For the first time in 2026, we’re doing player ratings after an Atlanta United win. Atlanta defeated the Philadelphia Union 3-1, which naturally led to some high scores. And you’ll never guess who the man of the match was.
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
Watching Lucas Hoyos with the ball at his feet continues to be an adventure. It may be to draw the defense toward him and create more space for the attack, but it leaves him very susceptible to giveaways and easy goals for the opponent. We didn’t see that on Saturday, but Hoyos needs to adjust his style of play if he’s to be a successful goalkeeper in this league.
Staff rating: 5.25 | Community rating: 4.9
Elías Báez
Elías Báez gets docked a little bit for conceding the penalty in the first half. Overall, though, he had a decent performance, if not slightly wobbly at times. His perfect touch to Miguel Almirón on Cooper Sanchez’s up-field pass was instrumental in setting up Emmanuel Latte Lath’s goal in the first half.
Staff rating: 5.75 | Community rating: 5.9
Stian Gregersen
This defense simply is much better with Stian Gregersen in the lineup next to Enea Mihaj. Gregersen did make a few errant passes on the afternoon, but did well to recover and clean up his own mistakes.
Staff rating: 6.5 | Community rating: 7
Enea Mihaj
Enea Mihaj benefits well from being a CB partner with Stian Gregersen. Saturday marked a good shift from the Albanian international despite the one goal conceded.
Staff rating: 6 | Community rating: 6
Tomás Jacob
Tomás Jacob the right back is just as good as Tomás Jacob the midfielder. He had a classy finish on Atlanta’s second goal and is able to provide so much in the attack from his side of the pitch. The 21-year-old continues to show his talent each week.
Staff rating: 7.5 | Community rating: 7.4
Matías Galarza
Like Jacob, Matías Galarza looks early on to be a solid signing for Atlanta United. A solid first start for the Paraguayan, who will hope to land on La Albirroja‘s World Cup roster with Miguel Almirón.
Staff rating: 6.75 | Community rating: 7.1
Cooper Sanchez
By far Sanchez’s best performance of the season thus far. He never seems to give up on the ball and provides a constant flow of energy. I wrote about it previously, but apart from the pass he made that led to Latte Lath’s goal, he played a terrific long ball to Jacob that ended up being a half-chance for the striker.
Staff rating: 6.75 | Community rating: 6.5
Tristan Muyumba
Are we experiencing the Tristan Muyumba redemption tour? That’s back-to-back good performances for him in his first two starts of the season. Can he keep it up?
Staff rating: 6.25 | Community rating: 6.4
Miguel Almirón (Man of the Match)
Not much to say here that hasn’t been said, really. The only reason Miguel Almirón gets docked slightly is that he wasn’t able to take his chance on a 1v1 with Andre Blake. But that’s basically nitpicking his best performance since returning to the club from Newcastle.
Staff rating: 8.5 | Community rating: 8.5
Alexey Miranchuk
Another match, another goal for Alexey Miranchuk. That’s three in two matches for the Russian. Now comes the question that’s been asked of him during his entire time with Atlanta United: can he put together a consistent run of form over a prolonged period of time?
Staff rating: 7.25 | Community rating: 7.6
Emmanuel Latte Lath
Saturday’s goal was a massive weight off the shoulders of Emmanuel Latte Lath — you could see how much it meant to him to finally put one in the back of the net. His layoff of Almirón’s pass to Jacob for Atlanta’s second goal was tremendous.
Staff rating: 7.5 | Community rating: 7.2
Steven Alzate (69′)
Not an incredibly active night for Steven Alzate, who ended with just 14 touches and made good on three of his four passes. Will he ultimately find himself out of Tata Martino’s plans?
Staff rating: 6 | Community rating: 5.64
Fafa Picault (69′)
Was credited with a chance, but a little rough in possession during his relatively brief time on the pitch as he connected on just two of his seven passes.
Staff rating: 5.5 | Community rating: 5.4
Saba Lobjanidze (78′)
Saba Lobjanidze had a chance in stoppage time but got his placement wrong in the end. Like Alzate, where he fits into Tata Martino’s plans will be interesting to see.
Staff rating: 5.5 | Community rating: 5.25
Matt Edwards and Pedro Amador (88′)
No rating. Limited involvement in the match.
Let us know what you think about the ratings in the comments.
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The goals in this game were shades of 2017/18 when it felt like at any given moment we could make a break and score. Even when we were down a goal or two back then, it always felt hopeful. Please keep it up!
Great game great win great feeling. Let’s keep it rolling fellas!! I feel like a saw a couple plays differently than others…NO way was that a “dummy” by LL and how was Almirons break on goal not called a foul and given a pen? His shot was awful bc he was being talked from behind.
I see improvement and looking forward to this weekend but hesitant because early last year I was feeling like we had to score 3 to win a game and Im nervous that’s still kinda where we are at now. Seeing improvement from game to game and a good result but gotta get better next game too.
Am I misremembering, or wasn’t the first goal Sanchez to Báez who made the one touch layoff to Miggy? I’m pretty sure Galarza had dropped back almost to a LB role, and was pointing Sanchez to pass to Baez.
I’m doubting myself because multiple media people have now said it was to Galarza.
Mihaj > Sanchez > Baez with the lovely 1 touch pass to Miggy’s feet > ELL > GOOOOOOAAAAAALLLLLLL!
Galarza was, indeed, dropped back and pointing out the pass to Baez.
Galarza is the conductor in the midfield…he connects and directs and if he continues his run of form, I hope we pick up his option. He feels like the real deal. As for the rest, it seems like Tata is trying to figure out which combos work for different styles of play. This may take time.
Defense, I’ve always preferred Stian when he can remain healthy. You can tell he and Mihaj play better together. Berrocal feels off.
Miggy’s pace is definitely lacking these days. Glad he got his 3 assists that should help his confidence but man, he’s not the explosive player he once was. ELL & Mira and him need to continue this work together.
Still feel like Jacob is better in the midfield but he looked the part as RB. Our subs, not enough time, wish Tata would have brought some of them in a bit earlier as they need minutes too.
I agree with pretty much everything you said. I do think they will keep Jacob in RB until they can bring on a true RB. Because I do think Jacob will be better in that CDM role than Muyumba is.
Saturday we saw why Tata is keen on Cooper. I don’t know that it can be overstated how much impact he had on the flow of possession and how he was often the start of a successful sequence (even if not all of them ended up as a chance on goal). We might as well sit back and enjoy watching a good player develop into a great one – we scream “play the kids,” but often don’t really mean it, it seems. He’s probably one of the best kids we’ve had in a while.
It was such a joy to see they guys play real soccer. As annoying as it was to miss the clean sheet, it was the first time in a long time that the opponent scoring didn’t really piss me off. Hoping we keep building on this and that we see the DPs finally understand each other… and that we see Hoyos eventually benched after Tata decides he doesn’t want to die of a heart attack watching him wait until an attacker is about to take the ball off his foot to poorly distribute it to an attacker outside the 18.
On rewatch, I think there’s a lot to be said about Cooper Sanchez’s defensive efforts too. He knew perfectly when to track back to cover for Jacob going high up the pitch, and very very often put in good tackles or challenged the ball long enough to let the rest of the team get back in position.
Need Hubert to play. Hoyos ain’t “it”.
“Hibbert”.