Before Atlanta United won three of the six categories at the Atlanta Sports Awards on Thursday night, the AJC caught up with the team’s vice president, Carlos Bocanegra, to talk about support from fans, the fifth round of the U.S. Open Cup and the next two games on the schedule.
Q. Have you been surprised by the fan reaction to Atlanta United?
A. Yeah, it's been great. The whole city has gotten behind us. We really wanted to reach out to the community to have them feel a part of it and grow together with (the team), so it's been pretty amazing and having the whole city behind us, filling the stadium and (bringing) that energy every game has been good.
Q. Is it unexpected that so many people supported the team so early?
A. When I signed on, we had like 12,000 season ticket holders, and then it kept growing like 15, 17, 22. After that, we were kind of like "where does it end?" It just kept going, so it's been good. I think we tired to do things properly, but we didn't know how big it was going to get. Then it just kind of took off.
Q. How do you feel about hosting Chicago in the next round of the U.S. Open Cup?
A. Good. They're a tough opponent — an MLS opponent. Two out of the three teams were second division, so that would have been also nice because we're trying to win the tournament. But you gotta play these tough teams at some point, so now we gotta get through Chicago.
Q. Thoughts going into the upcoming Eastern Conference games?
A. We've got two tough games coming up. New York and Columbus (are) arguably two of the best teams in the league, not only our conference, so it's going to say a lot. We've got a few guys banged up. If we can get them healthy, it'd be nice to have our full complement. They've got a few guys banged up and some suspensions, so it'll be good. These are the games you like to see because you test yourself.
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