Atlanta United (1-0-1) will play its first road game at Charlotte (0-2-0) at noon Saturday at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina. The game will be broadcast on Fox and the MLS channel on AppleTV. It will kick off at 12:25 p.m. You can sync the radio broadcast from 92.9 FM through the app. You can follow the coverage of Doug Roberson, who has covered the franchise since 2014, on Twitter @DougRobersonAJC.
Here is a scouting report for the game:
Charlotte manager: Christian Lattanzio
Charlotte at home: 0-1-0
Atlanta United on road: 0-0-0
Charlotte goals for/against: 1/4
Charlotte expected goals for/against: 2.1/3.0
Atlanta United goals for/against: 3/2
Atlanta United expected goals for/against: 2.7/1.4
Charlotte key players
Enzo Copetti: One goal
Karol Swiderski: One assist
Ashley Westwood
Atlanta United key players
Thiago Almada: 2 goals, 1 assist this season
Matheus Rossetto: 1 goal
Giorgos Giakoumakis
Talking points
1. Will Atlanta United attack? Manager Gonzalo Pineda and a few players said they don’t care if this is the first road game, they plan on attacking, just like they have at home in the first two games.
2. Executing created chances. Atlanta United leads MLS in chances created but has scored only three goals, and two were from set pieces.
3. Will the new faces start? Giakoumakis, Derrick Etienne Jr. and Luis Abram have yet to start. Abram didn’t play against Toronto. Pineda played down the possibility that Giakoumakis and Etienne would start against Charlotte, citing their lack of preseason time. But he also said he needed to see if they could play 60 minutes.
Injury reports
Atlanta United
Questionable: Rossetto (hamstring).
Out: Ozzie Alonso (recovery from torn ACL), Machop Chol (hamstring) and Tyler Wolff (shoulder).
Charlotte
Out: Vinicius Mello (chest injury), Guzman Corujo (right knee surgery) and Kristijan Kahlina (back surgery).
Questionable: Adam Armour (left knee surgery) and Hamady Diop (right thigh injury).
What was said
“Well, No. 1 is I wouldn’t call it as a rivalry yet because it’s very new. And I think these type of rivalries often have to be offered by time and by many good games that we both play against each other. I love to get to that point because of how close we are. But it’s certainly some sort of rivalry that we want to increase, both clubs, so there’s going to be a little bit of a rivalry there.” – Gonzalo Pineda
“Yeah, it’s confidence. I think we need to start mentally preparing for these away games, knowing that we don’t need to sit back and wait for the opponent to come to us. We can take the game to them, especially on the road, and put them under a little bit of pressure, which I thought we were hesitant to do last year. And I think this year we’re going to be way more on the front foot.” – Brooks Lennon
Officiating crew
Referee: Ismail Elfath
Assistants: Jeffrey Greeson and Eduardo Jeff
Fourth official: Andrew Bigelow
VAR: Drew Fisher
AVAR: Craig Lowry
Atlanta United’s predicted 11
Goalkeeper Brad Guzan
Centerback Miles Robinson
Centerback Luis Abram
Right fullback Brooks Lennon
Left fullback Andrew Gutman
Defensive midfielder Franco Ibarra
Midfielder Amar Sejdic
Attacking midfielder Thiago Almada
Right wing Luiz Araujo
Left wing Caleb Wiley
Striker Miguel Berry
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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 at Charlotte FC, noon, Fox
March 18 vs. Portland Timbers, 7:30 p.m.
March 25 at Columbus Crew, 7:30 p.m.
April 1 vs. New York Red Bulls, 7:30 p.m.
April 8 at New York City FC, 7:30 p.m.
April 15 at Toronto FC, 7:30 p.m.
April 23 vs. Chicago Fire FC, 4:30 p.m., FS1
April 29 at Nashville SC, 1:30 p.m., Fox
May 6 at Inter Miami CF, 7:30 p.m.
May 13 vs. Charlotte FC, 7:30 p.m.
May 17 vs. Colorado Rapids, 7:30 p.m.
May 20 at Chicago Fire FC, 8:30 p.m.
May 27 at Orlando City SC, 7:30 p.m.
May 31 vs. New England Revolution, 7:30 p.m., FS1
June 3 at Los Angeles FC, 10:30 p.m.
June 10 vs. D.C. United, 7:30 p.m.
June 21 vs. New York City FC, 7:30 p.m.
June 24 at New York Red Bulls, 7:30 p.m.
July 2 vs. Philadelphia Union, 4 p.m., Fox
July 8 at CF Montreal, 7:30 p.m.
July 12 at New England Revolution, 7:30 p.m.
July 15 vs. Orlando City SC, 7:30 p.m., FS1
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, 7:30 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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