Atlanta United aims to keep streak going against new-look Orlando

After not playing a scheduled game at Miami in protest of racial inequality, Atlanta United is planning to host Orlando on Saturday in an MLS game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

In past years, it could be said that Atlanta United couldn’t have picked a better opponent to try to notch a second consecutive win under interim manager Stephen Glass. The Lions have yet to defeat the Five Stripes in the league or the Open Cup.

But this year, if you haven’t noticed, is different.

Orlando looks nothing like the struggling franchise it has been the past five years. With a 3-2-2 record and one of the league’s better attacks, it appears more than capable of qualifying for the playoffs for the first time.

“It should be a good game against a team that, to me, tries to play the right way,” Glass said.

The person who seems to have removed the fuse from the time bomb that Orlando teams always seemed to be is manager Oscar Pareja. Hired in the offseason from Tijuana in LIGA MX, the former Dallas FC manager has installed an aggressive, free-flowing style that is taking advantage of talented players such as Nani and Chris Mueller and has the Lions playing some of the more attractive soccer in MLS.

“From outside, I don’t know the ins and outs of what’s gone on down there but a new manager has gone in and clearly they are a different team,” Atlanta United goalkeeper Brad Guzan said.

It may sound a bit familiar because that’s what Glass is attempting to do with Atlanta United, albeit for slightly different reasons. Glass replaced Frank de Boer because Atlanta United, winners of the MLS Cup in 2018 and the U.S. Open Cup and Campeones Cup in 2019, seemed to be growing stale after four consecutive scoreless losses.

“I wouldn’t compare them to us,” Guzan said. “Before we talk about them we need to look at ourselves as a group and continue to get better.”

While the playing style wasn’t a 180-degree difference from de Boer, Atlanta United did defeat Nashville 2-0 in Glass’ first game.

Glass hoped to build off that momentum in the mid-week game at Miami. He said the players trained well, particularly in moving the ball faster than they did against Nashville and he thought had the look of a “real Atlanta United team.” The game was postponed because the players refused to play. The team flew home that night and Glass said he probably didn’t go to sleep until 2-3 a.m. That travel made getting the most out of Thursday’s training schedule difficult.

Glass said if he sees the same things on Saturday, he’ll expect Atlanta United to play better than it did last week and keep its streak going against its rival.

“The aim is we win it and move on to the next one,” Glass said.