I keep seeing that Georgia Lotto promo on the Mercedes-Benz Stadium ad board: “Today could be the day,” and I think to myself “Perhaps Atlanta United will play good football,” but like my luck with the lottery I’m kept hoping and praying. Atlanta United welcomed Real Salt Lake to the Benz for their 2026 home opener and despite some early positive signs, they lost their third match in a row, this one 3-2. It’s great they finally hit the back of the net, but RSL was playing with a heavily injured and young squad and admittedly there are no excuses for the Five Stripes to lost this game and give up three goals in the process. 2026 seems to truly be picking up right where 2025 left off, as much as it pains me to say. Here are the first reactions straight from Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
The defense
I wanted to hold off for a few matches to truly judge this defensive unit for Atlanta United, and while some may argue three matches is still a small sample size, seven goals is not. The Five Stripes have already experienced some of the silliest mistakes that’ve given them a horrendous goal differential, from center backs being beat for pace to failed man-marking to plain bad goalkeeping. Even if Atlanta were to get their attack rolling, it’d be entirely a moot point until the walls are shored up.
In this match specifically, Juan Berrocal simply gets beat in a footrace for Real Salt Lake’s first goal and provided some fundamentally bad defending for their third. The second was an all around group effort. I’ll concede that some of the poor form could certainly be attributed to a full backline of four rotating over the course of these three matches, but seven goals? Nope.
And they’re lucky it wasn’t more.
Back home
I say this every year but the Benz provides one of the best atmospheres anyone could ever ask for. But Atlanta United has to start paying back the fans. The product on the pitch has fallen to one of the circles of hell while the production value of every other aspect of the club is top notch. Unfortunately, only so many gestures of good will and absolutely brilliant hype videos can be had before fans clock out in droves. Winning cures all, as they say, but we’re rapidly approaching a point of no return for a lot of fans.
All three Designated Players
Where to start here? Miranchuk tends to thrive being the late runner into the box where he can pick up rebounds or deflections, and he was exactly what he needed to be with his skillset.
Miguel Almiron started the match off hot and was truly the engine behind some of Atlanta’s attacking chances (that went unfinished). He tapered off somewhat as the match progressed but I felt he contributed much better than the prior two weeks. It has to be more, though.
And finally, while Latte Lath ended up with the assist on Alexey’s second goal, he was yet again a non-factor for much of the match. And who knows, maybe the day will come when Atlanta isn’t trailing for almost the entire 90 minutes, which would – in theory – open up more space for him to operate as the opposition pushes for goals. But right now, he isn’t living up to his end of the deal.
Matias Galarza
Atlanta’s new midfielder was certainly one bright spot on the evening. He was dynamic from the moment he entered the pitch, and seemed to provide a much needed spark. Perhaps a full 90 of him alongside Tristan Muyumba, who also had a solid match, could solve some of the woes. We’ll see.
Let us know below what you thought of the match.
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I was at the game and I was trying to be objectively critical the entire time because there has to be something obvious that stands out as to why we can’t figure out how to win. My breakdown is as follows:
I definitely agree Jacob should stay at CDM, some people think he is capable of playing RB just because he had some experience previously. Just because you have experience doesn’t mean you are effective at that position. Pretty sure Guzan could play CB, but that doesn’t mean he would be effective. We should be fielding the best 11 at each position, but I don’t think Tata is doing that.
One thing I heard several times during the radio broadcast was “through ball by Almiron…overhit.”
AT LEAST WE’RE NOT ORLANDO
We have the same number of points and both are winless. Not a lot of difference.
We don’t have to live in Orlando.
Galarza was the only player worth watching and who gives any hope for the future of this team.
That is the sad truth.
– put Hernandez back in on RB
– move Thomas to CDM
– Almiron has to play a pure 10 who is allowed to play freely like he did today
– Hibbert must start
– Gregerson must start
If we dont win next week, start prepping for next season!
Almiron is grossly ill equipped to play 10. If that’s the case, I guarantee you we’ll be near the bottom of the table. He lacks vision, confidence and leadership (nice guy though). Regardless, if we don’t play him at 10, we’ll draw 3 and win one in the next 11 games. If he plays at 10, we draw 2 and win zero. Ultimately bringing I’ll beat the horse a bit more: signing MA for that kind of money was a silly nostalgic decision. Hotter take: so was signing Tata. Look at his employment history since he left Atl. These are marketing signings.
When we had a throw-in on the right-hand side in stoppage time, I was instantly getting ready for a banger… Also, why the heck did we substitute him off? He could have won us the game…
(ahem—the ref was an idiot)
We need to improve our defense, besides that, I am realistically optimistic about our future… as long as we don’t end up 14th again…
miranchuk that is, he would have won us the game
They changed the sub last second, mihaj came off instead. They still announced it wrong though.
The Cooper Sanchez experiment should be over. Please Tata give Hibbert and Gregersen a start. For sure Galarza looks legit, am curious what Santos can give us as well.
Only thing I disagree with is Santos. Small sample size, but every time he got the ball our momentum disappeared.
playing 10 min (if you include extra time) hardly constituents a small sample size
let’s be fair…we didn’t have a ton of momentum to begin with.
pLaY tHe KidS!!¡
I’ll amend my drunken rage to say Hibbert needs to start tho
Back line especially the center backs were terrible. Stian would have been much better with this high line.
Galarza. Wow. He was flashy, physical, and good heavens that first touch coupled with his thread the needle passes and super human runs. We need 90 from him cause he was tops tonight on that pitch.
LL needs to look at how Galarza’s movement, keeping defenders on their toes.