Atlanta United will do something this week that the club has never done before: play at Austin.
The 5-Stripes’ focus shifts to their first midweek match of 2025, coming in midst of a winless streak that is now at six matches. Atlanta United will make its first ever trip to the Texas capital to play Austin FC. Kickoff is now set for 9 p.m. ET Wednesday, May 14.
Atlanta United players and coaches were out early Monday preparing for the quickest turnaround of their season so far. The session at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Training Ground was brief and only featured players who didn’t start over the weekend.
Team talks
Head coach Ronny Deila delivered an impassioned team talk after Atlanta United’s 2-1 loss to Chicago Fire Saturday, May 10. It was one of the chief topics of discussion when Deila spoke to media after training Monday.
Deila said he asked his squad for a few of things: accountability, communication, consistency. He spoke at length with unfiltered honesty about what they need to do to turn things around.
“There’s a line between being demanding and also loving,” Deila said. “I think those two things [are] difficult in these kinds of periods. It's next that's most important. What is done is done.”
For all the offseason hype and anticipation this Atlanta United squad had coming into the season, results like Saturday’s have been sobering. They’re trying to rebuild their identity from the ground up.
Tristan Muyumba said after training Monday that players like Miguel Almirón and Emmanuel Latte Lath spoke to the team as well after the defeat.
“Everyone knows the talent, the quality we have on the team,” Muyumba said. “But, at the end of the day, if you’re not doing the job properly, you're not doing the hard work, you're not competing in every drill, talent doesn't matter.”
These days of the regular season, where teams play more and more fixtures in smaller windows of time, are some of the biggest tests for managers. For Atlanta United, it’ll be three matches in seven days, Austin being the second.
Deila said we may see some squad rotation for various different reasons: injuries, fitness, tactics, performance. For that reason, the midweek match won’t be the best game from which to draw long-term conclusions. Still, every match is a chance for Deila to learn more about his squad, what works and what doesn’t.
“It's going to be an opportunity for some guys to show themselves,” Muyumba said. “At the end of the day, still, it's about us and everyone.”
Luke Brennan, who has played just three minutes for the first team this season, was firing on all cylinders in training Monday. He cut in on his right foot and hit top bins in short-side scrimmages. He could be a candidate for an extended run Wednesday.
Don’t expect any huge group swaps in the starting XI, though. Deila said he wouldn’t want to make too many changes at once.
“It's using the squad, but at the same time keeping consistency in what we do and the relation that we have on the pitch,” Deila said.
Deila knows rotating the squad and maintaining fitness levels will be a tall task, but he’s also grateful they get a chance to run it back almost immediately after a disappointing loss.
“You want to go back on the track again and try to get the win again,” he said. “It's much worse going one week and waiting for another chance. It's really good that [the match] comes now on Wednesday.”
Deep in the Heat of Texas
It’s fixin’ to be scorching in Austin Wednesday, with the high temperature expected to be 105 degrees. The match start time is, mercifully for everyone in attendance, set for 8 p.m. local time (remember, that’s 9 p.m. ET), so it’ll should be cooler by the first kick.
Deila preached hydration and his team being smart tactically to not let the heat get the best of them. That means no one-on-one pressing that expends a lot of energy for little reward.
The scouting report on Austin is an interesting one, as the team started the season not conceding more than once per match for the first seven matches until they ran into Vancouver, who put up five on Los Verdes. From that match on, they’ve conceded two or more goals in three of their last four in MLS play.
All that to say, Atlanta United has an opportunity to continue that trend and knock in some goals. After the scoreless drought that lasted over three full matches, the 5-Stripes have now strung together a goal in each of their last two. Not the end goal, for sure, but the improvement provides opportunity to establish a rhythm.
Deila mentioned Emmanuel Latte Lath, Miguel Almirón and Alexey Miranchuk as players he is looking at to lead a turnaround offensively.
“The only way forward now is to talk together, to find the relations and we agree,” Deila said. “That's what we're doing, because if we're going to be a top team, we need those three guys up front together … they need to be accountable for these things.”
Austin’s attack has struggled to get going, but newly signed striker Brandon Vásquez has national-team quality and has scored three goals so far this season. Keying in on him and the quick Austin wingers will be massive for Deila’s Atlanta United squad. The five-at-the-back defensive set up that the 5-Stripes deployed against Fire, which didn’t concede a goal from open play, may be back in the equation for Wednesday.
Austin FC, like the 5-Stripes, haven’t found much success in recent MLS play. Los Verdes are three games without a win and have just four points in their last six matches. For Atlanta, it’s been six matches without a win, with five points in their last seven. Wednesday’s match will be a matter of who can fix things first.
“There's no place to hide,” Deila said. “We need to stand up as a group and show that we want it and that we are able to do it.”
