Atlanta United will play its second exhibition game Saturday when it takes on Columbus in Charleston, S.C.
It will be the second of four exhibition games the Five Stripes will play before they open the season March 3 at Houston.
Atlanta United will play three games in total in Charleston. After Columbus, it will play Minnesota United on Feb. 21 in what is expected to be its final tune-up, and the Charleston Battery on Feb. 24 when some of the lesser-used players likely will get a run.
Atlanta United defeated Nashville SC, a first-year USL squad, 3-1 last week on goals by Josef Martinez, Brandon Vazquez and Romario Williams.
Here are five things to consider about Saturday’s game:
1. Forget about last year. This obviously will be the first meeting of the teams since the Crew knocked the Five Stripes out of the playoffs in a penalty-kick shootout.
Their fortunes have changed since.
Columbus still seems likely to move to Austin, Texas, a curious move in which the franchise would trade one town rabid for college sports for another.
In the offseason, several key players (Justin Meram to Orlando City and Ola Kamara to the L.A. Galaxy) requested and were granted trades. The team did add Atlanta native Ricardo Clark.
Atlanta United added Darlington Nagbe, who looked good last week, and Ezequiel Barco, who also looked sharp in his first game with the team.
2. The chemistry of the attack. Martinez, Miguel Almiron, Barco and Nagbe seemed to work well together moving around on the left side of the soggy Nashville pitch last week. Nagbe said they need to work on their smoothness.
“That will come,” he said.
Martinez did score, but it was the result of a Nashville error and not a nice combination of passes or a quick counter-attack. Nagbe notched an assist on Brandon Vazquez’s goal, but it came with Martinez, Almiron and Barco already subbed off.
The possible return of Hector Villalba on the right will add a new factor. He missed the opening game because he's recovering from an abductor injury. He has been running and could come on as a sub Saturday. He didn't participate in Thursday's open training session in which the team unveiled its new secondary jersey.
Manager Gerardo Martino said after the game that he wants the forwards to work more on staggering their lines, instead of playing flat across the top. Staggering can create more angles for passes, runs and make the defenders make more decisions.
3. Who will start on the defense? Captain Michael Parkhurst missed last week's game because he is recovering from an undisclosed injury. He returned to training this week. If he's good to go, he and Leandro Gonzalez Pirez will likely start at centerback. That would push Jeff Larentowicz from centerback to defensive midfielder, the position he played most of last season. Larentowicz started at centerback in Thursday's open training session.
Sal Zizzo started at right fullback last week when the team opened with a four-man backline. He said he’s getting used to the team’s style of play, which he said is more aggressive than at his previous team, the New York Red Bulls.
Franco Escobar, signed in the offseason from Newell’s Old Boys in Argentina, has resumed running this week and could see playing time at right fullback.
4. How many defenders in the starting 11? The team opened last week with a four-man backline before switching to a three-man backline in the second half. It's a line that Atlanta United used a few times last season and one which Martino said the team would use this season.
Whether the team plays in a three-man or four-man backline, Martino wants the outside centerbacks to overlap, which can expose the team to counter-attacks. That’s how Nashville scored last week. It split the lines with a long ball that led to an easy goal. Martino noted after the game that they need to work on defending those log passes. Part of that is by pressing the opponent up the field to keep the opponent from having the time and space to spot and hit the pass.
5. Who will start at defensive midfielder? The team is still searching for a replacement for Carlos Carmona, a defensive midfielder who was sold to Colo-Colo in Chile a few weeks ago.
Chris McCann started at defensive midfielder last week. Martino could put him in that spot again Saturday, serving as the bridge between the centerbacks and Nagbe, or he could put in Julian Gressel. The versatile German and reining rookie of the year started at right midfielder last week in place of Villalba. He played defensive midfielder a few times last season.
There are two wild cards: Chris Goslin, who looked good in limited minutes at Nashville, and Oliver Shannon, selected in the second round of January’s SuperDraft. It doesn’t seem likely, but Martino could give either of them a longer run out as the team tries to determine who will make the first-team roster and who could earn the majority of their minutes with Atlanta United 2.
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