Atlanta United has yet to face a stretch of games as tough as the three upcoming, starting with Saturday’s game against expansion club LAFC at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Coached by former U.S. men’s national team manager Bob Bradley, LAFC seemed to be on the verge of taking the unofficial title of “most exciting team in MLS” away from Atlanta United before last week’s second-half meltdown to Zlatan Ibrahimovic and the L.A. Galaxy.
Still, the team is 2-1-0 with nine goals in its first three games. After LAFC, Atlanta United will host NYCFC, which is unbeaten and atop the East, and then a trip to ZLAtan Land, which is still buzzing after the Swedish superstar led the Galaxy to a 4-3 win last week.
“This will be a good test for us early on,” Atlanta United fullback Sal Zizzo said.
And it starts with LAFC, which is being constructed in a manner similar to Atlanta United.
As Atlanta United did in building an offense by buying young South American stars such as Argentina’s Hector Villalba and Ezequiel Barco, Paraguay’s Miguel Almiron, Venezuela’s Josef Martinez, LAFC did similarly with Mexico’s Carlos Vela and Uruguay’s Diego Rossi and, then went to Europe for Portugal starlet Andre Horta.
As Atlanta United did in building a defense by acquiring MLS vets such as Michael Parkhurst from Columbus and Jeff Larentowicz from the Galaxy, LAFC did with acquiring Laurent Ciman from Montreal, Walker Zimmerman from Dallas and Steven Beitashour from Toronto.
Both teams have MLS veteran playmakers in Darlington Nagbe, picked up in a trade by Atlanta United in December, and Benny Feilhaber, acquired by LAFC in a trade with Sporting KC.
Both teams even went and hired heavy hitters as manager: Gerardo Martino by Atlanta United and Bradley by LAFC. Martino said the biggest difference is Bradley has experience in MLS from his successful stint leading Chicago, the MetroStars and Chivas USA. Martino came in cold.
“I think they did the things the right way, probably as much as they did them here,” Atlanta United fullback Greg Garza said. “I think that the way they are set up as a team and an organization there are a lot of similarities between the two teams. I think this will probably be one our hardest games yet this season.”
There are other similarities such as picking up overlooked goalkeepers and young speedsters, but it’s clear that Atlanta United’s plan influenced LAFC’s.
“I think there’s some similarities,” Bradley told the L.A. Times. “Obviously they started last year with some exciting attacking players. They had some games early on where they scored goals and created excitement. I think all those are positives. And then as they moved through the season they looked for all the other ways to improve as a team. So we started with some excitement. But we still know that there’s a lot of things that need to happen to be more complete, to manage games better, to connect passes better, to have more possession, all that kind of stuff. We’re not the complete deal by any means.”
While the teams may look similar, at least for one week they experienced very different results last week.
While Atlanta United survived sub-20 degree temperatures and the loss of Leandro Gonzalez Pirez to two yellow cards in the first half to dispatch Minnesota United 1-0, LAFC imploded in the second half against the Galaxy by surrendering four goals in the final 45 minutes.
“It’s like two teams in one,” Atlanta United’s Chris McCann said. “They are a real big threat going forward. Second half, when L.A. galaxy got after them and put pressure on them they became really easy to play through.
“Score four goals in a half, there is some vulnerability there. With attacking players we have, it’s up to us to get the balls to them, they can work their magic and we can come out on top.”
