Atlanta United midfielders Ezequiel Barco and Emerson Hyndman remain day to day for Saturday’s MLS game against Orlando at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, according to interim manager Stephen Glass.
Both are listed as questionable with lower-body injuries in the notes provided by the team. Both are tied with Pity Martinez for the team lead in goals (2). Neither traveled with the team for Wednesday’s game at Miami, which was postponed.
Other players who won’t play on Saturday are striker Josef Martinez (knee), centerback Fernando Meza (knee), and fullback Franco Escobar (suspension).
Glass said that midfielder Jurgen Damm will not start against Orlando because he is working to improve his fitness. Damm, signed earlier this summer after his contract with Mexican power Tigres expired, did make the bench for Wednesday’s game. It was his first appearance on the roster in his second chance to play for the team.
“You will see him fairly soon,” Glass said. “He came in later than the rest. He’s not ready to start.”
Glass said the starting 11 for Orlando may be different than the starting 11 that wasn’t used against Miami.
“There won’t be too many changes but we still have the option to change the group,” Glass said. “There were a number of good players on the bench. That could switch. If the guys who are day to day end up being available.”
Other personnel news: Glass said that Erik Lopez, another summer signing, has begun training with the first team. Lopez, a striker, was signed by Atlanta United 2 but is scheduled to move to Atlanta United permanently for the 2021 season.
Glass said that Lopez, signed from Club Olimpia in his native Paraguay, hasn’t gotten to do much work with the team because of the short training sessions required to accommodate the glut of games. Lopez did train on Wednesday while the team was in Miami.
Glass said the team is working on the necessary steps to allow Lopez to play with the first team.
An MLS spokeswoman on Wednesday said that if Atlanta United has a roster slot and the budget space, it can bring up Lopez on loan.
Miami make up: Glass said he thinks the postponed game against Miami will be made up Sept. 9. The league has yet to announce the revised schedule. If played Sept. 9, it would be the second of three consecutive road games for the Five Stripes, sandwiched between contests at Orlando on Sept. 5 and at Nashville on Sept. 12.
The protest: Because he and his staff were preparing for Wednesday’s game, Glass said he wasn’t aware of the protests going on in the NBA Wednesday afternoon that eventually led to the same actions by most of the MLS teams.
Glass said he was told by Jeff Larentowicz before the game that there was a possibility the players wouldn’t agree to compete.
Glass said his first thought, because he’s a former player, is ’let’s play.’ But then, when he had a few minutes to consider why the players were considering their stance, he said he understood.
Asked if he could imagine players on teams he was on not playing a scheduled game as a form of protest, Glass said, “situations never arose back home. But if people felt as strong as the guys do here, and I understand why they do, then yes, the player pool would have done what was necessary.
“There were strike threats at home over TV money. When the belief was there and a cause, the players stick together.”
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