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| Act II, when things always look their worst. |
[Standing Disclaimer: While I have watched…just a stupid amount of MLS over the years, I don’t watch the vast majority of games, never mind all of them. As such, it’s fair to take anything below that isn’t a hard number or a physical trophy as an impression, a couple steps removed.]
Thumbnail History
Tempted as I am to say that Atlanta United FC started a tradition of expansion teams coming into MLS swinging, that strictly applies to them and Los Angeles FC (with honorable mention to New York City FC because they didn’t actually lift a trophy until their 7th season). Atlanta announced their intentions in its very first season (2017, btw), finishing fourth overall and with the second best goal differential (+30) behind an historically (and freakishly) great Toronto FC team. They followed that opening triumph by finishing even higher in their second season (second overall, this time behind a Red Bull New York team winning its third Supporters’ Shield) and winning MLS Cup at…well, an unfortunate stroll because the team they bested was, again, my Portland Timbers (to any Timbers fans reading this, it only seems like Portland has lost MLS Cup to every team in MLS, but it was just NYCFC and Atlanta). That ended Act I in Atlanta’s history. They kicked off Act II in 2019 by finishing third overall and winning the U.S. Open…back when such things mattered. Then, Act II being what it is, tragedy (and a global pandemic) struck in 2020 and the breezes that forever blew at their back turned to blow in their faces. They ended the dread COVID season in 23rd place overall, out of the playoff picture despite a generous expansion of its outer boundaries. Atlanta’s fortunes have been mixed since then – e.g., two top 10 finishes (2021 and 2023) on either side of yet another 23rd place finish in 2022. In an expansion of theatric convention, Atlanta has stretched the third act of its early history over three seasons. The question is whether continues as tragedy or comedy.
Best Season(s)
Their Cup-winning 2018 season provides the obvious answer, what with Josef Martinez, Miguel Almiron and…[supporting cast] terrorizing all of MLS in transition, but I’m going to Atlanta’s 2018 season, when they finished third and won that Open Cup. Why? I mean, two trophies in three seasons. Think of what the future felt like to their fans…
…but, obviously, their best season was 2018. Lifting the Cup in front of your fans is a beautiful thing.
Long-Term Tendencies
If Atlanta has a tradition, it’s a high-scoring attack. They’ve been very over or wildly over the average for goals scored over four of their seven seasons in MLS – and the fact their strongest attacking seasons came at the beginning and the end of their short history makes it look more like something they build for than a fluke (but do mind the sample size). Their defenses have been almost good, but offense has been key for this team: Atlanta missed the playoffs in two of the seasons when the attack under-performed, and it took a great defense to save them from missing the playoffs in the other one.
Identity: Uh, Super-Fun Party Guys, aka, the guys that bring exotic (yet safe) drugs to the party?
Joy Points: 5, aka, pretty solid for a team in its seventh season, but still 15th place overall.
A Half Dozen Names to Know (here’s the all-time roster…current as of 4/8/2021, WTF?)
Michael Parkhurst (2017-2019)
Though he already made an appearance in the New England Revolution post, Parkhurst belongs here just as much. Experienced (he’s been to Europe!), smart, perhaps even cultured, Atlanta laid a savvy foundation by calling him home from Germany’s (probably?) lesser divisions. He had great support (e.g., Leandro Gonzalez Pirez and Brad Guzan), but a keystone’s a keystone.
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| Almiron, a visual |
Miguel Almiron (2017-2018)
String-bean wiry and whippet-quick, Almiron flayed opposing defenses in transition. He’d just break out and fly. He didn’t play in Atlanta for long – just 62 games played all told (59 starts) – but he managed 49 goal contributions in that sliver of time. Anyone who thought he’d struggle with Newcastle United harbored a Euro-snob’s hatred for MLS.
Josef Martinez (2017-2022)
However he finished the sentences started by Almiron – a period here, an exclamation point there, maybe even the odd semicolon – Martinez did it on the fucking regular. An ACL tear sabotaged a trajectory that looked set to consume the all-time record for goals scored in MLS, but Martinez scored an incredible 77 goals in his first three seasons in the league. Torrid, by any other
Jeff Larentowicz (2017-2020)
Ask me to assess any team and the first place I’ll look will always, always be the players that run interference for defense and (sometimes) launch the counters. As far as he falls short in nearly every category – e.g., speed, quickness, quality/range of passing – the sum of Larentowicz’s game, his savvy and presence, left Almiron and Martinez free to visit their Reign of Terror against the rest of the league.
Ezequiel Barco/Pity Martinez (2018-2023 and 2019-2020, respectively)
Atlanta has never lacked for ambition, but what seemed like a destined knack for channeling it in a smart direction abruptly dried up when they tried to replace Almiron as the attacking vehicle. They spent big, maybe even recklessly on Barco and Martinez. Their inability to take control of a disturbing majority of the games they played rendered whatever talent they had irrelevant.
Thiago Almada (2022-2023)
And yet doing something highly similar – i.e., dropping a load of cash on a promising, but still very young Argentine – suddenly paid off all over again with Almada. So long as he stays on the field and with Atlanta for 2024, he will almost certainly best the combined production of the two players above. How’s that work? No fucking idea. You just celebrate when it does…because ever so much can go so very wrong and in so many ways.
Where They Finished in 2023 & What the Past Says About That, If Anything
10th overall and with a wholly respectable goal-differential. That said, the defense was always a little suspect and the attack didn’t flirt with automatic the way that Atlanta’s best teams did back in the Act I/beginning of Act II glory days. Put together, though, it looked like one of those situations where the neither the defense nor the attack could stop or unsettle, respectively, their counterparts on the Eastern Conference’s better teams. And the East was the cream of the league in 2023.
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| If the rules allow it...eh. |
Notes/Impressions on the Current Roster/State of Ambition
If I ranked Atlanta among the most ambitious teams in MLS, I doubt I’d get much push-back. When a team fails big and gets back up to swing again, I don’t know how else to describe it. As for the current roster, I would have felt better about dubbing it solid before Miles Robinson moved to FC Cincinnati in what counts to me as one of the bigger “what the fuck” moves of the 2023-2024 off-season. And, given their comparative weakness in that particular part of the field in 2023, that sure feels like cause for concern, particularly with “Supporters Atlanta” showing as defensive depth on the roster effective today, January 23, 2024. If with concerns about the heart of their midfield (again, see above), and in what passes for Atlanta tradition, this team looks just a couple steps behind loaded in the rest on the attacking side. Whether it’s Almada posting very real numbers, Brooks Lennon and Caleb Wiley storming forward from fullback (surprisingly strong numbers from them, Lennon, in particular), they have Xande Silva and Saba Lobjanidze running wild in front of them on the wings and Golden Boot runner-(runner-?)up Giorgios Giakoumakis as the focal point for all that useful energy. And, based on what I saw here and there over 2023, they did find something special in central midfield in Tristan Muyumba. And yet, isn’t all the above the trick: if they lingered at the fringe of competitive with Robinson in their XI, who’s the player who replaces him that takes the defense to the next level? However you answer that, Atlanta feels well worth watching in 2024.
* Joy Point Index
Winning the CONCACAF Champions’ League: 5 points
Claiming Supporters’ Shield : 4 points
Winning MLS Cup: 3 points
MLS Cup Runner-Up: 2 points
Winning the U.S. Open Cup: 2 points
Winning CONCACAF Champions Cup: 2 points
MLS Is Back Cup: 2 points (yeah, yeah, I’m a Timbers fan; still, that was a tough one)
CONCACAF Champions League Semifinalist: 1 point
Making the Playoffs: 1 point
Missing the Playoffs: -1 point
Missing Playoffs in 1996-97, 2002-2004 (when 80% of the league qualified): - 2 points
Wooden Spoon: -3 points
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