decided on. Hopefully 7 goals in 3 games convinces him.
The part I’m more worried about is Tata has indicated in press conferences (I haven’t watched the post match one yet) that he’s not worried about Hoyos, despite being pressed directly about him.
I think this is the negative for certain managers where they are bullheaded about their preferred players. Hoyos is a player he wanted so he basically has to sink with his goalie until the FO forces his hand.
He seemed to be presses pretty hard on the CB pairing and he threw up a classic stone wall defense
Call me crazy, but I’m not as mad today as I was the past 2 weeks. We have a LOT of positives to take away from basically the point at which Galarza came on. A 3-2 loss is what it is. We’ve said before that if we are going to lose, let’s at least lose while being excited. Well we did that for at least the last half hour (don’t remember when Galarza came on) and we can build from that.
While Hoyos maybe didn’t cause those 3 goals today, I just don’t see at this point what he offers over Hibbert. If it’s distribution, that’s truly shocking as we watched him throw a ball right to the foot of RSL in front of goal. There was also a really random failed attempt to control a ball he could pick up with everything but his hands toward the end and wasn’t far off from plopping right in front of an opponent at the top of the box. And we saw lots of questionable decisions last week too.
Mihaj and Berrocal together are the wrong pair. In a system like Tata’s, you’ve got to have a Gregersen in the pair who knows how to drop a hair earlier and get in front of the runner. He’s not the fastest CB in the league, but he does enough to position himself and often draws a foul instead of trying to win a foot race. Which of the CBs you dump to make room for him feels like a coin toss to me.
Finally, Miranchuk at this point is best used as a SS. He seems to have more striking instinct than our actual striker and is too slow to do much in the middle third, so might as well have him up there to punch a few in.
I agree. Just thinking that if we had Miles Robinson playing, they don’r score that one. If we had LGP or Parky, that second one is blocked. Mijah just let the attacker create a shooting window and didn’t even dive to block the shot. Barrocal looked like me on that third one.
Tottally agreed. I think this is the first time since 2024 that I watched an Atlanta United game and was totally uninterested in doing anything else because the game was that good. The attack actually looked fluid and two of our DP’s looked very good. I’m not sure why this isn’t the general sentiment that most fans seem to feel.
I wasn’t as angry after that match either, because there were signs of life and RSL took their chance during the spats of horrible defending and picked correctly. But you can’t keep putting the same 11 our and expecting better…there are gaps, there are holes, they need to be filled.
Henry, I am sorry to say but you may be waiting a LONG time for a win. We only won 5 all of last year. It’s now up to 5 wins in last 37 games played. I am just “hate watching” at this point.
well, we played much better. Our defense just sucks.
Yeah, a look forward on the schedule is not promising.
I can only hope that Tata has seen enough and will make some changes against Philadelphia next week but I was hoping the same coming into this match. At the very least Galarza needs to start over Sanchez, Gregersen over Berrocal, Hibbert over Hoyos and, hear me out… Saba on the right and put Amador on the left wing.
He may not be the paciest but he’s attack minded and when he’s right, easily the best crosser on the roster. Just a thought to shake shit up.