Who will start for Atlanta United (11-8-6) in Wednesday’s game against New England (10-12-5) at Mercedes-Benz Stadium?
Manager Gerardo Martino said after Sunday’s 3-0 win against Dallas that he hasn’t thought about player rotations, but doesn’t imagine rotating players out.
Because the Five Stripes jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first 46 minutes against Dallas, Martino was able to pull out Hector Villalba, Josef Martinez and Miguel Almiron before the end of the game.
On Tuesday, Martino said he doesn’t think there will be too much rotating of players and that he doesn’t think fatigue will become an issue for a few more games.
Here’s who I think will start:
The goalkeeper will be Brad Guzan.
The fullbacks will again be Anton Walkes and Greg Garza, who started against Dallas. The centerhalves will be Leandro Gonzalez Pirez and Michael Parkhurst, who will start together for the 26th consecutive league game.
The holding midfielders will be Carlos Carmona and Jeff Larentowicz, who is one yellow card away from receiving a one-game suspension. They will be charged with neutralizing New England’s Lee Nguyen, who is having a terrific season with nine goals and 14 assists.
The attacking midfielder will be Miguel Almiron. The wide midfielders will be Hector Villalba and Yamil Asad.
The striker will be Josef Martinez.
The team is in sixth place in the Eastern Conference. This will be the second of consecutive home games.
If the team gets off to a fast start, it wouldn’t surprise me to see Kenwyne Jones, Brandon Vazquez and Bobby Boswell come in and give some players a rest.
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