Atlanta United’s six-game season begins Saturday
After a week off, Atlanta United’s goal of trying to finish in first place in the MLS Eastern Conference will start Saturday against Columbus at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
The Five Stripes are in third place with 48 points, three behind Philadelphia and six behind NYCFC. But if Atlanta United wins out, which includes three games at home and three on the road, one of them at NYCFC, it will finish in first. It will do what it couldn't do last year when it was beaten at Toronto to lose the Supporters' Shield and finish the regular season strong.
“This is a six-game season we have to focus on,” midfielder Jeff Larentowicz said. “We said it before the Philadelphia game: Champions League, Campeones Cup, Open Cup, they’re all done. We’re only looking at one competition now and the focus has to be on that.”
Julian Gressel said he hasn’t thought if it’s going to be easier to be the hunter than to be the hunted, which was the case last year.
“We can control what we can control, and that’s what you do on the field,” he said. “Focus on getting three points on Saturday and then Wednesday.”
Atlanta United has yet to win six consecutive league games this season. Its seven-game win streak, which included victories in the U.S. Open Cup and Campeones Cup, was snapped in a loss at Philadelphia on Aug. 31. That was the last game before the international break, which provided Atlanta United's first off week since the first week in June.
The win streak might have reached eight had the Five Stripes not run out of energy in the final minutes against the Union, which finished the game with two goals to secure the 3-1 victory.
The loss was reminiscent of the one against Columbus in the playoffs in 2017 and against Toronto last year in that both were games of importance that the team couldn’t finish.
But lessons were learned and applied from the defeats. Atlanta United may not have had a chance to win the Supporters’ Shield if not for the loss to Columbus. It may not have won the MLS Cup if not for the loss at Toronto.
“Philadelphia was kind of a loaded game, but it could also be that lesson for us where we look back and say we went on a nice run at the end of the year and that Philadelphia game taught us that we need to button things up and close games out and be the tough team we were at the end of the year in 2018,” Larentowicz said.
Columbus will be a good test to see if the lesson is learned. Though the Crew are in 11th place in the 12-team East with 31 points, the team has talent. Striker Gyasi Zardes and defensive midfielder Wil Trapp were called up by the U.S. men’s national team for its recent games against Uruguay and Mexico.
“It’s not going to be a walk-over,” Atlanta United manager Frank de Boer said. “We have to 100 percent to beat this team.”
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