Seattle will provide an excellent test Sunday of the things Atlanta United has worked on the past three weeks during its unwanted break.
The Five Stripes have spent the past sessions working on how it wants to play when it has the ball, how it wants to defend and when it will use pressure.
Atlanta United manager Gonzalo Pineda and fullback Caleb Wiley said they expect Seattle will come at them hard in the first 15 minutes because it is playing at home and because it hasn’t played in a few weeks after it also was bounced out of the Leagues Cup sooner than expected.
“It’s on us to not let that happen,” Wiley said. “And for us to kind of be the ones to get the first goal and put in the first tackle and to do the right things.”
Atlanta United hasn’t played since it lost to Cruz Azul in penalty kicks July 29. While the defeat wasn’t what Pineda wanted, he did appreciate his team’s aggressiveness throughout the match. He said that mindset, which he said the team has shown in a handful of other games, needs to be replicated in each of the next 10 matches, which he described as 10 finals.
There is stress because the team is in seventh place in the East. It wants to finish the regular season in at least fourth. Eight of the 10 remaining opponents are above the nine-team playoff lines in the Eastern or Western conferences. Of the two that aren’t, Montreal is just below the line and Miami just added Lionel Messi.
It won’t be easy, especially for a team that consistently has hurt itself on defense because of individual mistakes. It didn’t advance out of the group stage of the Leagues Cup because it gave up a goal on an individual error.
“You have to start with the first one to send the message that no matter whether we are home or away, we have to show the same mentality, the same aggression that we’ve been showing here and there through the season,” Pineda said.
The team tries to improve that mentality by using the sessions either to introduce to the new players its fundamentals of play or fine-tune them with the existing players.
The first sessions either were to let some players rest or for others to improve their fitness. The next set were used to balance the fitness levels and the build-up play when it has the ball. The next were spent on its middle-block defending, which is when the team’s back four is about one-third of the way up the field. The final sessions were spent focused on Seattle.
“I feel like we used that time very well,“ Pineda said. “And the team feels like it’s prepared. And you never know until the whistle blows, but it feels like the team is in a good mindset, well prepared, hungry for results. And that’s how we wanted to to get here.”
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Atlanta United’s 2023 MLS schedule
Feb. 25 Atlanta United 2, San Jose Earthquakes 1
March 4 Atlanta United 1, Toronto FC 1
March 11 Atlanta United 3, Charlotte FC 0
March 18 Atlanta United 5, Portland 1
March 25 Columbus 6, Atlanta United 1
April 1 Atlanta United 1, New York Red Bulls 0
April 8 Atlanta United 1, New York City FC 1
April 15 Atlanta United 2, Toronto FC 2
April 23 Atlanta United 2, Chicago 1
April 29 Nashville SC 3, Atlanta United 1
May 6 Inter Miami CF 2, Atlanta United 1
May 13 Charlotte 3, Atlanta United 1
May 17 Atlanta United 4, Colorado 0
May 20 Atlanta United 3, Chicago 3
May 27 Atlanta United 1, Orlando 1
May 31 Atlanta United 3, New England 3
June 7 Atlanta United 0, LAFC 0
June 10 Atlanta United 3, D.C. United 1
June 21 Atlanta United 2, New York City 2
June 24 New York Red Bulls 4, Atlanta United 0
July 2 Atlanta United 2, Philadelphia 0
July 8 Atlanta United 1, Montreal 0
July 12 New England 2, Atlanta United 1
July 15 Orlando City 2, Atlanta United 1
July 25 Miami 4, Atlanta United 0 in Leagues Cup
July 29 Cruz Azul 1 (5), Atlanta United (4) 1 in Leagues Cup
Aug. 20 at Seattle Sounders, 10:30 p.m.
Aug. 26 vs. Nashville SC, 7:30 p.m.
Aug. 30 vs. FC Cincinnati, 7:30 p.m.
Sept. 2 at FC Dallas, 8:30 p.m.
Sept. 16 vs. Inter Miami CF, 5 p.m.
Sept. 20 at D.C. United, 7:30 p.m.
Sept. 23 vs. CF Montreal, 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 4 at Philadelphia Union, 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 7 vs. Columbus Crew, 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 21 at FC Cincinnati, TBA
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