Vice President Carlos Bocanegra and manager Gonzalo Pineda will return for Atlanta United’s 2024 MLS season, club President Garth Lagerwey said Tuesday.
Atlanta United didn’t accomplish its goals last season: finishing in sixth in the East when it hoped to finish at least fourth, failing to advance out of the group stages of the Leagues Cup, and failing to advance past the first round of the playoffs. It was beaten by Columbus, which will host the MLS Cup against LAFC on Saturday.
Pineda will be entering his third full season as Atlanta United’s manager. The guaranteed portion of his contract ends after the 2024 season. Pineda was hired in August 2021. He helped lead the club to the playoffs that season. The club is 30-26-25 under Pineda in regular-season matches. It has yet to advance out of the first round of the playoffs in two different series.
The guaranteed portion of Bocanegra’s contract ends after the 2025 season. There are options for subsequent years. Bocanegra helped build the teams that won the MLS Cup in 2018 and the U.S. Open Cup and Campeones Cup in 2019. The team hasn’t won a playoff series or competed for a trophy since 2019.
Lagerwey implied that there won’t be negotiations to extend or renew either person’s contract during the next season.
“We said we didn’t have a success we want to have, so let’s all go forward, let’s see if we can be successful, and if we do, there will be time enough.” Lagerwey said in an exclusive interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Lagerwey said not being able to fix the defense contributed to the team’s inability to accomplish its goals. Atlanta United surrendered 53 goals, third-most in the East and the most of the 18 teams that qualified for the playoffs from the East and West conferences.
The team changed six starters during the summer transfer window: moving Caleb Wiley and Brooks Lennon from wingers to fullbacks, moving Luis Abram from a reserve role into the starting 11, and signing Tristan Muyumba, Saba Lobjanidze and Xande Silva.
“More than I’ve ever changed for my career,” Lagerwey said.
The defense improved in the last half of the season, but the team still surrendered eight goals in its three-game playoff series with the Crew.
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