The first scene of Atlanta United’s home opener was the Terminator-themed “Tata 2.0.” tifo not quite going to plan, an appropriate omen for what followed.
The 3-2 loss to visiting Real Salt Lake was a bit of a mixed bag. While the attack finally came together and produced some goals, the defense ultimately let down the over 53,000 spectators at Mercedes-Benz Stadium with a catalogue of errors that resulted in a third loss in as many games for the Five Stripes in 2026. It feels like a game of whack-a-mole: solve one issue in the team, and another pops up elsewhere.
Like Arnold Schwarzenegger, I promise you “I’ll be back” every matchday with my risers and fallers. Without further ado, let’s jump into my picks for this week.
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Risers
Alexey Miranchuk
Speculation arose surrounding Alexey Miranchuk after he did not start the first two games of the season despite telling reporters that he was “100% healthy” before the loss at San Jose. However, Tata Martino made it abundantly clear during last week’s press conference that his absence from the starting lineup was purely a fitness issue. The Argentine manager even doubled down, declaring that Miranchuk and Miguel Almirón are “the two best soccer players” on the team and “two of the best players in the league.”
We finally saw all three DPs start together for the first time this season in this game with Miranchuk deployed on the right side of the attacking trident, pushing Almirón to the left and leaving Emmanuel Latte Lath as the No. 9 (more on each of them later).
The Russian international operated much more in the right half space than on the wing, dropping back to support build-up and finding pockets of space between lines while closer to the final third. This provided a crucial link between the midfield and attack that had been absent in the last two games, causing issues with attack construction. It’s no coincidence, then, that the team significantly improved in that department against RSL, posting 16 shots and 1.9 xG compared to 8 shots and 0.7 xG at San Jose and 9 shots and 0.5 xG at FC Cincinnati.
Oh, and he scored the team’s first two goals of the season. Guess I kinda buried the lede there, didn’t I?
Go back and watch the clip of his first goal (above) again, and watch his off-ball movement. He plays the pass out wide and immediately runs into the box to hammer the cross home. This is exactly what the team needs more of in the final third.
Speaking of off-ball movement…
Matías Galarza
One of the highlights of Atlanta United’s home opener was the debut of new signing Matías Galarza, who entered the game as a sub in the 59th minute with the team down 3-1. Tata Martino spoke about his qualities and role within the team last week.
We certainly got to see his endurance and hustle in the 30+ minutes he played. He was constantly moving up and down the field to support the team in both defense and attack. Galarza was able to put together some interesting combination play with Miguel Almirón, his international teammate on the left side, leading to some really good chances.
I thought his off-ball movement was excellent. He read the game well and would create passing options for his teammates, helping progress the play much faster.
It’s a very, very small sample size, but I was impressed with Galarza’s first showing with the Five Stripes.
Miguel Almirón
After starting the season with two consecutive mentions as a faller, Miguel Almirón became a riser this week.
Why? Because he was much more influential in this game than he was in the previous two. The Paraguayan star created 0.42 expected assists and did a much better job of helping the team create chances. One of his best moments from the game was this beautiful turn and through ball played perfectly for Emmanuel Latte Lath.
While he’s not getting back his speed from nine years ago, we did see flashes of the old Miggy who would be successful against defenders on the dribble. A few duels went his way, leading to him getting some shots off in and around the box. My main complaint with him in this game is that he sometimes didn’t have to shoot. He oftentimes had other passing options — a fullback overlapping or a teammate making a diagonal run — but instead opted to blast the ball into a defender’s legs. I don’t mind Miggy having a go, but he needs to pick his moments more carefully.
The biggest conclusion for me regarding Miggy from this game is that he’s much more effective playing as a left inside forward than he is as a right winger. In this game, he found himself in more central areas — where he prefers to be anyway — and made a bigger impact, evidenced by his team-leading +0.588 goals added in the match.
Fallers
Juan Berrocal
One of the reasons I was optimistic about Juan Berrocal going into this season was a video his personal trainer posted on Instagram showing him training hard to improve his physical attributes, such as acceleration, vertical jump and endurance.
But despite all that work, he’s still getting beaten way too easily. A big part of that is his speed… or lack thereof. Throughout these first three games of the season, the Spaniard has been one of Atlanta’s slowest players, averaging a top speed of 29.54 km/h (18.36 mph). It’s exactly this lack of pace that allowed Sergi Solans to speed past him (despite Berrocal having a bit of a head start) to open the scoring for RSL.
Besides not being able to keep up with Solans, Berrocal’s other mistake in this play is playing him onside. Had he been in line with Enea Mihaj, Solans would have been offside.
Okay, so he’s not the fastest defender out there. Big deal, right? At least he’s excellent at defending 1v1s!
Oh. Oh no.
These were the issues that led to goals, but there was so much more. From doubling up unnecessarily in some duels to just having plain ol’ bad touches and passes, Berrocal was an absolute liability at the back.
This is a signing that makes even less sense now than it did last summer. Fortunately, the team has an easy out — just don’t activate the purchase option when his loan from Getafe ends in June. Given his performance and $1.2 million salary, it just doesn’t make sense to keep him.
Cooper Sanchez
After his solid showing against FC Cincinnati, it pains me to put Cooper Sanchez as a faller, but his performance against Real Salt Lake was just not good enough.
The 17-year-old homegrown showed he still has some development ahead before he’s ready to be MLS-starter quality. Several of his touches were poor, often resulting in turnovers because he couldn’t react fast enough to the ball being played to him. He felt just behind the pace of play at times, which is completely understandable for a teenager playing in a league as fast-paced and chaotic as MLS.
Once Galarza is at full-match fitness, I expect Sanchez to be dropped for him. It’s just the most logical choice. Tata has even said as much.
Let me be clear, though, I still rate him very highly as a youth prospect. He’s clearly very talented and has loads of potential, but he isn’t a starter on a competitive MLS team. Check back in a couple of years, though.
Emmanuel Latte Lath
Usually, you want your $22 million designated player to be in the risers section, but alas.
Although he wasn’t terrible in this game, he was certainly far from what you’d expect for one of the most expensive signings in MLS history. While he did have an assist on Miranchuk’s second goal, I felt he struggled to get involved for the most part in the attacking third. After playing a full 90 minutes, the Ivorian striker registered just 17 touches, with many of them concentrated at the kickoff circle (y’know, because they conceded three freaking goals).
His finishing continues to be woeful. He had just three shots throughout the whole game and only one of them was on target, forcing a save from Raphael Cabral early in the game after the beautiful through ball Miggy played in the video shown earlier. The other two shots were very low percentage shots: one was a right-footed shot that went wildly off target in the 15th minute (0.08 xG) and the other was a header from a corner kick that just missed the goal (0.02 xG).
You can’t exactly blame that on the service this time around. He just couldn’t find the right spaces to impact play. The few times that he has gotten the positioning right, it’s his finishing that lets him down. I’m honestly not confident Latte Lath will ever be the consistent goalscorer this club needs him to be.
What do you think of my picks? Let me know in the comments and drop your risers and fallers for this game, too!
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There are still 3 things I see that are plaguing this team, which relates to the risers & fallers.
Galarza was amazing for what little time he spent on the field. I kept my eye on him for most of his time on the field and saw how he connected passes, controlled the ball, positioning other players and linking up play. That’s what a CM does IMO and he did it well. I want to see more of this “conductor” type play because it was sorely needed…and those were the times we looked the most dangerous.
So fellow fans. I was just thinking about all the CB’s we have given up over the last 4 years, many home grown, and all are featuring in other MLS teams. They are playing better than the “replacements” we have bought; they have become pillars of their defenses. So, are we just bad at evaluating talent? Can you imagine if we had Robinson and Morales as our CB’s?
Personally, I think the club has a sense of arrogance that it doesn’t need to rely on academy products as regular starters and can instead go and spend a premium on foreign players. I still don’t understand the rationale behind getting rid of Cobb and Morales to replace them with two center backs who each are being paid 10x as much and aren’t necessarily upgrades imo.
We’ve seen the FO act in that way before. I also wonder if the CB moves made last summer weren’t also a bit of face-saving or self-preservation. These were made the first (and second) day of the summer window for MLS. I’d guess they were in the pipeline ahead of that by at least a week or more. I don’t recall when the rumors around Berrocal and Mihaj leaked. At any rate, the FO looking for a short term solution ships out two promising prospects.
It’s bad business, even if Cobb and Morales are just average but can start, it’s an MLS cheat code to have HGs that can factor into your lineup. Now we are stuck with two kind of expensive CBs that don’t really seem playable in this system, and no young CBs to help manage the cap or develop into starters or maybe get sold on later. I think Cobb will be a solid player, but Morales really seems to have “bigger league potential”.
Just a couple more windows…
I don’t think we would’ve had Robinson anymore, because he wanted the salary upgrade/move elsewhere. I seem to remember part of the move to Cincinnati was originally to revamp his stock before moving to Europe. Now he’s a DP.
That said, I completely agree about Cobb and Morales, and I think I even remember saying as much when they left. The fact that we’ve had such great CBs pass through our system and we’ve never got to utilize most them as regular starters is an absolute atrocity, especially in a salary capped league.
I do think Latte needs a mental reset. I personally think strikers should be selfish with the ball, but Latte seems to be afraid to get the ball. Maybe the struggles from last season just killed his confidence. Maybe call up a sports psychologist or something
The fact that Tata called out Miggy and Miranchuk as the two best players on the team is a bit telling. Did he even mention ELL?
I don’t remember him really talking about ELL much except to say he wants him a more involved with constructing chances.
There have been many opportunities for him to get a pass but the pass never came. That extra touch by the teammate wasted his potential breakaway and use of his speed.
Everyone always talks about his speed… there’s so much more that should go into a strikers profile than speed. Speed alone is doesn’t mean shit when you have no football IQ to make an intelligent run. The type of run, timing of the run, reading the play before making the run, drawing defenders out of position, etc. are the traits that good strikers have regardless of their “speed”. Speed without those aspects means very little.
These are excellent points. I thought he was going to be amazing, but the more I watch him, the more I realize his soccer IQ is horrible. He doesn’t move much off the ball to create chances for anyone (yet alone himself), and he has become a liability. Unless he catches fire this season (and quickly), he should be moved on.
Man – we’ve had some serious head scratchers for signings and letting talent go… we’re probably best in the league for that!
So, who do you think evaluated him in order to spend so much money? I personally feel the talent is there; just not in sync. I’d hate to see us waste that much money but we’ll find out soon.
I’m sure the whole scouting department was involved in some way, but Chris Henderson spoke very highly of him at his introductory presser. He seemed very excited about him.
Not sure what to do with ELL. It makes so sense to buy him out now (unless some one know otherwise). We only have Cayman as another striker. ELL is becoming an albatross on this team.