Atlanta United gets one more chance to help itself

No one knows why Atlanta United hasn’t gotten off to better starts in its past five matches.

Interim manager Rob Valentino has asked players and others within the team. There is no commonality to the answers. Captain Brad Guzan said he’s seeing good things from the players between the final whistle of a completed match to the first whistle of the next match.

But here they are, winless in those five matches after falling behind 1-0 in each.

Valentino and Guzan do know that if Atlanta United doesn’t find a spark to get off to a better start in Saturday’s match against the New York Red Bulls at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the Five Stripes’ slim and complicated hopes of making the MLS playoffs likely will be dashed.

“I guess if we had that solution, we would have fixed it, right?” Valentino said. “There’s no magic pill to it. I think we got to keep showing up and doing our jobs the best of our ability.”

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Valentino said the coaching staff has tried different approaches in training and video sessions to try to keep the players lively. Despite the lack of energy in the first halves, Valentino said it hasn’t been hard to motivate the players, which is why the starts and the results have been perplexing.

Guzan said there have been talks among players between matches, but talking is easy. He needs to see strength. He wants to see bravery.

“We’ve needed that every time we step on the pitch,” Guzan said. “It’s obviously heightened that much more come Saturday, and you can talk about it as much as you want, right? We need to have action in terms of what is happening on the field.”

Saturday’s motivation should be easy: if Atlanta United doesn’t win, it won’t make the playoffs. Even if it does win, it has put itself into a position that it also needs a long list of other results to go its way. There’s also this: Atlanta United has beaten the Red Bulls only once in a regular-season match. What a script-flipper it would be in the story that is Atlanta United’s season for it to come out hot, get that important first goal, and defeat the Red Bulls.

“That’s all we can control, right, in terms of what’s ahead of us, and that’s the next game,” Guzan said. “It’s going to be a feisty game, I’m sure, for different reasons.”

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Atlanta United’s 2024 schedule

Feb. 24 Columbus 1, Atlanta United 0

March 9 Atlanta United 4, New England 1

March 17 Atlanta United 2, Orlando 0

March 23 Toronto 2, Atlanta United 0

March 31 Atlanta United 3, Chicago 0

April 6 Atlanta United 1, NYCFC 1

April 14 Atlanta United 2, Philadelphia 2

April 20 Cincinnati 2, Atlanta United 1

April 27 Atlanta United 1, Chicago 1

May 4 Minnesota 2, Atlanta United 1

May 7 Atlanta United 3, Charlotte Independence 0 in U.S. Open Cup