Atlanta United carried on its momentum to make it two straight wins after a 2-0 win over rival Charlotte FC in the round of 16 of the U.S. Open Cup.
After an uplifting 2-1 win at Toronto FC in MLS regular season action on Saturday, head coach Tata Martino opted for some rotation in this cup feature. Jayden Hibbert took over between the posts while Enea Mihaj and Juan Berrocal held things down in central defense. Elias Baez and Tomas Jacob were the fullbacks of choice. Will Reilly was deployed as the No. 6 with Matias Galarza and Jay Fortune as box-to-box midfielders. Fafa Picault and Luke Brennan provided the width in attack, while Alexey Miranchuk returned to the No. 9 position that he’s been highly successful in this season.
The Five Stripes opened the scoring early after some beautiful combination play between Alexey Miranchuk and Luke Brennan ended in the Russian international placing a curling shot perfectly into the top corner for his sixth goal in nine games across all competitions.
Atlanta had to be patient for its second, but it came in the 71st minute when Cooper Sanchez hustled to chase down a long ball that Charlotte’s defense failed to clean up and slotted it home with ease to double the lead. That was the 18-year-old homegrown midfielder’s first goal for the first team.
With that, the Five Stripes saw out the rest of the game to secure their ticket to the quarterfinals of this historic tournament.
Atlanta United returns to MLS action on Saturday, May 2, when it hosts CF Montreal at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The match will kick off at 7:30 pm EST.
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