It feels good to be home. Atlanta United will play at Mercedes-Benz Stadium for the first time in 2024 on Saturday night when the New England Revolution come to town. All three levels of the stadium are open, and the players will look to feed off the energy that the crowd surely will bring on Saturday. The last time Atlanta played at home was in the Eastern Conference playoffs last year where they won at home. After dropping the season opener to the Crew a couple weeks ago, the team will look to earn its first three points of the season. New England comes into the match having lost its previous two MLS matches and played in midweek during Concacaf Champions Cup action. Let’s take a look at the Tools to the Match presented by the Home Depot against New England Revolution.
Improving communication and connection will lead to goals
Since playing the season opener, Atlanta United has focused on improving its communication and connection on the pitch. The past two weeks have allowed Gonzalo Pineda and his coaching staff to work with the entire roster and improve their connections as a team. Thiago Almada, who missed every preseason match due to an international duty, has gotten to work with his teammates in attack. Meanwhile along the backline, Stian Gregersen and Derrick Williams have gotten another full week of training with fullbacks Caleb Wiley and Brooks Lennon. The team showed improvement in the second half against Columbus and will look to build on that performance this Saturday. Last season, Atlanta scored the most goals in home matches of any team in MLS with 42. It also led the league in goal creating actions per fbref.com at a 3.21 per 90 clip. If the attack can pick up that pace this weekend, Atlanta will be in good position to collect its first three points of the season.
All eyes on Carles Gil and New England’s new look attack
New England comes into Saturday following two losses to open their 2024 campaign. They will try to avoid three consecutive league losses, which only happened once all last season for the Revs. They still feature one of the top game changers in the league in Carles Gil. The Spaniard has been a mainstay in the Revolution side for the past several seasons and always ranks among the league leaders in chances created and goal involvements. He has also done well against Atlanta in his career, producing three goals and four assists in eight all-time matches against the 5-Stripes. If Atlanta’s new midfield combination of Bartosz Slisz and Tristan Muyumba can neutralize Gil’s effectiveness, Atlanta will have a great chance to earn a clean sheet and three points.
Create more scoring opportunities and score multiple goals
After being among the league leaders in scoring and chances created last season, Atlanta found it difficult to create a lot of clear scoring opportunities in the opener against Columbus. Striker Giorgos Giakoumakis had one good chance to tie the match in the second half, while Almada had another good look from distance. On Saturday, the attack must create clear scoring opportunities to earn the three points at home. Wingers Saba Lobjanidze and Xande Silva will look to exploit the wide spaces against a New England team that’s already given up four goals in two matches this season. Tyler Wolff came off the bench and created two chances in the opener, which led the team against the Crew.
Scoring multiple goals at home has been one of the great strengths for the club in its history. When Atlanta has scored two or more goals at home, the team owns a record of 81-7-23 (W-L-T). Scoring early and often is one of the keys to success on Saturday.
Fans can tune in nationally on MLS Season Pass on the Apple TV app on Saturday night at 7:30 pm ET when the action kicks off at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. To hear the action on radio, tune into Sports Radio 92.9 The Game or La Mejor – AM 1600 (Spanish).
