Atlanta United sees “path forward” after win vs. Philadelphia Union

After four games, Atlanta United’s season-opening losing streak is over.

So is a home winless stretch reaching back to last summer.

Atlanta delivered a composed, confident performance on Saturday against the Philadelphia Union, taking all three points in a 3-1 victory for its first win since August 30’s 1-0 victory at Nashville SC. It had failed to win in its last six matches at Mercedes-Benz Stadium across all competitions (0-3-3) and was winless in its last nine (0-4-5) against MLS opponents at home before Saturday. It also hadn’t beaten the Union in five previous tries (0-3-2).

All of that is history.

“I think we’re all getting used to the new system that Tata (Martino) wants us to play. And I think this is the path forward that we have to take,” Miguel Almirón said through an interpreter after the match. “We have to take this confidence and continue to move forward, and we have another very important game next Saturday against D.C. (United).”

Our coverage of Atlanta United’s 3-1 win over the Philadelphia Union

Shades of the old Miguel Almiron

Those looking for Almirón to display the skill he showed so many times in 2017 and 2018 have been largely left wanting since his return to the club in 2025.

Saturday saw the Paraguayan international put together a vintage performance: his three assists on the afternoon brought his career MLS regular-season total to 38, a club record. Two of those assists came on goals from Atlanta’s two other DPs, Emmanuel Latte Lath (his first of the season and first in all competitions since August 2) and Alexey Miranchuk (his third in two matches). The other came on Tomás Jacob’s first MLS goal shortly after halftime, a cross from the left that was laid off expertly by Latte Lath to allow the 21-year-old to score.

Almirón downplayed the achievement, saying he’d rather focus on the play of his teammates. Did Saturday remind him of the Atlanta teams of 2017 and 2018, though?

“I don’t like to make comparisons,” he said. “This is a new team, but I think we have very good players. And I believe if we pick up the system that Tata wants us to play, then we can have a very good team.”

A much-improved defensive performance

With Juan Berrocal not on the team sheet after being listed as questionable in the injury report, Martino inserted Stian Gregersen — whose absence from the lineup had been the source of concern and frustration among the fan base — into the starting XI next to Enea Mihaj for his first appearance of the season. And while it wasn’t a perfect evening for the defense, it was much better.

“The problem now is to maintain for longer periods what we’re doing well, because even against San Jose, we didn’t do it for long enough,” Martino said. “Today I thought we played the first 30 minutes really, really well. But after, we need to be able to sustain that.”

It’s a weight off the team’s collective shoulders. The next step is capitalizing on the win, Martino said.

“Even though we haven’t had the best start, we need to continue like this,” he said. “We know there’s still things to work on. We can’t be satisfied with just this. We need to be able to continue to build on from here.”